Longman Media Co. company director and founder Jack Longman ran the Virgin Money London Marathon on the 3rd of October 2021 and has now successfully raised the target goal of £1000 for UK charity NRAS - The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society. Here's what Jack had to say about the whole experience:
"When I was first accepted into the ballot in late 2019, I couldn't believe it. I know runners who have tried to enter that way for almost a decade with no success, so to get in first try... I knew I was lucky.
Completing the marathon was a huge personal goal for me in my life, as I had watched my father do it 6 times whilst growing up in the 1990's and always dreamt of following in his footsteps running it myself one day.
However, I started to feel like I shouldn't just run it for personal reasons and choose a smaller /lesser known charity or cause that would benefit from the support.
I started conversations with the lovely folk at NRAS in late 2019. They were pleased to hear that I was going to run for them, as apparently I was one of 5 runners on the track! They sent me an awesome care/fundraising package complete with an awesome vest with my name printed on!
The reason I chose this charity is mainly because Rheumatoid Arthritis is the illness that my wife's grandfather John Game, suffered with most of his life. It is a vicious disease that causes many side effects and complications that John suffered with for most of his later life.
John was a kind and loving man who would always talk to me about business, having goals and aspirations in life.
I set myself the goal of a £1000, which being honest I didn't know if I could reach or not, but I knew that anything would help this charity as it's not a massive organisation with a huge team.
I started training in November 2019, as I was originally meant to run it in March 2020, but of course that event was postponed until October, and then postponed until this race.
This caused a few issues. In the initial lockdown, I carried on training and kept my fitness at Marathon level pretty much throughout, then when the race was postponed for a second time in September 2020, I lost motivation and my mental health suffered greatly. Training fell by the wayside and as a result my fitness did too. I ended up becoming injured and had to go through physio with the fantastic Dr Annie Bass at Optimal Spine & Sports Dimensions in Blackfriars.
As the newly scheduled race drew closer, I was feeling nervous both about my fitness (due to injury) and hitting the goal for the charity. So I decided to reach out to my personal and professional network both in person and on LinkedIn to raise awareness for my fundraising page and gather donations.
I was absolutely blown away by the support I received, it really helped me get round the course on the day, knowing that I had the support of so many friends, contacts, clients and family behind me. As I crossed the finish line on the day, the wave of emotion and achievement was like nothing I had felt before.
So I wanted to thank everyone who donated to the fundraising campaign in any way, on behalf of Longman Media Co, my family and NRAS! This money will make a great difference to a charity that does fantastic work for a relatively unknown disease, that affects so many people.
Thanks guys!" - Jack xo
To find out more about National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, click the links below:
NRAS: https://nras.org.uk/
Donate: https://nras.org.uk/donate-now/
Social:
IG: @nras_uk