On Sunday 2nd of October 2022 more than 40,000 people took to the streets of London to participate in one of the world most prestigious marathons, including a few famous faces. One of those famous faces was Lorne Burns. Well, maybe more of a famous face here at the Jason Floyd Golf Academy!

The challenging run expanded across 26.2 miles (42km) of London’s streets, passing several of the city’s well-known attractions, including, The Cutty Sark, The Shard, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament. The marathon finished on the mall, the home straight outside of Buckingham Palace.

Fifteen weeks prior to running down the mall to the finish line, Lorne received an invitation from his chosen charity, Diabetes UK, offering him the opportunity to run his first ever Marathon, an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

After dusting off his running shoes, his path to marathon glory began, running the caminos (roads) of Sotogrande. Throughout this time Lorne was raising money for his charity that he was deeply connected to, setting a target to raise £3,000 by Marathon Day.

Lorne’s personal connection to Diabetes UK is due to his mother being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes since age 11 and both of his grandparents living with type 2 diabetes, so he has first-hand experience of the significant complications that the disease causes in people’s life.

15 weeks before the marathon Lorne was accepted by diabetes UK to run in aid of this charity and that’s when it all started

I sat down with Lorne to discover more about his experience prior to, during and post marathon.

Lorne, Congratulations on finishing the marathon, I’m interested to know what made you want to run it?

The main reason was getting back to acertain level of fitness, as I’ve always seen myself as an athlete. During covid and lockdown i wasn’t as active and was getting away from my regular healthy diet so I didn’t feel like I was in good shape. I never really liked long distance running but it all started when I was convinced in to doing Malaga half marathon. I ended up really enjoying the experience and I always strive to continue to challenge myself so the natural next step after a half marathon was a full one, so it made me want to register for London 2022. I always thought about a marathon as I knew what a challenge it would be. I thought if I would do the one it would be the London marathon. I also knew that if I’m going to do something like that I may as well raise money for charity.

So as you were accepted into the marathon a little later than usual, having only 15 weeks to train, did you have any set back or issues during your training?

Yeah, I had 15 weeks to prepare from the day I was informed by Diabetes UK to the day of the marathon. Iprobably had 13 weeks of training due to a couple weeks in August where I was unable to train. The plan was to train 3 times a week but due to various reasons I was only able to train 1 or 2 times a week, which made it more challenging to run a competitive time, however, my main goal was simply to finish, and running in a good time would have been a nice bonus.

Yeah, that’s tough, so after all the hard work and training, it all came down to the final day. How were you feeling that morning you woke up to the moment you crossed the start line?

Having competed in high level sport for a lot of my life, I had the experience, understanding and strategies to be able to control my focus that morning. My only goal was to finish, to soak the whole experience and atmosphere and enjoy it! It was going to be a long day, but a great one and I was really looking forward to the challenge.  I also knew the marathon wasn’t the only challenge I was going to experience, because after finishing I would need to go straight from the finish line, to the airport, and make the 1,393.2-miles trip back home!

Within only a couple hours of crossing the finish line you were sat in an airport waiting to fly home that night?! That’s crazy! So, once you crossed the start line can you summarise the run, was there any key moment you remember or points where you really had to dig deep?

The experience was inspirational and emotional; the last 9km was painful and tough but the constant encouragement from the crowd pushed me to the end. The kindness and humility from strangers, cheering the runners names, offering bowls of sweets out tothose running past, encouraging you to give the extra boost that I needed. Witnessing runners go above and beyond,dressed in enormous and crazy fancy dress costumes, carrying weights on their back to seeing people with impairments pushing themselves to their limits really empathised the enormity of the occasion, putting the experience in perspective.

Photo Credit: www.savetherhino.org

That’s some inspiring stuff, but after all those mixed feelings of excitement, pain, happiness, struggle and inspiration what was that feeling like crossing the finish line.

Passing the London eye, houses of parliament, big ben, Westminster abbey I realised I was edging so closer to that finish line, each landmark fuelled my desire to run faster through the final kilometres. Coming round the home stretch alongside Buckingham palace the sense of revilement and achievement kick in, you feel that drive in your legs push you across that finish line. I felt emotional, I realised that despite what I was going through and what everyone else was going through, we had succeeded. All those hours training when no one is looking make it possible to crossing that finish line is a true sense of accomplishment. I’m going to carry thosefeelings and memories with me for the rest of my life.

Here at the Jason Floyd Golf Academy the team and students would like to give a huge congratulations to Lorne on completing the marathon. We also praise Lorne on raising £4,769 for Diabetes UK, smashing his target just like he smashed the marathon.

To make a donation please follow the link below. Let’s help Lorne get £5,000!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LorneLondonMarathon2022