Ah Lisa Jackson. If you ever wanted to be inspired to run anything – but particularly a marathon – Lisa is your woman. I met her first last year at Run Fest, and then again at the start of this year, and both those times, I left feeling energised, inspired and pretty invincible, to be honest. She has run over a hundred marathons, and one of the many wonderful things about her is that she is fully proud of coming last in 25 of those marathons. She’s a back-of-the-pack runner, and she loves it there: she loves to chat to the runners and hear their stories. She loves the feeling of inclusivity, and she loves hearing about the journeys that all these runners have been on. To that end, she’s written a couple of brilliant books, that I would recommend for all runners: there’s Running Made Easy, the sort of running manual that you need next to your bed, and Your Pace Or Mine – now available on audiobook as well as paperback. In this she details her journey from committed fitness-phobe to committed marathoner, and all the extraordinary people she’s met along the way. It’s joyous. When I met her back in January, we talked about how she used to skive off running as a kid, how she got into running in her 30s, how she discovered walk-running, and the advice she has for all of us who are terrified about taking on a marathon. She’s a force of nature – you will want to run!

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