Keep on runnning!

Passed by Buzz Lightyear and friends … but four years on, Donald’s up for marathon challenge again!

Edinburgh Leisure Board member, Councillor Donald Wilson is running the Virgin Money London Marathon for the fourth time on 22 April 2018. 

Running in aid of One City Trust, a charity working solely within Edinburgh fighting inequality and exclusion in the city, and St John and the City Defibrillator Appeal, the former Lord Provost only took up running in summer 2014, when he agreed to participate in the Wester Hailes Fun Run and a few weeks later, the Edinburgh Marathon Festival 5k for the STV child poverty appeal.

As a non-runner and someone who undertook no fitness, he sought advice from Andy MacNaughton, who runs the Edinburgh Leisure Waverly Court gym, who worked with him to ensure he was fit enough to get through both challenges, which he completed without major embarrassment.

However a brag about these successes at an opening at the Virgin Money Lounge in St Andrew’s Square later that year, found him being entered into running the Virgin Money London Marathon in 2015.

Donald explained: “First of all I had no idea how far 26.3 miles really was and secondly as a charity runner, I thought I would walk large parts of it. As the training with Andy became ever more arduous however, I began to entertain the notion that I might just be able to do it properly and run all the way. As the Marathon drew close, fear turned to terror, but I was now averaging 75k a week and could run without stopping.

“When the day came, the organisers had put all the VIPs in with the elite athletes, which seemed strange. We didn’t see much of them after the start. I started badly, with a pain in my leg and three characters from Toy Story running past me, in a canoe! But to cut a long story short, I managed it, finishing in 5 hours and 3 minutes.”

Since then the running bug has stuck and in three and a half years, Cllr Wilson has lost four stone.  He runs 25k twice a week and this Virgin Money London Marathon will be his fourth, but his fifth overall having also completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 2017.

Donald added: “Virgin Money and Andy MacNaugthon have really transformed my life; this fitness bug is contagious.  Not only has it helped transform my life but hopefully through my fundraising, the lives of many others.  I cannot thank them enough.”

If you have been inspired by Cllr Wilson’s story and would like to support One City Trust or St John and the City Defibrillator appeal, donations can be made at:uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Donald.Wilson