The Moment I Chose to Keep Going

My name is Shamil, and I just ran my first marathon with the Running Charity.

I still can’t really explain how happy I feel. I had never run a marathon before. The longest distance I had ever done was 30km, so finishing the full marathon in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 53 seconds means everything to me.

Shamil running the London Marathon on Sunday 26 April 2026

The hardest moment came at kilometre 35, my body said: "You have to stop, I'm so tired, I can't move my legs, I'm tired". In that moment, I had a choice. I could stop, or I could keep going. So I told myself, I can!

So I pushed through. Step by step, I kept moving forward. And when I finally reached the finish line, I felt something I had never felt before. I was proud. I was happy. I proved to myself that I could do it.

This experience taught me that sometimes you think you are not ready, you think you cannot go further. But if you believe in yourself and keep going, you can do more than you expect.

Being part of a supportive community helped me a lot. Knowing that people believed in me gave me strength when I needed it most. It reminded me that I was not doing this alone, even though I was running on my own.

Now I am already thinking about next year. I want to improve my time and finish in 2 hours 25 minutes or 2 hours 30 minutes. I know it will not be easy, but I will do my best.

I believe in myself! And I know that when my body says I can’t, I can still say I can.