A familiar date in every runner’s diary, the Virgin Money London Marathon took place last month –albeit 6 months after its usual April date. This year, instead of the usual 50,000 odd runners pounding the streets of the UK’s capital, successful entrants from around the world joined the event remotely. 

Included in the 2020 cohort were 12 of Coopah’s very own members! We were glued to our phones, following our members on the tracking app and supporting them on their journey to the start line. 

Of our runners, 5 were in the UK and 7 were in Hong Kong. Let’s take a look at how they got on…

UK  

Rebecca Alexander, Oly Newton (Run4YourMind), Estelle Albertyn and Dean Wicks all got an early night Saturday and were up and ready to attack the 26.2 miles in their hometowns on what was an extremely wet day in the UK.  

Rebecca

First up, Rebecca Alexander smashed her first ever marathon in 4:37:43 running around the streets of London.  Coopah remembers when Becky first got in touch about doing the marathon and our immediate response was, DO IT!  We really enjoyed helping answer Becky’s questions on all things marathon training and we were inspired by her determination and dedication.  She didn’t miss a single training session and got through all of the Coopah S&C and Yoga videos.  

Becky had this to say on her race ‘’I ran the virtual London Marathon along the Thames path in London for Breast Cancer Care and Cardiomyopathy UK. Despite the fact that it rained solidly for the entire 4 hours and 37 minutes that I was running, I loved every minute of it. My friends and family joined me along the way so I was never alone and all the other runners and supporters kept me going. Coopah running provided me with a community to keep me motivated during the training!’’

Oly

Next up was the ever inspirational Oly Newton.  If you haven’t seen our interview with Oly on IGTV, we strongly recommend giving this a watch.  Oly is a member of Coopah running and is also coached by our partner, New Era Running coach.  Oly smashed 33 minutes off his old marathon time and ran home in a PB of 3:27:49 around the hilly streets of Sheffield.  After the race, we caught up with Oly. 

 ‘’I Loved every second of the run! I had great support from a fellow runner, my family were out on the route cheering me on and everything just fell in to place. I came in at 3:27:49, knocking 33 mins off my previous mara PB.
I originally had a charity place on the official race with Disability Sport Yorkshire. They contacted me a few weeks back asking if I’d be interested in running the virtual race. I didn’t fancy it at first, but I’d trained hard so thought I’d give it a go. 
Love the ongoing support I get from the Coopah community! The team at Coopah are legends, we have great chats and they always spurs me on when times get tough.’’

Estelle

Now over to the amazing Estelle Albertyn who has been working extremely hard behind the scenes.  Estelle was concerned about the wet weather but she smashed the 26.2 miles in a time of 5:21:14 and did this whilst running laps of her local park, this is by no means easy psychicall or mentally.

Estelle is now enjoying Coopah Running’s Yoga workouts ‘’I took a few days to recover and reflecting on it, my experience this time around with the marathon, first time virtual and solo runner felt weird, but felt proud to be part of this virtual experience...its so difficult to get in with London Marathon! BUT this was a mental battle of note! From 30km onwards it was tough running in rainy and windy conditions by myself...my hips, glutes and hamstrings started cramping bad, so I had to start talking loudly with myself to encourage myself to not give up! I finished it, but felt so disappointed afterwards, as I wanted to improve my time from 4hrs 55min to 4hrs 30min, but failed doing it...I have to say though, this time around my recovery was quicker and my only issue was my right hip...so I have to focus more on strength and conditioning, focus more on the hips, knees and ankles...
Why I ran it, was to challenge myself and this was part of my prep work for my Ultra Marathon...

BUT also an eye opener that I still have lots to do if I want to finish my Ultra Marathon 100km in respective 16-18 hrs! I also raised more money for Cahonas Scotland, as charities have been dealt a big blow this year with events cancelled, or postponed.
I only joined the Coopah team recently, but the support and encouragement has been amazing! Thank you! I am so excited to be part of the team and looking forward to many great adventures with you all! 
Catch up soon and keep well team!’’

Dean

Dean Wicks also took on the wind and the rain over in Essex and he smashed a PB which he set during lockdown.  Dean managed to run a PB of 4:28:49 which is an excellent achievement in these conditions.  ‘’Overall I had a really good run! I started to lose my head around 16/17 miles and was joined at 18 for the last 8 by a friend who helped keep me going! Really bad cramp at 22 saw me come in at 4:28:49..
I ran it for Kidney Research UK, my dad had a Kidney failure when he was young and then a transplant. After he died in 2009 one of my brothers fell ill and we found he also had Kidney failure which he is still receiving dialysis for now, due to the fact my brother also had it we all had to be tested and of my dads 6 kids, 3 of them have this gene and have kidney disease, fortunately I’m one of the lucky ones who doesn’t! But ever since I have been using my spare time to raise money for both Kidney and Cancer charities.’’.  Keep raising the awareness of Kidney Research UK, Dean.  You are doing great things in memory of your dad. 

Joe

Meanwhile, Joe Ashdown got an early night Sunday rather than Saturday…a little late to the party, Joe spontaneously decided to run the marathon on Monday Morning. The organisers might say it doesn’t officially count, but for anyone will to don their trainers and get out in the soggy weather, but we say it 100% does.  Joe smashed out a time of 3:40:52.   An incredible effort, especially given Joe hadn’t been training specifically for the marathon…well Done Joe.

Hong Kong

Over in Hong Kong, Eamon McMurray and Pete Cooper, both planned to do the London Marathon however neither felt the race was going to go ahead, nor fancied quarantining when returning from London.  

However after a few beers and route planning, the two of them decided to take part regardless – though upped their game and ran the entire way around Hong Kong Island.  Pete, stupidly (in his words) played cricket the day before and turned up to the start line with blisters, but thankfully the guys were joined by an incredible team of runners: Jane Bond, Sam Challenor, Guy Piesse, Andy McIntosh (who also played cricket the day before!) and Sam Thater. These guys were also crazy enough to join the 5am start at Hong Kong’s famous Beer Bay and cover the swift 56km in a cool 31 Celsius…!  

5km into the run, Pete asked the group if it was everyone’s first ultra.  He was quite shocked to hear the response ‘Yes, it is also our first ever marathon too!’.  

The team paced ultra slowly and were led by Eamon’s not so trusty directions.  Every 10km there were planned checkpoints where they could rest, rehydrate and get all the essential food on board. 

At the 18km point, McIntosh dropped into conversation that this was now the furthest he had ever ran. However everyone knew that he was a strong all round sportsman with a great mental mindset and no one had a single doubt that he wouldn’t complete.  

The team managed to stay together until the 36k point – reaching the stunning Repulse Bay – where they were greeted by supporters Amy and Sarah With  19km to go the team decided to split up and hopefully see everyone at the final checkpoint, if not, the finish. 

At Repulse Bay, the team were lucky enough to have supporters Amy and Sarah to cheer us on/call us all mental, and Melissa and Brad join them, to take us home. This was much needed as at this point Pete’s blisters were burning.  We won’t share a picture here but if you want to see the final product, I am sure he will share.    

At the final checkpoint, the whole team were quiet but knew the end was in sight.  Two further members - Jess and JBF – joined for the push through the final 10km.

Guy Piesse came home first, running his final 4km in just 17 minutes – the man is insane! Closely followed by Eamon who looked like he hadn’t ran a single k, impressive stuff.  Andy then came in and is already talking about his next ultra (truly inspirational!), Jane closely followed and the two Sam’s along with supporters Amy and Sarah who crossed the finish with Pete.

Pete was a broken man with his blisters but was happily showing them off.  He also gave a huge thanks to the two Sam’s and Jane who kept him going for most of the final 19km, cracking jokes and helping to take his mind off the biggest blisters, we have ever seen.

At the end, the group celebrated with plenty of beer and an all you can eat roast dinner.  Coopah asked the team for comments – and while most of them were understandably exhausted, Jane said ‘having never run any distance over 30km before, I’m not sure how I got talked into the Round the Island Challenge! That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed running/hiking/walking with the team and they were able to successfully distract me as we ticked off the kms! Seriously sore legs by the final 5km, but very proud of what we all achieved, and the full loop looks pretty impressive on my Strava! Thanks Coopah Running for organising – a great day!’’. 

A huge well done to all of the Coopah runners around the world on their phenomenal efforts. We’re super proud and continue to be inspired by your commitment, dedication and mindsets (and blister sizes…).

Best of luck to Guy too, who is also tackling the virtual New York Marathon just two weeks on!

Here at Coopah, we are excited to be planning our post marathon meet up event for all our members so we can celebrate together, and continue on our mission to become the world’s best online running community.

Coopah Community – You Rock!

P.S.

If you are interested in joining the Coopah Community, please get in touch.  Members enjoy running specific yoga and S&C videos, access to our ‘ask a question service’, discount on our stylish kit, priority booking on our running holidays (once COVID-19 allows!) and discount on all our partners offering. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Pictures Below:

Estelle

Dean

HK

Pete, Eamonn, Guy, Sam C, Sam T, Andy Mac, Jane Bond