This article originally appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Runner’s World .

I RUN PAST Buckingham Palace and, after 26 miles, can finally see it: my sixth World Marathon Major finish line, the moment many runners dream about. After running through the arch, I am shepherded through the chute with hundreds of other marathoners. A volunteer hastily puts a London Marathon medal around my neck, and another adds the Six Star Medal. I hobble behind other finishers in a queue waiting to get their photo taken in front of an Abbott World Marathon Majors poster. A fleeting thought comes to mind when it’s my turn to pose for the photographer: Is this it?

The next day, I sit in Heathrow Airport, scribbling on a blank page in my training journal : I just did something amazing—two marathons in one week. But I feel a little hollow. It’s just all so…pedantic? Silly? I’m going home with this gigantic medal and another even more gigantic medal—and for what?

I was hesitant about running the London Marathon .…