Marathon Training – Chapter 1

In 129 days I’ll be running the London Marathon.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to write that. How amazed I am that I’ve come this far with what started out as walking along the Thames in London to shed a bit of baby weight (I’m not sure 20kg qualifies as a ‘bit’ but anyway).

Never did I envisage my mid morning 1km walk one day turning into a 25km run after dropping the kids at school.

25 kilometres. That is where I’m at right now. I still have a way to go but I’m on track to 42km and to finish my first marathon in under four hours and fifteen minutes.

I never thought it possible that my body could even do that. It’s in the best condition it has ever been in and I’m now on the wrong side of forty according to some. But not me, I quite like being forty.

Occasionally it annoys me that I didn’t discover running in my twenties but I don’t think I had the mental strength or discipline back then to do what I do now. Plus I was a selfish little brat in my twenties, my health was nowhere near the top of my priority list.

Sometimes I wonder what I used to think about before I had running. I now spend so much time thinking about it, reading about it, researching it, talking to my running friends about it and actually doing it that I don’t know what I used to do with myself before I had it.

I am a very proud runner. I owe the sport so much because it has given me so many things. I feel like a complete person these days after many years of being quite broken. My self-worth and awareness of how important self-care is are things I value immensely. Things I wish I’d been able to do for myself a long time ago but didn’t know how.

I hope I can teach my children this. How to be compassionate and loving of themselves. That they are worth that. That nurturing themselves is the key to so many things in life. That something as simple as running can feed your soul and nourish your mind.

It’s funny isn’t it? That running opened my eyes to the world. I really wish I had the ability to put it down in words, I try so hard to but I just can’t seem to explain it. I tiptoe around the edge but can’t quite get it down on paper exactly what I’m trying to say.

Probably because I don’t quite understand it myself.

It’s why having a passion for running makes you feel a little bit special. It really is a gift I believe. A gift that anyone can have if they want it. It just takes a little time, perseverance and determination.

It’s why when you’re running along a road in the pouring rain, or snow or intense heat – and another runner passes you and there’s an acknowledgement. It may be a little smile, or a nod, or a tiny hand gesture. But it’s a sentence without words…

A sentence that says “I know why you’re out in this and I understand”.