How It Felt To Run The Yorkshire Marathon

How It Felt To Run The Yorkshire Marathon

By Daniel Ferguson


Me & my auntie Sue

Sunday 19th October, 2025. 

There we were, me and my auntie Sue stood crammed on the start line, just moments before the gun was about to bang. The funny thing was this was going to be out first ever run together, with it being my 3rd marathon and her first I said to her, "In a few hours time this will all be over, so make the most of all of it." 

Bang!

The gun went, however quite underwhelmingly it was only those directly at the front who had set off, we took a slow walk to the starting line, where our race then began!

As with every marathon, the first few kilometres feel great, after a mile we saw some of the family (my Girlfriend, Mum, Dad and Brother), I looked over at Sue and she was having a blast. Our strategy was to start steady and end strong, so that's what we did. After a few more kilometres we were out the city and entering the Yorkshire countryside: simply beautiful. We absorbed the nature surrounding us, fellow runners and a couple gels.

10 miles in Sue spotted her Dad (my Grandad) supporting in a local village, but to her surprise, this was just a bloke with grey hair. The real Tony was another few yards down the road: this was a lovely moment as Sue had mentioned running a marathon to him many years ago - it was finally happening! His shout, "GO ON SUSAN!" pushed us on until halfway where we discussed our game plan.


Seeing Grandad

We decided to keep running the way we were, we felt confident that we were running at a good pace, but not overdoing it at the same time. Amongst the blue skies, green trees and persevering runners, we had smiles on our faces. The atmosphere picked up as we entered Stamford Bridge where fans and noise could be seen and heard everywhere. This helped us kick on towards the 18th mile where more fans emerged. Here we saw the family's support again, with some new faces being Sue's partner and my cousins and grandparents. 

We hit the 20th mile and this is where the real war began. I said to Sue, "Now we have 6 miles, that's 6,5,4,3,2,1 then we have done it." We trotted on. 

From the 24th mile we both dug deep and I could tell Sue was feeling it. In these moments personally I like to think about the people I am running for to push me on. Like a soldier, she didn't stop, despite the final hill in the last mile. I was proud of my auntie. I then helped her to push on even further to the finish, we were so focused we even missed the shouts of our family members.

4 hours, 2 minutes: we had completed the Yorkshire Marathon. Sue's best friend welcomed her with a hug and then the family came and celebrated too. Later we collected some freebies and grouped up with all the family together. After a humbling walk in the rain back to our cars, we headed into the city, where we indulged in a fine Italian from Ask Italian and a couple pints.

What a day, what a time to be alive, what a moment.



Us at the finish



Find Daniel Ferguson on:
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Twitter: @DanFergusonSP

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