Danny Ventre, Shift Manager at DeepStore took on Chester Marathon and won. Here’s his story.
“This year I decided to take on the Chester Marathon or rather, my wife decided for me. She booked it as a 40th birthday present, which also happened to fall on our wedding anniversary. Romantic, right? Nothing says ‘I love you’ like 42 kilometres of pain and cramp!
In the build-up I managed to train up to 19k and thought how hard can the rest be? Turns out, very. My ’I’ll just wing it’ approach worked fine… right up until about 30k, when my legs suddenly realised what was happening and decided to stage a full-scale rebellion.
From there it was pure survival mode, digging deep, shuffling forward, and convincing myself that the finish line wasn’t just a mirage. Every kilometre felt about three times longer than it should have, but somehow, I made it through.
The saving grace? The crowds. The people of Chester were incredible, lining the streets, cheering us on, and giving just enough motivation to keep going when my body was screaming otherwise.
It was a lot tougher than I expected, but honestly, what an experience. I might have underestimated it, but I finished, learned a valuable lesson about overconfidence, and gave my wife a good laugh in the process.”
Well done Danny!
