Yorkshire Marathon 2024 - Dawn Keeligan

April 1, 2023 – An April Fool’s joke gone wrong! I posted on Facebook, jokingly saying I’d run a

marathon for Mind. As a regular fundraiser, people took it seriously and cheered me on. Surprised by the support, I quickly found a flat marathon and signed up for York in October 2023. By that evening,  it hit me—I’d actually committed to this! What have I done? Why would I think I could do this? I didn’t even run, I smoked, and was overweight!

 

April 17, 2023 – Right after a cigarette and cake, I reluctantly joined Retford Athletics Club—I

needed help! Not wanting to seem as crazy as I felt, I said “yes” when asked if I could run 4 miles.Big mistake. I barely made it but kept going when I found out the guy with me was 74! Exhausted, I collapsed onto my bed that night and woke up still in my trainers and running gear!

April 23, 2023 – I’ve always loved watching the London Marathon, so I applied for a Mind charity

spot, never expecting to get it. Surprise—I did! That day, I quit smoking cold turkey and haven’t

looked back.

 

June 19, 2023 – I kept going to the club with loads of support but needed serious marathon help. Enter Dave, who looked at me like I was crazy (and he was right) but still took me on as a client. After injuries, too much physio, and 222 miles of training, I crossed the finish line in 4 hours 27minutes!

London Marathon training kicked off on January 1, and Dave presented me with my training plan and had me running six days a week—I now know for sure that he was the crazy one. But soon, Ifelt like a true runner, doing whatever he said since he’d already gotten me through York.

Unfortunately, a February injury sidelined me from London 2024, leaving me devastated. Dave kept me going with cross-training, and I decided to aim for York again 2024 and London was deferred until 2025!

The injury flipped a switch in me; I realized how much I wanted to run at my best. Training became all about efficiency, and I was amazed at my month-by-month progress, hitting nearly 200 miles monthly. A week before York, Dave encouraged me to aim for 3:45, but we settled on a sub-4 goal with a target of 3:55 for a safe finish. I could not see in a million years a 3:45 finish.

 

October 20, 2024 – Race Day: Wind and rain? Seriously?! Just as I got my head around the weather, the gun went off. My focus was to enjoy the race and be proud of my training—so different from last year when I felt like an imposter. As I ran, I realized my legs were strong; we had tapered well coach I thought! I just didn’t want to soak my trainers and risk blisters. At mile 16, where I’d first had to stop the year before, I happily imagined sticking two fingers up at it and chuckled as I nonchalantly ran past it.

I spotted Dave at mile 18, and he shouted for me to slow down. I still can’t tell if he meant it to help my sub-4 goal or just to mess with me. All I wanted was to escape the rain, so I kept telling myself to run the next 3 miles in under 25 minutes. Before I knew it, I was at mile 21, then mile 24, with only about 17 minutes to go. Dave’s focus on running in hours and minutes instead of distance really paid off, so I picked up the pace and finished in 3:44:19. My crazy coach wasn’t so crazy after all—or is he? I’m really looking forward to starting my London Marathon 2025 training block in a few weeks. Thanks, Dave; you’re a star!