We run to run: running philosophy post-London Marathon

I completed my second London marathon yesterday and was pleased enough to take 17 minutes off my 2015 time/PB (strava run). It was tough though in parts and I slowed down from miles 16 onwards. The big London crowds, seeing your friends and family cheering you on, watching Kenenisa Bekele go cruising by in the opposite direction and knowing that there are 50 other members of your running club out there somewhere all helps with motivation earlier on. As a South Londoner so does running the first half of the course on the home streets of our very own tri-boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark. 

But there comes a point when all of this fades away, it is just you willing yourself to continue at as close to your target pace as your legs will allow you. In this long-distance dark night of the sole everybody probably wonders sometimes, 'why am I doing this'?

This is something the philosopher Mark Rowlands explores in his book 'Running with the Pack' (Granta, 2013) where he draws on the insights of philosophers such as Descartes, Hume and Sartre to explore the meaning of running (actually his favourite is Heidegger, sorry I find it hard to get over his anti-semitism and support for the Nazis, even if Rowlands manages to utilise him to make some interesting points).

After running a particularly painful Marathon in Miami, Rowlands muses:

'What was the point of these last few hours, these 26 miles and 385 yards? Was it really worth it? That is the beauty of it – there was no point. It is in the places where points and purposes of life stop that you find things that are 'worth it'. We live in a utilitarian age where we tend to think of the value of everything as a function of its purpose. The defining question of our age is: 'what is it good for?' And to say that something is good for nothing is equivalent to saying that is worthless... If something is worth doing in life it must be for the sake of something else. If running is worth doing – whether it is a marathon or a gentle jog around the block – it must be worth doing because of the health it promotes, the sense of satisfaction or self-worth it engenders, the stress it relieves, the social opportunities it affords. If an activity is valuable at all, it must be useful for something'.

Against this, Rowlands argues that 'running has an entirely different sort of value', an 'intrinsic value... that is valuable for what it is in itself, and not because of anything else it might allow one to get or possess':

'If we want to find value in life, something that might be a candidate for life's meaning or one of its meanings - then we must look to things that have no purpose. Put another way: it is a necessary condition of something being truly important in life that it have no purpose outside itself – that it be useless for anything else. Worthlessness – in this sense - is a necessary condition of real value...  The purpose and value of running is intrinsic to it. The purpose and value of running is simply to run. Running is one of the places in life where the points or purposes stop. As such, running is one of the things that can make life 'worth the trouble''.

For the 2017 London Marathon organisers put out a call for runners to give their reason for running: 'We know every single runner has a unique #ReasonToRun the world’s greatest marathon,” said Hugh Brasher, Event Director. “Whether it’s to set a PB, to raise money for a cause, to remember a loved one, to break a Guinness World Record, to win, to remain an Ever Present, to qualify for Great Britain or just because it’s always been a dream to run the London Marathon – the reasons are endless and we would love to hear them.” This is all good, but maybe at the base of it is the fact that we run in order to run, while we can. 

And once we have started a race we carry on running because no reason can stop us - something that Rowlands elaborates on with reference to Jean-Paul Sartre - 'When I understood that no reason could ever make me stop, what I experienced was joy... To run on in freedom - to run in the freedom of the gap between reasons and actions - is one of the intrinsically valuable ways of being in the world. To run in this freedom is to run in joy'.  Not sure I felt particularly joyful at mile 16 yesterday, but in this sense we exercise our freedom by choosing to keep pushing on and not to listen to all the reasons swimming around our heads to take it easy and settle for less than we can achieve.

Oh and we also run to get the t-shirt and  medal of course!

Proud of my club Kent AC, 51 finishers and I think top three positions in both the men's and women's club competitions within the marathon (based on cumulative times of first three finishers from each club in the race). But beyond that each performance had a story, whether it be PBs, first marathons or just getting round despite injury. For all a back story of hundreds of miles of training since the New Year, a collective effort in groups not only running together but sharing tips on nutrition, tactics and more. Deep in the run it may get to a point where we feel that we are each alone, but we are sustained not only by those immediately around us but all those on the journey to the start line. My number one tip to improve your marathon time would be... join a running club. And if you're in South London, come join our club!

(nice piece here from Kent's Russell Bentley on his London Marathon - a reminder that even 2:22 finishers sometimes have to stop by the side of the road and to 'run the mile you are in')

Greenwich Park Temple of Running

The 37th London Marathon starts this Sunday from Blackheath and the top of the adjoining Greenwich Park, winding its way via Woolwich to run back through Greenwich next to the bottom of the park - all 40,000 of us. 

If you're looking for a bit of inspiration for your run look no further than a site in Greenwich Park itself. Other than a slight mound there's not much to see, but there is helpful sign to tell you what you're looking at: the site of what is now believed to be a Romano-Celtic temple, first discovered in 1902 and re-excavated by archaeologists for Channel 4's Time Team programme in 2000.

So what's all this got to do with running? Well for a start, there's a fragment of a statue found there which is believed to be the arm of the Goddess Diana. It is possible therefore that the temple was dedicated to Diana, the Goddess of the moon, woodlands and the hunt.  Sometimes referred to as 'fleet footed Diana' she was often described as running through the forest with her animals. 

Greenwich Diana fragment

Roman statute of Diana at Versailles
(Roman author Ovid also refers to her as the 'high skirted huntress' on account of her practical running attire)

Like many runners, Diana liked to bathe her feet after a hard day's exertion, a scene featuring in many paintings over the centuries including Titian's 'Diana and Actaeon' (above). In the Roman writer Ovid's version of this legend, this takes place at a pool  where 'the woodland goddess, weary from the hunt, would bathe her virgin limbs' accompanied by her nymphs. Actaeon, also out hunting in the woods, spies the naked Diana and in punishment she turns him into a stag who is chased and killed by his own hounds. Poor Actaeon doesn't realize at first that he has been transformed and he 'took off, marveling at how fast he was running. But when he saw his face and horns in a pool, he tried to say 'Oh no' but no words came' (Stanley Lombardo's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

I guess the lesson for runners here is if you find yourself running faster than expected, especially at the start of a marathon, you might regret it!

If  Diana fleet of foot is not enough to get you running, another object found in Greenwich Park  depicts a female figure holding a shield, which the information board states is likely to represent the Roman goddess Victory, probably better known to runners as her Greek equivalent - Nike.

Yes, Greenwich Park is a veritable temple of running and on Sunday thousands of devotees will be celebrating there.

London Marathon: a short report of a long race

Walking slowly downstairs today after yesterday's London Marathon, my first marathon. It was a milestone for me as it was two years ago this weekend that I dipped my toe into organised running for the first time since leaving school by taking part in my first parkrun, at Hilly Fields, after several months getting going with the NHS Couch to 5k podcasts. Since that time I've run 80+ parkruns, joined a club (the mighty Kent AC), completed a cross country season and run a couple of half marathons and lots of other races, so I feel as if running London completes my apprenticeship. I achieved my goal of breaking four hours (3:51), a respectable time I think considering I'm still shaking off a cough/cold - well anyway that's my excuse for slowing down in second half.

Yes, just like they say, the atmosphere at London is amazing with a record 37,675 finishers and hundreds of thousands on the streets cheering us on. I loved the music on the way round - 'A Town Called Malice' at Blue Start, the old guy singing 'Lady Madonna' outside Clancy's in Woolwich, numerous drummers, bagpipes in Rotherhithe, and DJs playing everything from Springsteen's 'Born to Run' to CeCe Peniston's 'Finally' (except it was at the half way point not the end). Personal favourite was hearing a few bars of the similarly named soulful house classic Finally by Kings of Tomorrow, a track I last heard out dancing to Norman Jay at Notting Hill Carnival ('time marches on never ending, time keeps its own time') . A similarly packed crowd yesterday but  I wasn't hanging around to dance and sing along - as I've said before, for me running is the new raving.

I wasn't spending too long sight seeing either, though I like the fact that as well as passing all the chocolate box London tourist landmarks (Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Cutty Sark in Greenwich) the race takes the world's best long distance runners on a tour of South East London, out through Charlton, Woolwich, Deptford and Rotherhithe .

One of the advantages of being a London runner is how familiar much of the course is. I was able to leave home after 8 am and get to the start in plenty of time, and in my Marathon training I've covered various sections of the route, including the first seven miles the previous weekend with a group of Kent AC runners. The club turned out 46 runners yesterday, with outstanding performances from John Gilbert, 2nd finisher after the elite field in 2:18 (I saw him running past me in the opposite direction in East London with nobody in sight behind him), and Amy Clements, 10th non-elite woman in 2:43 (full results here)

The finisher t-shirt and the medal for this 35th anniversary race both featured the image of Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen jointly winning the first race in 1981 (I saw them both speaking last week at the London Marathon Expo)

As expected the last few miles were the toughest, by that point it was head down and keep going with all the noise becoming more oppressive than inspiring, by that point too I was close to vomiting on lucozade and energy gels. Having done the training I had my mantra 'I do this everyday, I do this daily everyday, I do this' courtesy of Crystal Fighters, as well as my regular mind trick when suffering of telling myself that 'the faster you run, the sooner you can stop'. And the sooner I stopped the sooner I could have a pint after a couple of weeks of fitness fanatic abstinence.

Although I had a ballot place and therefore no charity fundraising target I did invite donations to Core (gut and liver disease charity)  in memory of my dad who died from stomach cancer. I'm amazed that I've raised more than £800, thank again everybody for your support - there's still time for a last minute donation at Just Giving!

sitting down on the Mall just after the finish
 - standing up again was the hard part

See also some other bloggers' perspectives:

Running Past - A View from Mile 8

Lissy Runs - I Ran the London Marathon
Hels Bels - Mind Over Matter
Life Laura London
Tiny Runner

Update: Tim from Kent AC paused briefly at mile 20 to propose marriage to Linda - before going on to complete a sub-3 hour marathon

 .

Remembering my dad Dugald Orr & running for stomach cancer research

I am lucky to have got a ballot place at next month's London Marathon, all I need to do is turn up and run, I don't have a fundraising target in return for a charity place. However when I do tell people I'm running they invariably ask what charity I am running for, so I have decided to create a low-key 'Just Giving' account so that friends and family can make donations if they wish. I have chosen to raise funds for Core: Fighting Gut and Liver Disease, a charity that funds research and provides information in relation to digestive disorders. My dad, Dugald Orr (1935-1997), died from stomach cancer and this is one of the diseases that Core focuses on.  

Dugald Orr - a sporting life

Me and my dad at St Joseph's in Luton

Of course there's lots I could say about my dad and his life, which started on the Isle of Islay and ended in Luton & Dunstable Hospital 62 years later. But as this is a running blog I will focus on sport, which some of my best memories of my dad are tied up with, football especially. We jumped for joy when we watched Luton Town beat Arsenal at Wembley in 1988, and didn't sing quite so loudly when we saw Scotland lose 5-1 to England at the same venue in 1975 (I was so small I had to stand on a stool on the terraces).  With his father, my grandad Neil Orr, we saw Luton beat Chelsea 4-0 (1976 - those days will come again!). and went to see Rangers play at Ibrox in 1977. The following year my dad took me to see Partick Thistle, the team he supported when he lived in Glasgow while doing his shipwright apprenticeship at Alexander Stephens shipyard on the Clyde. 

I remember watching him play football with his work colleagues at Vauxhall Sports Ground in Luton, but his main involvement with football while I was a child was as a coach in youth soccer. A qualified FA coach, he coached St Joseph's youth football team for six years in the 1970s, and then helped out with Meads United before going on to the committee of the Chiltern Youth League, the Bedfordshire under-18s league. When he died the Luton News described him as 'one of the most popular local soccer coaches in Luton' and 'one of the best loved characters in the local game' ('Sad loss of a coach who lived for youth soccer', February 19 1997).

St Josephs football club, Luton, 1970 - my dad at back in tracksuit, me as mascot to right of the ball. Other adults in this picture are Tony Coyne on the left - whose son Laurence Coyne (crouching  behind me) went on to play professional soccer in the US - and Bud Aherne (right), who played for Luton Town and Ireland.

Tom 'Bud' Aherne (1919-99)

Islay United

Earlier my dad had been a keen player himself. When my dad moved from Islay to Glasgow to work in the shipyards he played for 'Glasgow's only Island football team' Islay United who played in the Glasgow Welfare League. I was delighted to find a report in the Oban Times of him banging in four goals in a 7-1 win on Glasgow Green in 1958.

Moving down to Luton in 1960 to work for Hunting/British Aircraft Corporation then Vauxhall Motors, he played for a while  with Totternhoe FC. I believe this picture is of them, with my dad at the right end of back row.

Seemingly he also played cricket - this picture is of the Hunting/BAC cricket team in Luton, 1965, my dad in back row third from left. 

Of course I'm sad that my dad isn't around to know that I'm running the marathon, and since I've got more involved in the world of club running I've come to appreciate more the  work he put into youth football. The athletics clubhouses with their trophies and changing rooms remind me of the very similar football places I went to with him. Running and football, like most sports, are sustained by the efforts of countless volunteers like my dad who share their time, knowledge and skills without financial reward, just because they love it.

[last updated October 2025 with Islay United cuttings]

My running T-shirts

Accumulating t-shirts goes with the territory for running doesn't it? Thought I'd document some of my mine before some of the cheaper ones fade away in the wash...

The hard-earned parkrun 50 t-shirt, presented at Hilly Fields earlier this year

London Marathon 2014 marshall t-shirt,
for helping on the bag lorries at Blackheath with Hilly Fields parkrun crew

'5k your way' at Hackney Marshes 2013
- different colour shirts for the different local Council teams taking part
('Team Southwark' for me)

5k your way, Hackney Marshes again - yes they change the team colours every year!

T-shirt from the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens - scene of 1896 Olympic Games,
and where I ran a couple of the laps of the track last week

Kent Athletic Club vest - proud to have run three races in this since joining in the summer,
plenty more coming up in the rest of the cross country season

Married for the Marathon

This time last week I stayed up late to get my name down in the ballot for a London Marathon place next year. I'm glad I did because by the next morning all ballot places were full - that doesn't mean I've got a place of course, only that I've now got a chance of getting one. I helped out in Greenwich Park as a marshal at the start of this year's Marathon, part of crack team of parkrunners loading runners bags on to lorries and dancing to the Village People on a Sunday morning. Having experienced the atmosphere up close I would love to take part as a runner. I know people will go to almost any lengths to run, or even just to get involved in a major Marathon, but how far would you go? Would you get married in order to run in a Marathon, or even just to watch one?

London Marathon Marshal's Medal 2014

Johnny Hayes famously won the Marathon at the 1908 London Olympics. I say famously, though actually it was Dorando Pietri who arguably became most famous. The latter finished first, but was disqualified because he had been helped after collapsing several times near the end of the race from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium. Hayes crossed the line 30 seconds later but was awarded the gold medal. I've always thought history has been unkind to Hayes, Pietri being presented as an unfairly treated underdog when it was Hayes who actually did the business and finished the distance properly.

Anyway the following year Hayes told the following (possibly apocryphal!) story to an audience in New York:

'MARRIED FOR SPORT. John J Hayes, the Marathon champion, was describing in New York the enthusiasm that the Marathon race caused among Americans in London. "That race," said he, "was the chief motive that took us Americans abroad last summer. Indeed, coming back on the boat I heard an almost, incredible story about the race's attraction. "There was a very nice girl aboard who seemed unhappy. Her unhappiness was due to her husband. She was married to a rich but very old man; he might have been her grandfather. "She was a very frank sort of girl., and she confided her marital troubles to one of the women at her table. From her confidence it was plain that the aged husband was a brute. 'But, my dear child,' said the woman, 'whatever induced you to marry such a, man ?" 'Well, you see,' said the girl, 'I was so anxious to see that Marathon race' (Llandudno Advertiser, 10 April 1909).

Johnny Hayes in his Irish American Athletics Club kit,
shortly after winning in London

Joe Strummer: Marathon Runner

As several other running bloggers have noted before (including Run Dangerously and Run and Jump), the late great Joe Strummer of The Clash apparently ran several marathons.

According to Chris Salewicz in 'Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer' (2006), in April 1981 'wearing a "Clash Take the Fifth" T-shirt, Joe Strummer, the man who as a boy had been his school's cross-country running champion, ran the London Marathon. He took Gaby [Salter, his then girlfriend] with him - she made it halfway before dropping out. "He hadn't even trained. He just bought some shorts and said, "let's run a marathon". Even in personal relations Joe played his cards close to his chest: he never mentioned to Gaby that he had been the top runner at his school'.

Salewicz also says that in May 1982 Strummer ran in the Paris Marathon (as did Gaby Salter) during a short period when he was hiding out in the city while 'missing' from the band.

Another blog has queried whether this is true, pointing out that there's no photographic evidence of Strummer running in Paris and that in the 1981 picture (above), he hasn't got a bib with his number on it. The picture looks like it was taken at the Marathon or a similar event though (note police and crowd barriers)- maybe he wasn't an official entrant and sneaked in to run all or part of the race in this first year of the event.

There can't be any doubt about the 1983 London Marathon though. 'Like Punk Never Happened' has recently scanned in the whole of 'Smash Hits' magazine from April 28th 1983, and it includes the following piece. This states that Strummer ran in aid of Leukemia research with runners from 'The Sun' newspaper team,  with a finish time of four hours and 13 minutes.

'Mohican beginning to wilt a bit'