Philippa Cates is a running mummy of two from West London. An established medical communicator, Philippa has spent many years writing medical literature.

While training for the London Marathon in 2017, Philippa started to think about the challenges of training for and running a marathon. It was such hard work, so she decided to make something humorous and light-hearted of it all. She started drafting rhymes in her head to distract herself during her long training runs, and so ‘The Marathon’ story was created.

A spoof of the hugely popular ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘The Marathon’ follows our hero, Runner, as he takes on the challenge of training for and running a marathon. Not a natural athlete, and with a weakness for cake and socialising, Runner is faced by many temptations along the way. But will he complete his challenge?