🚶‍♀️26.2miles / 42.2km: A Lesson in Leadership

On Sunday, 27th April 2025, while thousands take on the London Marathon, Hilary Oliver, Nicholas Brown, and I will be walking our own 26.2-mile route.

We didn’t get into the official event—and that wasn’t going to stop us. Because leadership isn’t about waiting for the perfect opportunity—it’s about creating your own path.

It’s about seizing the moment, crafting a vision, and taking the steps (literal and metaphorical) to make it real.

Walking a marathon isn’t just about endurance. It’s about strategy, adaptability, commitment, emotional intelligence, and resilience. It’s the same qualities that defines truly great leadership.

🧭 Leadership Lessons from the Long Walk

Over months of training and planning, we’ve learned more than just how to cover 42.2 kilometres—we’ve learned what it takes to lead. These lessons apply whether you’re managing a team, running a business, or simply showing up to life with purpose.

🎯 1. Vision: See It Before You Step

We applied last year for the London Marathon (yes, many people do walk the marathon). 840,00 people applied for 56,000 spaces. We didn’t get a place. We didn’t let that stop us.
We didn’t wait for permission. We created our own marathon. That’s the power of vision—it gives direction, motivation, and meaning.

💡 Leadership takeaway:

True leaders don’t wait for ideal conditions. They start with what they have and build forward with conviction.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Be specific about what success looks like.
• Share your vision early and often—it’s contagious.
• Enlist others in your vision, to partner together or at least encourage you.

📅 2. Strategy & Execution: One Step at a Time

No one wakes up and casually walks 26.2 miles. We created a plan—long walks on weekends, shorter ones midweek, cross-training, rest days. Then we showed up. Repeatedly.

🦵 (Even when my IT band flared up. Even when Nicholas trained through the challenges of MS. Even with heat rash. Even when I got a chest infection 2 weeks before. The plan adapts—and the commitment stays.)

💡 Leadership takeaway:

Execution isn’t about grand gestures—it’s about reliable progress. And being emotionally aware enough to pivot when your body, team, or project needs it.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Break down your big goals into weekly and daily actions.
• Regularly review progress with curiosity, not criticism.
• Check in with yourself and your team—not just on what’s being done, but how people are feeling.

💞 3. Purpose: The Why Behind the Walk

Purpose is the engine that keeps us going—even when the road gets tough.

Each of us is walking for something deeply personal:

• 🧠 I’m walking for the Alzheimer’s Society. My mum died of Alzheimer’s decades ago, and I didn’t know how to support her. Today, dementia is everywhere—and I want others to have the care and resources we didn’t.
👉 Support Anne’s fundraiser

• 🎀 Hilary is walking for breast cancer. It’s touched her mum, her friends, and now four of my friends are in treatment.
👉 Support Hilary’s fundraiser

• 🚶‍♂️‍➡️Nicholas is walking for MS Trust. He lives with it daily. My grandmother did too. His commitment to train—even when it’s hard—reminds us what resilience truly looks like.
👉Support Nicholas’s fundraiser

💡 Leadership takeaway:

Purpose gives work meaning. It fuels energy, focus, and perseverance. Especially when progress feels slow or challenges appear.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Reconnect your team to the “why” behind their work.
• Share stories—human ones—that link the day-to-day to the bigger picture.
• Ask yourself: “Does this still align with my purpose?”
• Ask others: “How does this align with your purpose?”

🔁 4. Adaptability & EQ: Leading Through Change

Some days the walk is smooth. Other days it rains. Or hurts. Or motivation is low. Leadership (like long-distance walking) demands the ability to adapt on the move—and listen to what’s really going on inside.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) has been critical in this journey. We’ve had to:
• 👂 Listen to our bodies
• 🧠 Tune in to our emotions
• 💬 Talk openly about setbacks and wins
• 💞 Offer each other encouragement and empathy

💡 Leadership takeaway:

Adaptability is a product of self-awareness. Emotional intelligence helps leaders respond—not react—to others and when conditions shift.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Practice honest reflection: What do I need right now?
• Ask: “How do I need to be to make this happen?”
• Check in with your team emotionally, not just operationally.
• Use setbacks as moments to reassess, realign, and refocus.

🧘‍♀️ 5. Rest & Resilience: Pause to Push Forward

We train hard—and we also rest. Because without recovery, effort doesn’t stick.

Pushing through pain or fatigue can look admirable from the outside however, if continued pushing leads to burnout. Whether it’s your IT band, your inbox or back-to-back meetings—ignoring the signals can cost you more in the long run.

💡 Leadership takeaway:

Resilience isn’t about grinding. It’s about knowing when to rest and when to rise.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Normalize recovery in your culture. Time off isn’t weakness—it’s fuel.
• Build resilience by helping your team bounce back stronger, not just faster.
• Protect your own energy like it matters—because it does.
• Know what re-energizes you. Encourage your team to know their refuelling practices.

🤝 6. Teamwork & Accountability: Better Together

The three of us are walking this together. We check in, train together, hold each other accountable, and point out potential blind spots. And on days when motivation dips, that shared commitment pulls us back up.

💡 Leadership takeaway:

You don’t have to do it all alone. Accountability, support, and community multiply your momentum.

✅ Action for leaders:
• Create space for shared goals and mutual support.
• Encourage peer accountability—it’s more effective than top-down pressure.
• Celebrate team wins, not just individual performance.
• Celebrate process goals, not just the final finish line. Effort along the way needs to be acknowledged to keep motivation high.

🏁 The Finish Line (and What’s Beyond It)

This walk has never just been about the finish line. It’s about showing up, for a cause, for each other, and for ourselves.
Whether you’re leading a team, a family, a classroom—or just trying to lead yourself—these lessons hold true:

• Create your own path
• Vision what success looks like to you
• Commit fully
• Adapt wisely
• Rest intentionally
• Connect to purpose
• Lead with heart

And above all—keep walking.

🙏 If any of our causes move you, here’s how you can support:

• 👉 Anne (Alzheimer’s Society): https://www.justgiving.com/page/anne-taylor-marathon-walk
• 👉 Hilary (Breast Cancer Now): https://justgiving.com/page/Hilary25
• 👉 Nicholas (MS Trust): https://www.justgiving.com/page/nicholas-brown-1

And if donating isn’t your thing, we’d still love your encouragement on the day. Because in leadership, in life, and in walking a marathon—mindset, health, and community are everything. ❤️