The Face x On – 26.2 Miles. Chapter 1: Meet the team

In a five-part video series created with The Face, we follow four London creatives as they take on the London Marathon.

Few races ask more of a runner than the marathon. And there’s perhaps no race that leads a runner to ask more questions of themselves. Or that reveals more about who they are and what they’re capable of. While some answers only reveal themselves at the finish line, the revelations begin from the moment a runner commits to attempting the sport’s most iconic distance.

Directed by Jon E Price, 26.2 Miles: The Runners’ Story, follows four creatives on this journey as they accept our challenge to take on the London Marathon. Chapter One introduces the group and shares the powerful reasons each of them has for taking their running further than ever before.

Corbin Shaw

Though this will be his first marathon, artist Corbin Shaw is no stranger to pounding London’s flagstone pavements. Corbin is a regular with the Pace of Mind run club. Founded by his friend Mike Key who discovered running after suffering a stroke at 26, Pace of Mind is about removing the stigmas associated with physical and mental health.

Corbin seeks to break stigmas with his work too, which uses textiles to explore perspectives on masculinity. Corbin grew up in a former mining town near Sheffield, in the north of England. His upbringing shapes his work, which is now also inspired by his running.

“When I’m not running, I’m not creative,” Corbin explains. “ When I’m running more, everything else works a lot better. It’s all in sync.”

So why the marathon and why now?

“I’m just addicted to that feeling of euphoria. What happens if you push yourself just that little bit further?”

Hélène Selam Kleih

Writer and activist Hélène Selam Kleih is the founder of the HIM + HIS community, which, like Corbin’s work, starts conversations about male identity and mental health. The project began after Hélène’s twin brother was sectioned for psychosis. What began with a collection of poetry, letters, essays, photography and art about men and mental health has evolved into a series of live events.

As she starts her marathon journey, Héléne also speaks about the mental health aspects of overcoming an eating disorder, and finding a healthy relationship with exercise. “Having an eating disorder is so focused on your mental health,” Hélène explains. “It’s not actually about your body half the time.”

“We all go through mental health issues…It’s about pushing your limits, but not to the extent that it’s abusive.”

Jordss

The prospect of running a marathon “scares the living daylights” out of DJ and radio host Jordss. And when you know her story, you understand the courage required to commit to this challenge. Today Jordss is a resident DJ at London-based radio station Rinse FM, and a regular on the London club circuit, but in could have been so different.

In January 2020, Jordss suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and underwent emergency open-heart surgery.

“It puts everything in perspective,” she says. “I have to seize every moment and enjoy life as much a possible.”

This renewed sense of opportunity has seen Jordss launch Girls Can’t DJ, a search engine and talent incubator for women and non-binary DJs. She’s also hosted a “Beats Per Minute” event series with music broadcaster Boiler Room to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation. And now, she’s taking on a marathon.

Novelist

By his own admission, award-winning Grime artist and record producer Novelist is not a runner. And he’s never been a runner. But he’s not going to let the challenge of a marathon faze him. “If there’s something you want to do, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve done it before. Just go for it,” is Novelist’s philosophy.

“It’s mind over body. The boundary is set by your own mind. If you can fight through those boundaries, you can do anything.”

Whether Novelst’s approach pays off will soon be revealed. In Chapter Two of The Runners’ Story, we follow the team into the first training sessions, where the scale of the task ahead becomes apparent.