Bruno Gustavo Macaneiro’s London Marathon story

Bruno ran the London Marathon for our charity in 2018. In his blog, Bruno talks about how running has changed his life, and the unique way he wanted to thank his fundraising supporters...

“Running changed my life sharply. I went from a rather sedentary lifestyle to an active running year that resulted in two marathons completed under 3h:15m in 2017, which went beyond any of my expectations. While it impacted my own personal life, I always wanted to take on fundraising and be able to attribute this to a greater cause. I researched online, and Leukaemia Care seemed like a great charity run by amazing people and I immediately went with it.

The 2018 London Marathon was the first time I decided to run for charity, but certainly not the last. During this time I was living in Spain, but I had lived in London for an amazing three years and still have lots of friends and former co-workers in the city. Running in London was an amazing personal experience for me and I wanted to do an homage to the city and the people I cherish there.

Therefore, I decided to tattoo the initials of every person who donates £80 or more. If ever anyone wanted to brand their initials on another living body (and do not own cattle), this was their chance.

It is also a way of thanking everyone who has supported this cause and me on running the 2018 London Marathon. It’s a pleasure to have the names of friends and family who helped with this as a memento of the special day.

I had expected most of the fundraising to come from friends in London, but I ended up gaining amazing support from family in Brazil and friends in Spain and the US as well.

I found training in February until mid-April the toughest. I would try to run four times a week, with a HIIT session on Tuesdays, light mid distance on Thursday, race pace on Friday and long distances on Sunday.

Running 42.2km is very tough. Waking up at 4am, doing 30+km on rainy days before work – was never an easy task. But I was committed to do it as I understand this is nothing compared to the ordeal a person that suffers from blood cancer goes through.”

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