About Us

Hello. My name is Neil Witherow a.k.a. Mr Spoons (hence the blog title). I’m a music-loving, ground-hopping, yellow hose-spotting, ukulele-playing, 50 Something, Crystal Palace fan from Beckenham.

Six years ago, I took up running (well, more like jogging in my case) to help with the recovery from a knee op and the weight loss program I was on.

From being the fat kid at school who was last in every race and who absolutely despised cross-country runs, I’ve somehow come to enjoy running, even in the mud. This new found love has culminated in me running Marathons. My school teachers, who used to berate me for being so ridiculously late back from those cross country runs, would be truly shocked if they knew. I’m still not fast, but I get there.

Last year, I ran the London marathon on behalf of Alzheimer’s Research UK to honour the memory of my dear old Dad. He spent the last few years of his life suffering with Alzheimers, so I  was very privileged to be able to run for this charity. 

My wife, Sue is also ran the London Marathon in 2021 for Bowel Cancer UK. She ran in memory of her Uncle Tom and Auntie Betty. Also for her Mum, Sheila, who has battled this disease and is now in remission; living a fully active life once more and there was cheering us on at the recent Yorkshire Marathon. 

Sue and I have known each other for 30+ years, after meeting on an away coach to Grimsby.  We got married in 2007 after many years together. Aside from the shared passion for Football and Crystal Palace – yes, the two are often mutually exclusive – she loves Country Music and fine food, gin and wine (“Won’t someone think of the wine?”). 

Sue took up running at the same time as me, after completing a Couch to 5K and hasn’t looked back since. We are both very keen, okay, obssessive parkrunners, which crops up a fair bit on this blog.

We have taking part in a total of five marathons each. The 2021 London Marathon was our fifth Marathon distance, after the 2016 London Marathon (when this blog started), 2019 Yorkshire Marathon, the 2020 virus-stricken Virtual Marathon and the Crystal Palace FC 2021 Marathon March.  

We started this blog to keep everyone abreast of our training and sponsorship goals and, hopefully, give those runners attempting the Marathon distance for the first time, some insight into our experiences since we started to run Marathons ourselves.