“I was running for Dad and for St Christopher’s”
Josiah
Among many of his ‘surreal’ experiences while running the 2024 London Marathon for St Christopher’s, Josiah Gordon-Clarke says the most bizarre was running under the track of the Docklands Light Railway where he operates the trains as his day job.
Josiah resisted the temptation to hop on a DLR train to help him along the way and, having enjoyed the experience of his first marathon so much, is all set to run again in Berlin. He’s also applied to run again in London 2025.
“The overall feeling from the day was that it was surreal. Arriving at the start in Blackheath was a real pinch-me moment. I couldn’t believe I was actually there.”
“What had started out as being about personal achievement had become much more than that. I was running for Dad and for St Christopher’s.”
Dad – Greg Clarke – died in St Christopher’s in April 2012, 16 months after being diagnosed with a brain tumour and a week before his 50th birthday.
“He was a very popular man. He was also very determined and ambitious. He also used to run, and I like to think maybe he would have run a marathon one day and would have been proud of me for doing it.”
Josiah remembers well the sense of individualised care and the very non-clinical feel he and his family experienced at St Christopher’s.
“It was so different to the feeling of being in hospital. There wasn’t the same sense of doom and gloom. It was bright and airy, the staff were really cheery. Dad had his own room and it just felt really personal.”
Despite the strong personal connection with St Christopher’s, Josiah, 37, was initially apprehensive about running for charity as he’d never done any fundraising before and was worried he wouldn’t hit his target.
“My brother and I used to live on the marathon route when we were growing up and always cycled along following the runners so I thought it would be great to be part of it one day. Initially it was about personal achievement, and I was nervous about setting a target.”
Not since school, when he was a good sprinter, had Josiah taken regular exercise and says he needed a goal to make that switch and stick to a routine.
“I was a complete novice at running and very rusty! But it was something I’d wanted to do for a while. I applied through the ballot and when I found out I’d got the place in July I was absolutely overjoyed, it felt like I’d won the lottery.”
“It was at that point that the fundraising team came and spoke to us to enquire about who we had come to remember. And the rest, as they say, is history…”
“When I found out I’d got the place in July I was absolutely overjoyed, it felt like I’d won the lottery.”
That sense of excitement turned to frustration and concern when, after just a couple of months of training, Josiah suffered a knee injury that prevented him from serious running until January. He then followed a regime designed to enable him to run the marathon in under four hours. When it came to it, Josiah narrowly missed that mark – by nine minutes.
“It got very hard at mile 21. Thankfully, in training I never stopped so I was able to keep going and put in some serious work in the last couple of miles. So serious that I totally missed my family screaming and shouting for me in Westminster.”
Josiah smashed his fundraising target of £2,000 by more than £600 with support from family, friends and colleagues and enjoyed the warm embrace of his family when he crossed the finish line.
“There were family members all along the route and then I saw them all at the finish and they had a photo of my dad with them and so we took a photo of us all with him as I’d run in his memory.”
“It’s given me a purpose and a sense of direction, and I really hope I get a place in next year’s London Marathon.”
What advice would Josiah give other potential marathon runners?
“I learned that I need to have something to work towards. I know if I’d not had the marathon my running would have lasted about two days – until the first time it rained.“
“No one can run a marathon until they run a marathon. I couldn’t run ten miles until I ran ten miles.“
“It’s a cliché but a journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step. Just think about the first run, start slowly and take each day as it comes. It’s like building a wall – one brick at a time.“
If you’d like to follow in Josiah’s footsteps…
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