Running with a man with a fridge on his back
What do you do when you feel too sad to get out of bed?
Good luck to all the London marathon runners today.
(Special good wishes to Heart Leaping writer
running today - read her moving and inspirational post here.)I still can’t believe it but twelve years ago, I completed the London Marathon, albeit behind the men carrying fridges on their back, dressed as dinosaurs but I did it.
It was 2013. I ran it in honour of my sister-in-law Paula, who we’d lost to breast cancer. The grief was pretty raw. I wanted to run away from it. But what I found, instead, was something far more powerful: I ran through it.
Grief is strange like that. It doesn’t ask for your permission. It just shows up in your shoes and runs beside you. It was a long, old race.
Somehow—it’s twelve years later. Gone in a flash. And this year another 50 odd thousand runners are standing at the start line again. Maybe they are also running from or through their grief
The race may have been long, but ironically, I was also running away from the thought that life is short.
And that people die.
Just like that.
And then 13 years go past.
Just like that.
And despite the grief, despite the hole in your heart, despite the hole in your family, life goes on.
This week I’ve been thinking about how we carry on. How we show up. How we lace up, literally and metaphorically, when life feels too heavy, when you feel just too sad to get out of bed.
And then—like a perfectly timed water station—along comes Lisa Jackson.
If you don’t know Lisa, let me introduce you to the ultimate inspirational overachieving runner in fancy dress. Co-author of Travel Seekness and Running Made Easy, and author of the #1 bestseller Your Pace or Mine?, Lisa has run more than 100 marathons —and proudly came last in 25 of them. She’s proof that running isn’t about speed, it’s about spirit. It’s about showing up for the journey and the joy.
And here’s the best bit—Lisa is one of us. She’s another brilliant writer part of our Heart Leap writing group, and right now, she’s putting the final touches on her incredible new manuscript on grief and running, which she’s just about to submit to her publisher.
I’ve had the privilege of reading it, and trust me—it’s funny, fierce, and full of heart. Just like Lisa. We will keep you posted on when it’s published.
The book is about Lisa’s own devastating journey through grief. And how she found a way to get out of bed every day- and lived to run another race.
“Running really is a sacred, joyous way of remembering the dead,” says Lisa.
Yes. That. A thousand times, that.
Lisa reminds us that success isn't about being first—it’s about being fully present. About showing up for yourself, for others, and for the stories that need to be told. To remember and honour the people we have loved and lost.
So here’s to showing up.
To remembering the ones we’ve lost.
And to finding joy, even if it’s at the back of the pack.
We run. We grieve. We laugh. We write.
And sometimes, we do all four at once.
Journal Prompt for you this week:
What helps you keep moving forward, even on the hardest days?
Grief is that shadow that lopes alongside of us, sometimes quietly, at other times suddenly jumping out to grab our hearts. In the darkest days of my grief, I found solace and a path forward by reading about others' journeys through grief. Thank you for telling us about Lisa Jackson's book, because, unfortunately, the grief journey never ends.
Lisa is a force of nature…I did my first marathon with her at the launch for “Your Pace or Mine?” and we have been intermittently in touch ever since. I’m looking forward to her new book safe in the knowledge that I won’t have to run 26 miles before I get my copy this time!