Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand’s very own Midland Support Services Coordinator, Matthew Eby ran the 2015 New York Marathon. Matthew shares his fundraising tips, trip highlights and training tricks.
If you would like to find out more about joining LBC’s Run for Blood Cancer TCS New York City Marathon team visit bit.ly/NYC4LBC
I was looking for a bit of a challenge and I had never done a marathon before. I was working for the Leukaemia Foundation Australia so I thought this would be a great way to do my first marathon because I knew the money fundraised was going to a worthy cause.
Well of course I used Facebook a lot! My wife was amazing at creating banners, icons and taglines to ‘market’ me.
I did about 5 sausage sizzles outside Bunnings which made around $1000 each time – we would go through over 50kgs of sausage in 1 day!
In the end, I fundraised just a tick over $10,000. I was hugely grateful to be involved and had some very generous people in my life who were willing to give to a really good cause.
I set out slowly about 8 or 9 months out and I would do 3 ‘short’ runs per week on the weekdays for about 30-40 minutes each and I didn’t focus on how much distance I covered then every weekend I would do 1 ‘long’ run which started at 45 minutes the first week and then every week it grew by another 15 minutes.
My longest run a few months later was close to 3 hours! I was told by other marathoners that if I could make it this far, about 2/3 of a full marathon, then on the day of the marathon I should have enough stamina to make it all the way.
Despite the very early start, I was absolutely buzzing all morning being a part of the 50,000 runners waiting their turns to start this famous race! Plus, I had great support and comradery as my sister was racing too! The best part is that she actually is a bonafide marathoner, so everything she did and suggested, I took on board and she helped calm my nerves!
Almost indescribable! One of the final stretches is coming down Park Avenue felt like forever and you are so tired but when you get to the finish being cheered on by thousands of New Yorkers, you are overwhelmed with emotion, in fact, just thinking about it now brings back a rush of emotions.
Because for me, I was in a unique position in the Northern Territory where I was supporting patients and families living with a blood cancer. And to have walked and talked with some of these people who are doing it very tough, I was able to experience a very ‘tough’ moment for me whilst trying to complete this thing.
When I was really struggling during the marathon on a certain section, I was able to reach down deep and think of a patient I knew back in Australia and recite under my breath that ‘mate, this km is for you!’