Jonas and I have enjoyed some great marathon days at the London Marathon in recent years. We associate several marathon personal bests, two medals at the Scottish Marathon Championships, countless unforgettable running moments and much more with the largest marathon in Great Britain.

Unfortunately, 2025 was not to go as planned. As part of Puma's "Project 3" initiative, I was able to run the race, in the run-up to which I had demonstrated good form over five and ten kilometres, wearing the new Puma Fast-R 3, a very interesting competition shoe developed using exciting scientific approaches. The shoes fit my feet, but unfortunately, my stomach was less comfortable. Very unfortunate, but these things happen. It's a shame that I couldn't fight for a new personal best in my fourth London Marathon. Battling with my stomach and, unfortunately, also with sunny, warm weather, I ended up with a time of 3:08:36 hours.

Due to organisational shortcomings on the part of the organiser, Jonas' quest for another fast marathon time on the streets of London was unfortunately over before the race even started. Instead, he ran five kilometres in 16:17 minutes at the (crowded) Battersea Parkrun on Saturday. For Sunday, the last-minute, wild plan was to start at the "Not the London Marathon" in Walton-on-Thames. Two hours outside London, he ran back and forth eight times on a turning point course along the Thames. In 2:37:05 hours, he not only won a marathon for the fifth time, but also improved the course record by several minutes.