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Jack Nithavrianakis

London Marathon 2025

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London Marathon 2025

Very excited to be running the London Marathon 2025 for Asthma and Lung UK, a very import cause and as an asthmatic one that is close to my heart.

For posterity's sake (and perhaps for some mild amusement), I will try and post updates on here - both training and fundraising.  

To start, enjoy a photo of the splits for a Half Marathon I ran on Saturday 2nd November.  Biggest lesson here, don't set off quite as quickly.  Coach Sion aptly described that I was deep in a "pain cave."

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My Achievements

My Updates

A Rather Large Bump in the Road

Tuesday 1st Apr

So I've been told any runner experiences bumps in the road in the training block. It seems I've stumbled across an untraversable mountain. In recent months I've been playing in goal for the mighty Strangers United, ironically to avoid injuring my knees or ankles, but a couple of weeks ago I suffered three fractures in two of the fingers on my right hand whilst making a save ( which I was later told was going wide anyway).


Although hand injuries are usually not grounds to rule someone out of running a marathon I unfortunately had to go in for surgery to fix an external frame onto each of these two fingers and the surgeon recommended that I do not run the London Marathon given that I'll have to have another surgery to remove these frames just a few days before the 27th of April.


I am obviously gutted given out hard I've worked over the last six months or so and how much you generous people have helped me raise for such a great cause. However the fundraising shall not be in vain as I will be running the Frankfurt Marathon in October of this year and hopefully will be able to defer my place in the London Marathon to the 2026 event.


But for now the training runs have stopped and I will leave you with one final thought. If you want to avoid injury for a marathon but continue playing football, become a manager.

The Final Block

Sunday 9th Mar
2 weeks since the HM, a recovery week followed by my first ever week of 50km+.  Four nice runs down in Devon followed by a long one in London, where the glorious sunshine made for a tough run.  A few thoughts:

- Water is a very tough one to manage.  I had a bottle with me which was deleted after 15km, meaning a Tescos pit stop to refill.  Also meant a slight stitch in the last couple of KMs.
- Vaseline is going to be my companion for the next 7 weeks, no further detail needed.
- Lemon and lime gel might be my new favourite flavour.

A massive shift on the donations so far, so a big big thank you to everyone who has lent their support!  Still plenty to be raised, and there is an incentive coming your way to keep donating, announcement pending...

Olympic Park Half Marathon

Sunday 23rd Feb
A PB of 1.56.41!!  Really chuffed given the warm up runs this week gone, where the pain hit the right leg after 3.5km each time.  But made it through this one comfortably.  Some thoughts on the course:

- Undulation made it so difficult to find a rhythm.  Every 20 meter hill, the thighs turned to lead and it took a minute to recover.
- As such, the individual km splits were all over the place.
- Delighted that I managed my pace for the first few kms - no early sprints like the November race.
- Blackcurrant and orange gels were on the menu - delicious.

Time for a taper week, and then the milage will be increasing.

Richmond Park Romp

Monday 17th Feb
Seven days after returning from a two-week hiatus, coach had me chucking in my first >half marathon distance of the training plan.  On a day where the HM record was broken in Barcelona, this was nothing of the sort.  

Some thoughts from the run:

- Running along the river is delightful.
- I'm not 100% that holding running gels is the way to go, might be time to invest in some proper running shorts.
- Speaking of gels, blackcurrant is delicious, apple less so.
- Richmond Park is no Battersea Park.  The hills were not welcome at kilometre number 18, but lessons were learnt.

A very pleasant first 3/4 and a slog for the final 6km, but tarmac was indeed gobbled.  Full send incoming next Sunday at the Olympic Park Half Marathon, stay tuned for that update.

Ending 2024 With a Slog

Thursday 2nd Jan
Decided to close out the end of the 2024 running season with a fair slog down in the country. When you get used to the flats of Hyde Park, the hills certainly proved tricky and any ideas of PBs were certainly not on the cards. 2025 is where we step it up a notch. Coach Mattey is formulating a plan which will guarantee me a sub 4hr marathon in April.

Thank you to my Sponsors

£26.25

Matt Sykes

A bump in the road - roll on Frankfurt...

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