Jon Foxall, a product manager with Sky Betting and Gaming, is seeing out his 30s in style, by running three marathons this year – two within one week of each other – and they’re all raising money for Blood cancer UK.
Jon, a member of Barrow Runners, has only been running seriously since the first lockdown but he decided to train for the Manchester Marathon (16th April); the London Marathon (the following weekend) and the Chicago Marathon in October, when a cousin of his wife was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She’s a young woman with a young family and, Jon told me, is a beacon of positivity but has been through several rounds of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
He’s been on a training schedule, with the help of Ian Paramour the running coach at Barrow Runners, since last October. He goes out five times a week and has been doing a total of 45 miles each week – but that increases as he gets closer to the real marathon. That’s whatever the weather: all through the storms and the snow and the ice. He also does strength and conditioning work to help keep him injury - free. His biggest challenge, he said, was not eating all the biscuits in the house and learning to like peanut butter.
He knows he couldn’t be doing this without the support of his wife, Gemma, and their two children. Gemma has had to take on the brunt of all the parenting while he’s out running and his children definitely don’t like it when he comes back home sweaty and out of breath! Jon has set himself a target time at Manchester of under three hours and 15 minutes but will be happy in London to work through ‘the wall’ and finish.
He knows that his body will take him through the first twenty miles of running, but the last six miles require spirit and positive psychology. He’s not taking bets on it though! Jon’s fundraising will raise money for research, equipment and support for patients and their families – all those impacted by blood cancer. If you want to help support his challenge, then go to: justgiving.com/52point4
We wish him all the very best for his marathons and his fundraising.
Karisa Krcmar