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Guernsey runner Jodie London, 31, is to take on one of the world’s most challenging marathons
The accounts trainee at Guernsey Finance has entered The Great Wall Marathon in China and will be raising money for Les Bourgs Hospice and the Sarah Groves Foundation.
Ms London started running in 2015 when she completed the Guernsey Dairy Milk Run Half Marathon and Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management Guernsey Marathon and she went on to take part in the Les Bourgs Hospice 30 Runs in 30 Days last year.
The gruelling Great Wall Marathon starts with a four kilometre uphill climb and the course takes in the Great Wall twice including a total of more than 5,000 historic steps, as well as ramps of rock and concrete, all in hot and humid conditions with highs of 30 degrees. Around 2,500 runners will take part.
Ms London has followed a training plan put together by local running coach Lee Merrien. She has been running the cliff paths, including one 18 mile run, and has a couple of long training runs to go before the event in China on 20 May.
Part of the challenge will be travelling alone to China and being away from her two young daughters but she has received a lot of help and support from family and friends.
She said: “I just want to complete it really. I’m not a natural born runner so just to get through it will be an achievement in itself.”
Her employer Guernsey Finance has been promoting Guernsey’s financial services to China for 10 years, having opened its first representative office there in 2007.
Ms. London said that, while this wasn’t the reason she chose the Great Wall Marathon, it was another element which had spurred her on and she had received a lot of encouragement from her Guernsey Finance colleagues.
