Marathons are always difficult as the physical demands on the body are so excessive. It’s a long way to run and its always tricky to get the pacing right to ensure the energy reserves are sufficient to last all the way. There’s the hard training that you need to put in and the fuelling strategy you need to get right. A lot goes into it which is probably why it feels so satisfying when it goes well.

On top of all that though, imagine trying to run a marathon with an injury. That takes a special sort of character. A different level of commitment and determination.

The Seville Marathon should have been a fantastic new experience for Tom Ralph. He’d done the Valencia Marathon a couple of times before and had really enjoyed it so he would have been excited to be running another one in Spain.

Unfortunately in the weeks leading up to the race, Tom had a pain in his foot. He was heading over the Seville with his family though for a mini break so he was always going to go, no matter what.

After three days of sightseeing in Seville, the pain in his foot had got worse though. It was now seemingly touch and go as to whether he would be able to complete the race. Since he had his support crew there with him, he decided to give it a go anyway and play through the pain in necessary.

The Seville Marathon features a nice route around the city that can boast to be the flattest circuit in Europe. The roads are closed and the fantastic support from the locals all the way around make it feel like a major. Seville has its own microclimate as well, meaning its usually warm and sunny, even on a would-be-wintery February day.

Tom had been in pretty good form since the beginning of the year, coming within six seconds of a PB that had stood since 2013 at the Stubbington 10k. He started off at 6:52 pace and stayed at speed for the first four miles, taking him through 5k in 21:19.

Still under 7 minute mile pace for the next couple of miles, he made it to 10k in 43:18. For the next couple of miles he was around 7 minute mile pace before drifting out to around 7:15.

Reaching 10 miles in in 1:10:49, Tom went on to make it to the half way stage in 1:33:34. Of course, there was still a long way to go yet so he needed to remain focused. His pace was now dropping the longer he went on and it was becoming tough going.

He never gave up though and got to 30k in 2:18:11. There was now just 12k left to go. He was losing places on each segment of the race but he managed to keep going and, in the end, he made it to the finish line in 3 hours 22 minutes and 37 seconds.

That put him in 3,666th position out of 10,719 finishers. It had been a real battle for Tom and he’d been in pain from his foot the whole way round, which wasn’t pleasant. To be able to complete a marathon under those circumstances is really quite incredible though so hats off to Tom for that.

He later found out that he had a stress response in his foot and is now in a recovery boot for the next six weeks. A stress response is when the bones of the foot are subjected to repetitive stress without having time to recover, resulting in microscopic damage to the bone. It tends to flare of during exercise though, which was why Tom was suffering so much.

He got it done though, demonstrating tremendous character and a never say die attitude that is admirable in any runner. He would highly recommend the Seville Marathon to anyone who was thinking of heading over there for it.

It is a big enough race to appeal to some of the top African runners and Selemon Barega Shirtagsa of Ethiopia won it in 2:05:15, ahead of his fellow countryman Adisu Tesfahun Tafere who was runner up in 2:06:27.

Ethiopian woman Anchinalu Dessie Genaneh was first female in 2:22:17, with Manon Trapp of France taking second in 2:23:38 and Cynthia Chepchirchir Kosgei of Kenya coming third in 2:23:43.

Hopefully Tom will make a full recovery from his stress response and will be back at training before long as he will certainly be missed around the group whilst he recovers.