Shouting at Complete Strangers - Part One

Now I’m not by nature a shouty person – I tend to reserve it for when I watch Spurs, attempt any sort of DIY or when the dog destroys what’s left of our house. Other than that, I’d like to think I kept my shit together at most times, albeit punctuated by the occasional expletive.?

There are however two exceptions, where I feel I have a moral obligation to shout at complete strangers with my heart and soul on my sleeve, with volume and passion turned up to 11. ?

These two instances are about to happen within the same week, so I am gearing up for action, and I thought I should encourage you to join me and enjoy the ride.

First of all, we have the London Marathon on Sunday – an truly magnificent spectacle of thousands of people pushing themselves way beyond what nature and their lifestyle intended, more often than not for a cause that means a lot to them.

That purpose drives them through months of training, blisters, chaffing and credit card bills they hide from their loved ones as they buy yet another bit of kit. That purpose is what doesn’t let them stop, despite the little voice in their head that tells them to at mile 18 onwards.

You can see the pain on their faces, you can feel their agony, you can sense their abject fear of failure. You will never know the story behind their race, but it's there in every step they take. It’s absolutely visceral.

I’ve been in their shoes a good few times. And what got me through every single time when I doubted myself was that encouraging shout from a complete stranger I will never meet and probably didn’t even see – that just made me put one foot in front of the other once more.

So on Sunday, go along and watch – but please do more than that – actively participate. Shout at every single name on a t-shirt, whatever the cause – you might just be the one who gets someone to finish the challenge of a lifetime. ?

I will be there to support the 50+ folks running for London’s Air Ambulance Charity of course, but I will be shouting at every other Air Ambulance runner, every LAS runner, every Barts runner, every runner in a football shirt, in fact every one running be they at the front or at the back in a rhino costume.

Every one deserves that medal, in fact the ones at the back, for me, deserve it most of all.

I’ll be at Mile 13 and 21 with the LAA cheer group from stupid o’clock in the morning.

I will shout, and will probably cry - 35,000 heroes passing by does that to me.

Come join me. Wear ear plugs.