Completing a marathon is always one hell of an achievement. Every year I have watched it I have been truly moved by the amount of energy people manage to muster up, and the amount of heartache they go through to pull themselves over the finish line.

This year Beth Holland completed the marathon in a hugely impressive 4 hrs 22 minutes, and having been touched by the projects on her TTRide trip in July 2008 she decided to be the first person to run the marathon in aide of the TTRide Foundation.

In doing so managed to raise around £1000 for the Ticket to Ride Foundation. Her support towards this has been incredible, and we are truly grateful that she chose us.

Tim has been out on the ground in South Africa for the past 5 months, and has a range of big projects that are now realistic goals thanks to her hard work. We are now able to consider projects as large as building extensions and houses for poorly resourced facilities, which is a huge leap in the right direction for the Foundation, and enables us to fulfill our goal of improving peoples lives on a daily basis. The changes will be happening over the next 12 months, so keep your eyes on the Foundation site for all developments.

So from us all here, we would like to give Beth a huge thank you, as with her support we are able to achieve things that were not previously obtainable.

To finish up I asked Beth a few questions to get an insight into what the troubles and triumphs of running a marathon are, so that anyone who hasn't put themselves through it can understand what people have to go through!

The best part of your training?
• Seeing sunrise so many mornings across the lake at Woolaton park – what a way to start a day
• Increasing my fitness to the point that going for a 2hour run on a Sunday felt normal (apparently its not!?!)
• Throwing “I’m training for the London Marathon” into conversations when out as a chat up line

The worst part of your training?
• The obsession with my training plan and my legs not being injured
• The last 3 weeks when my legs forgot how to run…literally – thanks to my fantastic personal physio they got sorted out
• Seeing the hours of 5am and 6am a few too many times

Best part of the race?
• When someone told me it was 800m to the end – then seeing my dad at 400m
• Everytime I saw someone I knew screaming for me – to which I want to thank my family and friends that came to watch and support me and braved the crowds with slings and helium chickens!!
• Being given my medal – I nearly cried – I think most people have seen it now!
• Having my own tour of London – saved me the cost of the red tour bus

Worst part of the race?
• Any part after 16 miles – your past half way but just nowhere near the end
• Seeing 18mile marker and thinking I was coming up to 19 miles – psychologically not the best
• Getting tripped over and nearly landing flat on my face
• Not meeting Jordan and Peter – seriously how slow did they want to run!!

Main piece of motivation whilst running?
• The money I was raising definitely massive motivation – knowing that I had to endure a few hours of pain and that so much was going to come out of it. Having seen the places the money was going before hand and knowing that ticket to ride were going to plough all my money into these areas and that they were just as excited as me about the whole thing meant I had someone else to think about and work towards my goal for.
• Everyone’s faith in me and support – if they thought I could do it, I couldn’t let them down
• My competitive/determined personality – its all psycological and nothing was going to stop me getting to that finish line

Final Time?
4hrs 21minutes 47seconds – yeh baby!!! I came 15849th out of about 35000 runners

Would you ever run a marathon again?
Hell no……well…..erm…….maybe – not any time soon that’s for sure, there are new challenges to be had

What's the best thing about having completed a marathon?
The medal, the pride, the glory, the sense of achievement and the fantastic projects that are being developed out in South Africa to help in the townships out there.

Thanks again to Beth, and if anyone else would like to consider fundraising for the TTRide Foundation please contact the office on + 44 (0) 208 7888 668