Run along!

On your marks, get set, go! And keep going for 26.2 miles. That’s the aim of the 36,000 runners who are tackling the London Marathon on Sunday 21 April.

After months of training, elite, amateur and fun runners from across the globe are getting ready to run, jog or shuffle their way round the gruelling course. Their steely determination may be present and correct as they approach the starting lines. But what they don’t yet know is how their run will pan out. Will past injuries flare up en route? Will they reach 18 miles and hit the dreaded wall?

Ben Cotterill understands such concerns well. Tomorrow he is taking part in his first London Marathon - and he is nervous and excited about it.

‘I’ve always been a sporty guy, so I thought it was about time I had a go at the marathon,’ the 26-year-old tells 'The War Cry'. ‘My main reason for entering is to raise money for Watershed, a Salvation Army project which provides clean water to communities in poor countries, but I also think that completing the course is a great achievement.’

Ben started his training for the big day last Christmas. Since then he has clocked up more than 150 hours of running. He finds that pounding the pavements adds something to his life.

‘When I’m out running, I have time to think,’ he says. ‘At the moment I’m at college, preparing to be a Salvation Army minister, so when I run I often find myself thinking about God. A lot of people think that it must be horrendous to run all these miles, but I actually feel freer as a result.’

Despite the positives of running, Ben has also encountered some obstacles to his training. ‘The weather has been awful,’ he says. ‘I remember running in a storm, and the wind kept blowing me backwards. And the snow meant that I had to do some training on a treadmill, which resulted in a knee injury. I had to rest for two weeks, which wasn’t ideal.’

Battling an injury means that Ben is even more reliant on the encouragement of pavement supporters to help him round the course. He is nervous about starting the marathon, but determined to finish it. ‘Sometimes, in training, I didn’t feel like running, but mentally I had to put my foot down and get out there. On race day, I know I just have to keep going.’

He makes a good point. Whatever life throws at us, we have to decide: do we keep going or quit trying?

To help us keep going, we can take comfort from God, who supports us. In the Bible, he says: ‘Do not fear, for I am with you… I will strengthen you and help you’ (Isaiah 41:10 New International Version).

We don’t know what we may encounter, what awaits us round the next corner. But, if we ask him, we can always be sure that God will be with us. He is willing to help us - every step of the way.

UK & Ireland War Cry April 2013