Motivation

The 6 World Marathon Majors - Q&A with Haroon Mota

Haroon Mota is the founder of Muslim Hikers and Active Inclusion Network, two organisations dedicated to promoting diversity in sport and outdoor activities through the inclusion of South Asian communities mainly in the UK, where he lives. He is a marathon runner and mountaineer. On this occasion, we spoke to him about his experience running the 6 World Marathons or World Majors.

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Hi Haroon, congratulations on becoming a Six Star marathon runner! How did you start your running journey?

I started running a little over ten years ago. I first signed up to run the London Marathon as a one-off charity challenge. Prior to this I had no running experience as my background was in martial arts. I used to kickbox and other than that I used to do a lot of hiking, mainly charity hiking with the purpose of fundraising for good causes. This took me to Everest base camp, Kilimanjaro and Peru and I raised a lot of money for charities. From that I thought of running a marathon for charity to raise money for a good cause.

I signed up to run for a charity called Teenage Cancer Trust. It was supposed to be a one-off running experience. However, it ended up being the most horribly painful event of my life. I actually told myself I would never run again, that's how bad it was! I was fit back then, but maybe I underestimated the requirements to run 26 miles comfortably, and I don’t think I trained well enough for it.

However, the following year I lost my father in a car accident, and it kind of turned my life upside down. I started to run again just to deal with the grief, to process my thoughts and my emotions and try and get more clarity. Eventually I found that I always had my running shoes on and I decided to start running for good causes in the memory of my father. That was the start of my running journey.

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How did you find out about the 6 World Majors?

I ran the London Marathon again in 2015 and I kind of fell in love with the distance. I ran lots of half marathons after that, but it was only in 2019, when I ran the Berlin marathon for the first time, that I found out about a recognised series of World Marathons. It was then that I decided to give it a go as a personal challenge.

For me, when I started running all those years ago, it seemed very strange that there were so few people of colour taking part in races. I am a British Asian Muslim and community is really important to me. I live in a really diverse city here in Coventry. Even when I do my local runs in Coventry, it is so bizarre that the diversity you see in your home city is not reflected in these sorts of endurance events. 

So over the years and through my charities I have been trying to encourage other members of the community to get out and do races. I am often seen running with big groups of people. Championing diversity and inclusion is something high on my agenda. 

When I set the goal of running a world marathon I knew there were very few people who aspired to achieve such goals. It came to my mind that maybe this would pave the way for more people in the community to do this and get inspired.

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When did you run each of them?

In 2019 I completed the Berlin marathon for the first time. Berlin is considered to be a rather flat course, perhaps one of the easiest marathons of the set, so after completing this event I managed to secure entries to Chicago and New York for 2020.

I had the ambitious goal to complete Chicago, New York and London all in the space of one month, but then the pandemic hit and all of these marathons got cancelled. London was the first one and then Berlin, but I carried on training with the hope that maybe I’d get to run Chicago and New York, but eventually they all got cancelled. It was a difficult time for me because I'd physically and emotionally committed myself to achieving my goals and any hope I had of completing them was taken away.

It wasn't until 2021 that I thought I had a chance to run Chicago and New York. The US hadn't lifted the travel restrictions, but I still made my application to the Embassy to achieve travel permissions and redemptions. It did not work. In order to keep my mind busy and my goals alive, I ran London and Berlin and signed up to substitute races like Manchester and Istanbul instead of Chicago and New York.  

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With all these difficulties, how did you manage to secure the 6 races?

By 2022, I'd still only achieved 2 stars having completed London lots of times and Berlin twice. Chicago arrived and it was a really exciting time for me. It was the first time that I visited the US, and then there was the prospect of visiting again for New York, both within the space of just 5 weeks.

As a British Muslim, you can become concerned about visiting the US because you hear stories of people travelling there and being denied entry. At Heathrow, they didn’t let me check-in and told me “sorry, you’re going to have to wait for someone to come and speak to you, it’s a standard procedure”. I was interrogated for an hour. My heart was racing in awe of all of the preparation I had done, but eventually they gave me my passport back and I thought “yes! I’m going to Chicago!”

When I arrived at Chicago Airport the interrogation started all over again, and by this point I was worrying they were gonna send me home, but, in the end I got through, which made me feel relieved.

I remember Chicago really well because it was an early morning start (07:30 am) and the weather was nice and cold, around 5 or 6 degrees, which is what I like. I don’t like warm weather and, on top of that, the week before I had had a race in London and I suffered from terrible cramps.

I really enjoyed Chicago though, but I had some friends who told me that New York is a tough race because of the bridges and the hills. I do a lot of hiking so I thought "how hard can the hills be?" Shockingly, the weather was 23 degrees, which is unseasonably warm for New York at that time of the year.

I love crowds so I love the energy at London Marathon and I was told that New York would be as nice. It didn’t disappoint, but I didn’t enjoy it as much because of the heat. However, I do remember that around miles 17 and 18 the crowds were great and that really gave me a lift. On reflection, New York wasn’t quite the race that I had planned, but it is the one that I would like the most to run again.

Ticking New York and Chicago off my list got me even more focused on completing the set, despite the fact that in 2023 the month of Ramadan fell between March and April. Boston Marathon was on 17th April, therefore clashing with a problematic training period because I was fasting. Nevertheless, I was still keen to enter this race.

The work I do enhancing inclusivity and diversity within sport and all of my fundraising contributions means that I don't have to apply for marathons via the standard ballots. Thus I was able to secure my entries for Tokyo and Boston, arriving at both races as an invitational athlete.

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Tell us about achieving your 6th Star in Boston

For me, having Boston as my 6th star was quite important because it was also the 10th anniversary of the Boston bombings. Therefore, I decided to run my final race for a good cause, representing Charity Right, an organisation which provides school meals for underprivileged children around the world.

Considering this was Ramadan, it was a tough few weeks of training. I was running without any food and drink as well, but this marathon was important to me. I read lots of reviews and sought advice because the Boston course is hilly and I wanted to do this right.

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When I got to Boston, the thing I remember most is that the entire city really embraced the marathon as an event. The atmosphere is incredible and you really felt welcome. As you walked around the EXPO or downtown, you saw everyone wearing their Boston Marathon jackets, so I started to wear mine everywhere too.

On the race day of a World Marathon Major they give you a special badge to wear on your back which says “I’m running for my 6th star” and it's amazing when so many runners come up to you and say “good luck with your 6th star!". What was also surprising is that so many people had already heard of my story through social media. I was here, at the best marathon in the world, with people from all over the world saying “hi Haroon, we follow you on Instagram, we’ve seen your story and listened to your podcast”, and it all built up to the climax. It was emotional for me reflecting on how my running journey started, losing my dad, the obstacles I had to face and that I was there without my family during Ramadan achieving the 6 stars, which not many Muslims have ever done before.

I was both ecstatic and euphoric at the finish line - there’s a photograph of me with tears in my eyes. It was emotional also because I had raised over £20,000 for charity.

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Which marathon was your favourite?

I'd probably say Tokyo, as I was excited about visiting a new country in the Far East. It is also a flat course, so the goal was to try and achieve a new marathon PB. I remember the atmosphere, the culture was so different to anything I'd previously experienced, especially with all the race volunteers cheering you on. On race day, I was focused and mentally prepared. I really enjoyed it and I ran a PB. For me, that was a special event and one that took me one step closer to my final star in Boston.

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What are your plans after completing the 6 World Majors?

Even after the London Marathon I kept wearing my 6-star medal with pride. I feel very proud about this, but after taking some time out, I'm now focusing on shorter races, trail marathons and ultra-marathons. I also know they will be announcing the 7th and 8th stars for Cape Town and Sydney around 2025, so I want to try and be one of the first people to complete those marathons too.

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Lastly, what advice would you give to somebody with not much information about the Majors?

I only got the special entry for Tokyo and Boston, the rest of the entries I secured them myself. When I ran Berlin I was successful in the ballot, but my advice for this race would be to look for charities and tour operators that offer places because they are quite available and easy to obtain. For Chicago I was lucky in the ballot, but it is sometimes costly, and if money is a barrier for you, charities are the go-to option for Chicago and New York, but you will have to raise quite a bit of money. Still, if it is the race you would like to run and you are not fast enough to qualify, those are the avenues that I have explored in the past.

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Thank you very much for your time and for answering all of our questions Haroon. SportsShoes looks forward to hearing more about your sporting and social success with Active Inclusion Network.

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