The family that runs together, stays together

For the Dickens family, a marathon is a fun family activity with the bonus benefits of good exercise, meeting friendly people and feeling a sense of achievement.

The family members are no stranger to some of the toughest marathons, with Bernard and Marilyn Dickens running the London Marathon, the Om Die Dam Ultra Marathon and Cape Town Marathon together, and their daughter Niki (19) completing her third half marathon recently.

Their son, Bradley (21) has two half marathons under his belt but has decided to give running a break for now.

On 15 April, Bernard completed his seventh Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra Marathon while Marilyn and Niki ran the half marathon.

“The race was really good, it is still my favourite race to do,” said Niki.

Marilyn said her training was not as good as it should have been but the weather was great and she had fun and still finished in a good time.

“There also was great spectator support,” she added.

For Bernard, his run went according to plan.

“I wanted [to finish in a time of] 6:30:00 and I finished in 6:22:08. It was one of my better runs,” he said, explaining that after 42km, when a marathon ‘reaches ultra territory’, all the hills are harder.

Next up for husband and wife is the Berlin Marathon in September, while Niki aims to run the Cape Town Marathon next year.

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