00:00Hi everyone, my name is Matthew Atpan, I'm 37, I'm from Leeds and I'm on the autism spectrum.
00:06I managed to get through the London Marathon after having a bit of a wobble at mile 24
00:10in three hours and 19 minutes, which is one of the slower times for me.
00:14But it was more about getting the record and I knew the record was three hours 36,
00:18but unfortunately the guy who broke it last year was also running and what's unusual about that
00:24is basically usually you would just race against a time to get a time to get the Guinness World
00:29record. Unfortunately I had to race against him as well so it was a double whammy and thankfully
00:34I got through but there was only 90 seconds in it. So what record title I was running for was
00:39the intellectual impairment which is like T2 for short and it's for anyone who's got either like
00:44a learning disability alongside maybe another disability so mine would be autism slash speech
00:50and language therapy which I had in primary school so that's what we were against but it was about
00:54creating more awareness for people with disabilities and that's allowed me to get my sixth and three
00:59seventh Guinness World record for building up my resume and also just to mention Rob Burrow was
01:07always seven in seven and Kevin Sinfield doing seven as a special number so it's my seventh marathon
01:12for my seventh Guinness World record as well. Nasdaad had started running again at Parkrun here which I'd
01:19been you know since 2008 here and we just like reconnected and as I got into the London Marathon it
01:28was just
01:28coincidental that this particular year that Nas also got into the London Marathon as well. Nas was
01:32basically my the eyes and ears to get me around the logistics the heavy logistics of the whole
01:38marathon the course the day the the eating the navigating London and it's just a great thank you
01:44know great thanks to him really because without him I wouldn't have probably been able to done half the
01:49things I did. Matthew did incredibly well and he was such an inspiration like a lot of it as well
01:54like
01:55he was able to kind of navigate everything yourself anyway so I know you gave thanks to me but I
01:59think
01:59like you know you should give credit to yourself as well you did incredibly great and as for the day
02:04itself I think it was very emotional and it was my first ever marathon and I think after the finish
02:12line I was just overwhelmed with emotions that I couldn't stop crying and I think one thing I took away
02:17from it was that prior to this I've always been someone with quite low confidence and going into this it
02:23was
02:23always something that I wanted to achieve for myself but as I started running I realized like I
02:29wasn't running for myself I was running around I went I was running with everyone who supported me
02:33with uh with Barnardo's the charity that I was working for and um that really helped me through.
02:38In terms of another marathon I'm not sure at the moment really I'm going to actually start my career
02:44now so I've just got a job at a special needs and education school as a teaching assistant.
02:49Challenge yourself it doesn't need to be a marathon it doesn't need to be anything but
02:52just challenge yourself and you'll be you'll be fine and that sort of confidence then will build
02:57you to the next stage of your life.
Comments