Why 39?

 🕒 ~2 min read

The short answer is simple: 39 marathons was the original idea - and everything else followed from there.

When Marathons for Miracles was first taking shape, I wanted to take on something that would genuinely get people talking. One marathon wasn’t enough. This needed to feel bigger, more sustained, and harder to ignore.

So I landed on 39 marathons, one per week. It felt ambitious but achievable. The number itself was intentional - mirroring the length of a typical pregnancy, while acknowledging that not every pregnancy reaches 40 weeks. We wanted the project to quietly reflect that reality, without making it the headline.

Running the marathons in consecutive weeks made obvious sense. Pregnancy isn’t a single event; it’s a journey of endurance. It requires consistency, patience, and adaptability. Committing to 39 weeks of running aims to go just a small way to mirroring that rhythm - showing up week after week, managing fatigue, adjusting when things don’t go to plan, and keeping momentum over time.

Only after settling on the number did something else fall into place. England has 39 historic counties, a structure dating back centuries and largely established by the late medieval period. That was the moment the concept really clicked.

Instead of 39 isolated marathons, the challenge became a journey - one marathon in each county, one per week. The number suddenly gave the project geography, structure and flow. It also opened the door to involving more people, with different runners joining in different places, each bringing their own reason for being part of it.

So 39 stayed. What began as a simple idea became something much more complete - and that’s how Marathons for Miracles took form.

Olly