Chris Thompson describes his core marathon motivation – and the reward which awaits those who choose to tackle 26.2 miles

British athlete Chris Thompson admits there was something he underestimated about the marathon when he first tackled the distance back in 2014. It wasn’t necessarily the pace or the physical demands which took him by surprise, though.

Instead it was the feeling he got from simply completing the journey which left a truly lasting impression.

Thompson clocked 2:11:19 on that day, a time which remains his best to date, and he returns to the London start line in confident and ambitious mood this year.

Yet there is also one thing he will share with the 45,000 people who have chosen to run the London Marathon virtually this year – the pursuit of that finish line feeling.

“When things get hard, that’s kind of what we’re doing it for – to get that endorphin rush and that happy feeling afterwards,” said the European 10,000m silver medallist.

“The harder something is to achieve, the bigger the feeling and the rush at the end.

“When I ran my first marathon, the thing I underestimated completely – because I was so focused on the time and the performance side of things – was that when I finished I had this weird emotion and this feeling that I couldn’t explain. I could only put it down to the fact that I was so proud I’d run a marathon.

“I didn’t anticipate the feeling that ‘hang on, that was an achievement just to do it’ and I had kind of taken that for granted a little bit as a runner.

“I think people who are doing it for the first time are in for a great feeling when they’ve done it. Those who’ve done it previously, they know that feeling and this is why we do it.

“We do it because of that carrot at the end, that endorphin rush, that happy feeling, that Sunday evening sitting with a pint and going ‘I did good today’ and we can pat ourselves on the back.”