Thus far, I’ve traveled from Athens to Paris, and from Paris to St. Louis. I’m now on the mission to travel from St. Louis to London. I had heard of the London Marathon. Popularity didn’t quite mean difficulty to get into, like Boston Marathon, but for all I knew it could be. In 2018, I will run the London Marathon. London was home to the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Olympic Games.

The marathon has an interesting tie to London. Up until 1908, the marathon was 24.75 miles. However, for the 1908 Olympics, the race was extended to the current 26.2 miles so it passed by the Queen’s box. Well, some accounts said it was extended to start at the Queen’s box. Whatever the case, it was first extended to 26.2 miles at the 1908 Olympics and in 1921, the distance stuck, and that’s what the race remains today. THANK YOU, QUEEN.

Research for London marathons proved that this could be more difficult than I had originally imagined. The London Marathon is the most famous one, but consequently also super competitive and difficult to get into. I kept looking. Not being too familiar with London and all neighboring cities, I found many that seemed to surround London. For the purpose of running the Olympics, neighboring cities don’t count. I had to find one in London.

I started to follow the London Marathon on social media. Over several months of doing so, I could tell that it would be difficult to get an entry. I knew that I would never qualify on time, and also the chances to get a lottery entry would be slim. Comments on Facebook indicated that some people had tried two, three, four or even more times to get an entry, to no avail.

 

When I began to run these races, my goal was (and still is) to run one Olympic race each year. I couldn’t wait until I got a lottery entry. It might never happen. Searching the London Marathon website, I came across the Charity tab. I could run for a cause. I had done that once before, in 2012, when I ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon with Team Challenge for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.

As I searched the charity organizations, I was sold when I came across one in particular. Children of Peru Foundation.