{"id":5250,"date":"2020-02-07T09:03:30","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T09:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/?p=5250"},"modified":"2021-07-20T05:11:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T05:11:51","slug":"runner-feature-george-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/runner-feature-george-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Runner Feature – George Long"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

I’m George<\/strong> and I am running the Brighton Marathon<\/strong> for Cancer Research UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was never a sporty-type and was often the one joking around in PE class, struggling to catch things. I started running frequently in Summer 2017<\/strong>. One of the hardest battles was heading outside. I have always felt self conscious exercising with other people around me. It would take a lot of gearing myself up before heading out in running kit.<\/p>\n

During my first attempt at a run, after having stepped outside, I immediately bumped into two friends and ended up going to brunch with them instead. Months later, with a touch more willpower<\/strong>, I started actually going places… literally<\/em>, but was struggling to scrape a few kilometres and would often return home feeling like my lungs were on fire (in a bad way<\/em>). But after a few weeks of maintaining a regular schedule, I built up to be able to run 10km<\/strong><\/a> quite comfortably. I had finally found a sport I was into!<\/em> I soon stopped feeling self conscious being in public and found running to be a welcome relief from my studies!<\/p>\n

\"Runner<\/p>\n

Nowadays, I enjoy running through Victoria Park<\/strong> and dog watching as I do so. Running allows me to manage stress<\/strong> and take some time out. It’s great to have an hour in the day where I get a break from everything that’s on my mind and wallow in some pretty scenery whilst releasing some energy.<\/p>\n

I never had any plans to participate in an official race. I had run half marathon<\/strong><\/a> distances before in my own time for leisure, but didn’t particularly fancy running in a crowd. However, things changed in September 2019<\/strong> when my mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer<\/strong>. She has been on chemotherapy for 3 months and we are currently taking each day as it comes. There is still no cure for certain types of cancer and the research that happens now can make a huge difference for the enormous proportion of people who will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. I felt I ought to do my bit to help fundraise for such research. Unfortunately, I feel my cinnamon buns still aren’t quite up to the standard for a bake sale (they are good though<\/em>), so I boldly signed up to the 2020 Brighton Marathon<\/strong> to raise money for Cancer Research.<\/p>\n

As means of preparation, I have signed up to multiple races that will take place in upcoming months to get a feel for running at organised events where my weekend lie ins are regretfully cut short. I ran my first official race<\/strong> on 11th January at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and had a lot more fun than I had anticipated! The atmosphere was great and running with other people really lifts your spirits. I have signed up to half a dozen more races before the big one in April! Heres hoping I don’t acquire any injuries before then…<\/em><\/p>\n

My Just Giving page<\/strong><\/a> can be found HERE<\/a>. Any donations would be truly appreciated. Cancer is something that affects us all in our lifetimes, be it yourself or a loved one who receives a diagnosis. Today people have better chances than they did a few decades ago.<\/p>\n

Let’s do everything we can to create more miracles for patients in the future!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m George and I am running the Brighton Marathon for Cancer Research UK. I was never a sporty-type and was often the one joking around in PE class, struggling to catch things. I started running frequently in Summer 2017. One of the hardest battles was heading outside. I have always felt self conscious exercising with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2955,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2955"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/club.runthrough.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}