How to run a Marathon - from an Olympian

The British Heart Foundation is launching its new MyMarathon challenge calling on everyone across the UK to complete a 26.2mile run at their own pace over the month of May to help accelerate the fight against heart disease. Runners can complete their MyMarathon in their own time, whether it’s over 4 hours, 4 days or 4 weeks.

ITV Rugby World Cup commentator and former Olympic athlete Martin Gillingham is supporting the British Heart Foundation’s new MyMarathon campaign to fund life saving heart research, after recently surviving a massive heart attack.

Gillingham, who represented Great Britain in the 400m hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games is backing the campaign after suffering a heart attack in June 2014. It emerged one of the main arteries in his heart – the left anterior descending (LAD) artery – was almost completely blocked. Known by doctors as “The Widow Maker”, this type of blockage can be fatal as blood supply to the front wall of the heart is cut off which can cause significant damage to the heart muscle.

HOW TO TAKE PART

• Get friends together for an easy jog after work to relax, catch up and get fit together

• Run to work every morning,

• Jog during your lunchbreaks

• Run laps around the park in the evenings

• Get the kids out for a quick run

DID YOU KNOW if you run just one mile every night for 26 days/nights in May, you'll have run a Marathon by the end of the month. A marathon!! And you'll have a happier, healthier heart too, so its a win, win.

Every pound raised from MyMarathon will help the BHF fulfil its ambition to fund half a billion pounds of new research in the next five years, to revolutionise and accelerate the fight against heart disease.

To find out more or to sign up for free to MyMarathon visit www.bhf.org.uk/mymarathon

Two years on, Gillingham is backing the BHF’s new MyMarathon campaign to help get the nation active whilst funding vital discoveries in the fight against heart disease.

In the UK, over the duration of a rugby game, from kick-off to the final whistle, 10 people will lose their life to a heart attack. Gillingham said: “Many people believe heart disease is self-inflicted. That’s incorrect. I regard my experience as proof that it can devastate the lives of even the fittest and healthiest. There is no doubt that staying fit and active gives you the best chance of maintaining a healthy heart but, unfortunately, there is no golden ticket.

“That’s why I’m supporting the BHF’s MyMarathon challenge as we urgently need to fund more research to accelerate the fight against heart disease. By taking part in MyMarathon you can help save lives and look after your own by getting active and building a stronger, healthier heart.”

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