VICTA Changemakers
Blindness Awareness Month

On the 21st of April, along with my guide runner, I set out to compete the 2024 TCS London Marathon. I had raised the money for charity (VICTA), done the training and now, it was time for the real thing.

Weirdly I don’t remember much about the day itself. I remember the noise though. The cheering and shouting of thousands of  families. There were kids banging tambourines in no apparent rhythm and timpani drummers playing in perfect synchronisation. There were out of tune recorder players and brass bands blaring out the latest pop hits in perfect tune. There were boom boxes, speakers, megaphones and most devices you can think of that were invented with the sole purpose of eliciting loud noise, were probably used at some point in the day. It all blends together into this amazing, huge cacophony of sound that you can feel in your chest.

Tilly after the London Marathon, she has her medal and a foil blanket around her. She is standing in front of Big Ben with blue skies.

I also remember crossing the finish line. The feeling of pain, joy, and relief is a feeling that I will never forget.

Now though looking back on it I think that the things I learnt while training had the biggest impact on my character growth and my development as a person. While the marathon itself tested my will and dedication, the process of training while simultaneously raising money for charity taught me skills and lessons that help when applied to all aspects of life.

The first thing I learnt when embarking on this journey is that going out of your comfort zone often brings good things. Generally people are really nice and in my experience wanted to help in any way they could but I would have to actively approach people and ask them for charity or raffle prize donations. For me, this seemed extremely daunting at first, but it got easier with time and I got a lot of donations from doing this. I also applied this to other aspects of my life as well. Stepping out of your comfort zone can result in you getting cool opportunities that you may not have gotten otherwise.

The second thing that I learnt when training for the marathon is that being disciplined is crucial. There were many points throughout the process when I really didn’t want to go for a run, but at these times it is extremely important to push through and keep to your training plan. I had a goal and a way to achieve it and I knew that if I didn’t keep to the training plan I would not have been able to complete the marathon. I applied this to other aspects of my life and being discipline allowed me to achieve some of my other life goals more quickly.

The third thing I came to understand was that if I wanted to succeed in completing the marathon, I was going to have to become a more confident communicator. When you use a guide runner it is imperative that you work as a team and convey clearly to each other what is working and what needs to change. As someone who is historically a bad communicator and likes to go with the flow, even if it makes things more challenging for me, I found this really difficult. I did get better at this though and my communication skills gradually grew over the training process. I realised that people generally want to know if there are things they can do to make your life easier and if I didn’t communicate clearly what I needed from a guide runner then I was doing myself and my guide a disservice. This also expanded my ability to communicate my needs outside of running. For example, when I took my Disabled Students Allowance assessment, I felt confident in communicating what equipment I would need in order to put me on a level playing field with everyone else at university.

The fourth thing I discovered is that when tackling any challenge in life, it is important to believe in yourself. Believe that you will succeed and have confidence in yourself and you will cultivate a healthy mindset and a positive attitude which will make you more likely to succeed when you are tackling your goal. If you start out with the mindset that you will fail, the self doubt will creep in and it will make things a lot harder.

The fifth and perhaps the most important thing that I learnt is that it is important to be kind to yourself. Due to events that were out of my control, I did not finish the marathon in the time that I had planned to and I was really disappointed. I eventually realised though that there was nothing that I could have done that would changed the outcome and that I should just be proud that I finished.

Running the London Marathon for VICTA taught me a lot and is something that I would love to do again. If anyone is considering running for them I highly recommend it. It is a really cool experience and you will be raising money for a charity that helps lots of people.

By Tilly Gerra

If you are interested in running the London Marathon for VICTA get in touch with Charlotte at marathon@victa.org.uk and we will be there to support you on your journey!