Midwife and former Iolanthe beneficiary Joanne Olagboyega is running the London Marathon for Iolanthe in 2025. She tells us how it all began...
I first started running in 2017 at my local running club, Beginners to Runners. The name appealed to me as I was a complete beginner! We started by running laps of a playground and then worked our way up to 5k over the next 10 weeks. There was something about running that just appealed to me – it was a great leveller and I could find myself running next to a plumber one week or a company CEO the next. Running bought us together, and being alongside someone putting in effort to achieve a goal was something I found inspiring.
Running showed me that I had huge determination; mind over matter was what mattered.
I soon got the bug and had signed up to run Brighton Marathon in 2018 with a group of 10 friends, all of whom met at the club and were like me, complete beginners. We supported each other through the hard long winter months of training, upping our mileage each week and ticking off the milestones. Euphoria took me over on the actual day and I had signed up to run the Brighton 2019 Marathon before I’d even completed the 2018 one!
I fundraised in 2018 for our Bereavement suite in the maternity unit I managed, which gave me an incredible sense of purpose and determination to succeed. Running in 2019 was not quite the same experience, and whilst I enjoyed the actual day, the Sunday long runs in a horrible winter had taken a lot out of me to the extent that I decided to hang up my running shoes for a while.
I therefore decided to take up cycling and gradually built up my distance and undertook Ride London 100 miles over the next few years (covid aside!). Despite enjoying cycling I’ve always felt like I’ve got one more marathon in me and therefore entered the London Marathon ballot for a few years in a row, unsuccessfully.
Due to turning 50 next year it felt like the right time to make my dream happen, I therefore decided to run London 2025 for charity.
Choosing Iolanthe felt like the easiest decision for me as I had been the fortunate recipient of a bursary when I undertook my midwifery training in 2010. Without the support of the charity during this time, as a single mum of 2 young children, I know I would have really struggled to complete my training and qualify as a midwife. Therefore, paying back to the charity and allowing someone else in the same situation as me to benefit from other people’s generosity was something that really meant a great deal to me.
I am starting running again a few years older, a few pounds heavier and with a sense of trepidation. However, my sheer stubbornness to succeed has never gone away - something I put to the test last year when I successfully summited Kilimanjaro. I am under no illusion: I am not super fit, or super fast; I am built for distance, not for speed, but I know that however hard marathon training is, my eyes always remain on the prize – which in this instance is fundraising for the Iolanthe charity and fulfilling a long held dream of running the London Marathon.
Iolanthe is very much looking forward to the London Marathon 2025 which will take place on April 27 - you can donate to our 2025 Team! It is made up of Karen Pincott, Myriam McCaul, Joanne Olegboyega, Mike Nixon, Louis Gilbert who is fundraising at Just giving and Enthuse, and Leigh Ash who is also fundraising both at Just Giving and Enthuse. We are also delighted to hear that 2020 and 2021 Iolanthe runner Amy Doherty will be back on the team for 2025! She is fundraising at Enthuse.