30 Aug 2024
By David Ewing, Membership Executive
In just five weeks, I’ll be lacing up my running shoes for my most challenging and exciting event to date - the Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra Marathon! It’s been a journey just getting to this point, filled with plenty of highs and lows throughout my training that has shown me the turbulent journey most undertake when training for a long-distance endurance event.
The Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra Marathon gets underway under the iconic Riverside Museum in the early hours of Saturday 5 October. From there, runners have an allocated 15 hours to cover the 57-mile route to the capital, following much of the canal path that links Glasgow and Edinburgh, whilst passing the Falkirk Wheel - roughly the half way mark - and the Antonine Wall, the Northernmost point of the Roman Empire.
Trust the Process
Before I started training for G2E, I’d completed one marathon and at the time I thought the challenge of completing that run would be enough to satisfy my running aspirations. But something about the idea of running an Ultra captured my imagination and while watching the progress of Russ Cook online (the first man to run the entire length of Africa) I deciding to just book the race and figure out how I’d get to the finish line afterwards, I was all-in!
The journey has been far from plain sailing however, and just when I thought I was seeing some real progress, the inevitable happens - injury strikes! This was without doubt the most challenging period of my journey as it felt that all the progress I had made was slipping away. With the race creeping ever-closer, along with what felt like little progress being made towards being back out on the track, this was the first time throughout the process I started to doubt whether I’d taken on too much and could actually complete a 57-mile Ultra Marathon.
I stayed focused on recovery and over the following weeks, I slowly built back up the miles. I learned a lot about myself during this period focusing on being resilient, trusting the process and using my time (which would usually have been spent training) being productive in other ways and getting creative to continue training in ways that wouldn’t hinder my recovery.
The Final Push
As race day approaches, five weeks out from participating in my first Ultra race, I’m filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves but ultimately, am extremely grateful for the process I’ve experienced over the last few months and eager for what’s still to come. I feel as committed to the process as ever before and can’t wait to get to that start line on 5 October to give it my best shot, knowing I’ve done all I can to give myself the best possible chance of finishing the race - hopefully with a time to be proud of (if that’s not too much to ask for).
I’m also incredibly humbled by all the work my chosen charity Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity undertake to provide life changing equipment and fund research at Scotland’s largest children’s hospital and I’m extremely proud to run in support of their mission.
Thank you to everyone who has already supported me on this journey with their encouragement, advice and supporting my fundraiser. If you’d like to support Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, and help me reach my fundraising goal, please consider donating via the JustGiving link: https://www.justgiving.com/page/david-ewing-g2e-ultra
Stay tuned for updates on the final stage of my training and when I finally take on the Glasgow to Edinburgh Ultra Marathon.
Roll on October!
