{"id":543566,"date":"2010-04-26T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T15:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=12388"},"modified":"2010-04-26T11:53:29","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T15:53:29","slug":"the-london-marathon-perseverance-determination-and-a-very-good-pair-of-running-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/543566","title":{"rendered":"The London Marathon: Perseverance, determination, and a very good pair of running shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Alexandra Harrison relives her experience cheering on runners at  the London Marathon.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"img alignright size-medium wp-image-12391\" style=\"width:180px;\">\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/generationwhy\/cgi\/process_comp\/photos\/2010\/04\/5matt_highfive1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/generationwhy\/cgi\/process_comp\/photos\/2010\/04\/5matt_highfive1-180x120.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Kurton high-fives an Oxfam volunteer after running the London Marathon. Photo: Oxfam\" width=\"180\" height=\"120\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>Matt Kurton high-fives an Oxfam volunteer after running the London Marathon. Photo: Oxfam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n12 hours after the London Marathon, and back in the office. I&#8217;m tired,  exhilarated, emotional&#8230; and I didn&#8217;t even set foot on the racecourse!<\/p>\n<p>Running a cheering point at the London Marathon was a fantastic  experience. When I started the day at 4.30am, I definitely wondered what  I&#8217;d put myself up for. But once in London, after grabbing myself a  sizeable section of pavement and a cup of tea, I began to understand  what Marathon day is really all about &#8211; and what everyone had meant when  they talked about the incredible atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Armed with a team of 28 volunteers, bucketloads of green paint and a  megaphone, I shouted, screamed, jumped and danced my way through the  day. Every time an Oxfam runner came past, we went wild: the feeling of  pride amongst us all was tangible &#8211; there they were, our wonderful  runners, doing something amazing for a cause that united us all.<\/p>\n<p>Even those not running for Oxfam were inspiring. Especially those who  were obviously pushing themselves to the limit and were determined to  finish, no matter if they had an injury, disability or cumbersome  costume which made their challenge that bit harder.<\/p>\n<p>Next year, Oxfam is the Official Charity of the London Marathon &#8211;  which means that we&#8217;ll have hundreds more guaranteed places. So if  you&#8217;ve been tempted to get involved in the 2011 Marathon, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/get_involved\/fundraise\/running\/london-marathon.html\">join  the team<\/a> &#8211; you can bank on all the training support, nutrition  advice and fundraising ideas you&#8217;ll ever need, and the money you raise  will transform lives, providing training, skills and support to people  who need to develop their small businesses around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The London Marathon is all about being determined to achieve  something extraordinary, and persevering to achieve your goal. Even  watching from the sidelines gets you involved &#8211; seeing all those runners  pushing themselves to the limit is inspiring, emotional and motivating.  That early start was more than worth it!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/..\/..\/..\/..\/..\/get_involved\/fundraise\/running\/london-marathon.html\">Get  involved: 2011 Virgin London Marathon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexandra Harrison relives her experience cheering on runners at the London Marathon. Matt Kurton high-fives an Oxfam volunteer after running the London Marathon. Photo: Oxfam 12 hours after the London Marathon, and back in the office. I&#8217;m tired, exhilarated, emotional&#8230; and I didn&#8217;t even set foot on the racecourse! Running a cheering point at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}