One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps

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One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps Part one of a six-part series of blogs
Wise Owl co-founder Jenny gives her unique insights into the pain and pleasure of running her first marathon (and in a foreign country to boot). One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps (this blog) A digression: some interesting info about the London Marathon The training leading up to the big day The great day itself Running with a pineapple balanced on your head Two weeks have passed - would I do it again?

One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps

Part one of a six-part series of blogs

Wise Owl co-founder Jenny gives her unique insights into the pain and pleasure of running her first marathon (and in a foreign country to boot).

One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps (this blog)
A digression: some interesting info about the London Marathon
The training leading up to the big day
The great day itself
Running with a pineapple balanced on your head
Two weeks have passed - would I do it again?

Posted by Jenny Brown on 06 November 2025

Since early June, there has been only one date on my mind:

Sunday 19th October - the date of the 2025 Amsterdam marathon.

OK, I wasn't going to run it like Daniel Byrnes:

Daniel Byrnes with his Guinness World Records certificate for running the Sydney marathon wearing 53 pairs of underpants.

It all started when our middle daughter Katy and I received our (expected, annual) rejection from the London Marathon. This was my 6th rejection, so it’s no longer a surprise; just disappointing when you read that there are runners who have run every year since the first London Marathon on 29 March ‘81.

So before we look at my Amsterdam marathon, Indulge me and let me digress a tiny bit and look at some London Marathon facts and stats. They’re actually quite interesting!

Parts of this blog
One Wise Owl's marathon: a pineapple, some stripes and those wretched beeps (this blog) A digression: some interesting info about the London Marathon The training leading up to the big day The great day itself Running with a pineapple balanced on your head Two weeks have passed - would I do it again?