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Fifteen years after his first and only London Marathon, Martin Boyde will step back out onto the streets of the capital.
He will be raising vital funds for the charity Sense as well as hoping to settle some sibling rivalry when the iconic race takes place on Sunday 21 April.
On the latest episode of The Warm Up, he spoke about his preparations and his hopes to run quicker than his last attempt at a shade over four hours 28 minutes.
“If I can match or better that I’ll be very happy,” he said.
“My stretch target is my brother’s time from that day which was four hours and two minutes. It’s a bit of a stretch but it would give me bragging rights for the rest of our lives.”
Boyde is no stranger to endurance challenges, confessing to having a “triathlon midlife crisis” in 2015 - something he rarely talks about.
“There’s a saying, why be good at one sport when you can be average at three, which firmly applies to me,” he joked.
“I’d like to think I got OK at three, and the Guernsey Triathlon Club has always been a great crowd, so I enjoyed that. Ironically, I think running was probably my least strong discipline of those three.”
He signed up for London after finding out that his brother and best friend from school were both running this year.
“I felt I had to join them as I’d be a terrible spectator.”
Both Boyde and his brother will be running for a charity their cousin works for, Sense.
It helps thousands of people who are deaf, blind or who have complex disabilities to communicate, experience the world and fulfil their potential.
His fundraising efforts have already been helped by Richard Stapley Accountants and R W Martel construction, as well as friends and family.
It is all part of the motivation to train hard and make it around the course.
“I'm not going to fool anyone, I get to run the London Marathon, which I'm going to enjoy. But hopefully people will see some of the pain I've put myself through and take solace in that as well as the downpours I've been running in occasionally. That might raise a smile or two as well."
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