Court Assistant Tony Bown who as you will know entered the New York Marathon late last year completed the course and below is his report on his thoughts and training for the epic event for him. " I was in a meeting with several people about April last year and one of them asked me if I was up for a challenge. I asked what he meant and he said he wanted me to enter the Marathon with him. I thought he was making fun of me but when it became obvious that he was serious I agreed to do it as long as he as an experienced marathon runner helped me to train, entered with me, told me where to get the appropriate kit and generally "hold my hand" all the way through. He agreed and I therefore accepted the challenge.
The next task for me was to choose a charity that would benefit from my efforts and Marie Curie Cancer care were at the top of my list. They are a marvellous charity helping people to cope with an awful disease. They were supportive and helped me as much as they could from beginning to end. It was all very strange to me and I was pleased they were there.
I had not done any real exercise for 20 odd years, was radically unfit and overweight and generally speaking have never had any interest in running , jogging or walking so the whole thing was completely new to me and a real shock to my system.
It soon became clear to me that the "friend" that challenged me was not able to do what he said he would do and I was on my own. I tried my best to adhere to a fairly rigorous training schedule which was printed from the Internet. It was without doubt hard work for me to cope with the physical regime but also to sacrifice so many other things that I enjoyed doing in order to comply. I managed to cope with the suffering by thinking of the suffering that the people I was trying to help were going through both physically and mentally.
As time went on I was managing to do further distances and I was feeling fitter. I lost a little bit of weight and toned up a bit as a result but particularly as the distances got greater it was taking a lot of my free time and sleep time!
When I was close to the full marathon distance it was the sheer mental perseverance that I found difficult and on the last couple of long training sessions which were 20 miles some good friends agreed to accompany me for part of the way and that helped tremendously.
Going to New York was an effort in itself and I was fortunate enough that another friend agreed to come and keep me company and give me support. If nothing else I learned about my friends!
On the day of the marathon itself we were dragged out of bed at around four o'clock in the morning and bussed down to the starting Corals to wait until we were allowed to start at 10:30 a.m. That meant six hours standing there in the freezing cold on the side of the river in New York in November in the dark! We were huddled together trying to keep warm and drinking anything we could that was hot but it was still freezing.
Eventually we were allowed out to start and the long day began. I was alone most of the time and it was very hard work mentally and physically despite the training. Waiting around so long in the cold beforehand had not helped.
I was lucky to have some friends over from England to give me moral support and extremely lucky that one friend in particular walked with me at the end to keep me going when I would have given up.
Having now finished it seems like it was someone else completely that did it. I have the photographs and medal to prove it was me which I will of course treasure but the best gifts were the friendship I received from all those that helped and supported me through the training, at the event itself and by sponsoring me. I cannot believe that I did this even now but it was all worth while because the final tally including gift aid was at the last count £12,615. I know that money will be put to good use by Marie Curie "