Running a marathon, Why?
It’s a question anyone who has ever done one has probably been asked several times and at dark points in training has asked themselves.
Manchester this Sunday will be my 5th and my 4th different reason for attempting the 26.2 miles.
The first time was London 2011 and was a bucket list kind of effort to get it done before I was 30. 16 miles in and it was “never again” and a finish time of 3.32 followed. It was a very warm day and when I hit the wall it was worse than I could have possibly imagined.
The second time was because I thought London was surely just a one off bad day and couldn’t possibly hurt as much the next time. Signed up for Liverpool 2011 and found that lightning does strike strike and a time of 3.35 and another 10 miles carrying “the wall” was enough. Never again….again.
That may have been it for me and marathons but when one of my best friends passed away way before his time I decided to do Manchester and Liverpool in 2014 in his memory and raise some money for CRY. Whilst I didn’t really increase my milage for these two I did introduce a lot more all over strength training at bootcamp. I highly recommend this for any runner out there. It has worked wonders for my all round fitness and my PB’s have decreased dramatically since doing it. I had also decided to follow the 3.15 pacer at both to give me a target to focus on.
No wall, comfortable running and a time of 3.11:43 in both and I was happy. Never again?
Nope not this time. Thoughts of a sub 3 hr marathon grew stronger and I signed up for Manchester 2016. This time I have increased the mileage from around 25 miles a week to 35 miles. I’ve varied my training, joined a club and even lost a little bit of weight and now feel ready to achieve the sub 3 hour marathon dream.
Good runs at Trimpell and Caldervale (in my new RRRR vest) have increased the confidence and now I’m chomping at the bit to get to Manchester. I never thought I would be quite excited and keen to get to a marathon start line!
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