I am a Marathon Runner!

Now this is the very first Marathon I have run so I decided that it would be a good decision to get some sponsors for it. It would motivate me to run even on the wet and windy days. Believe me there were several of these days training in winter; my 15 mile training run I remember well as it snowed heavily! I still went. That was thanks to the sponsors I received from my clients – it was now a job, I had to do it! The charity I chose was Ryedale Special Families, they provide all kinds of help and support for families in my local area who have children with all kinds of special needs. So far I have gathered £746 in sponsorship not including gift aid! 

 

I had started running a little in December as one of my clients had asked me to run with her. It had shocked me how hard I found it after spending the last 5 years bodybuilding! It hurt! Running just 3 miles then, although I could do it, it was hard work! But little by little this had got better and In January I started my training plan. 

You run hundreds of miles before you actually run a marathon! 

January I ran a total of 100miles, February 120miles, I eased off in March 100miles a little as work started to get busier too! 

 

We all need some help and accountability from time to time even me as a coach still needs one, I am the same as everyone else, I find things hard and we all try and talk ourselves out of things. I was lucky to find Richard on a forum I joined on Facebook for the Manchester Marathon. The forum itself has been a godsend! Lots of people sharing their training and supporting each other working towards a common goal of completing the marathon, they have all inspired and motivated me – especially Richard. He has been a great accountability partner for me, we shared our ups and downs of training, good runs and bad runs and on the days we didn’t feel like it we supported each other via whatsapp messages. We had never met until the evening before the race so it was lovely to put a face to a message and settled my nerves for the morning with the logistics of getting there. Sounds a bit crazy but I was more worried about being late or getting lost and missing the race than I was about doing it! Me and the family met Richard after breakfast and travelled to the start via the Tram together along with everyone else! 

 

When we arrived, we saw thousands of other runners! No need to worry though it was very well organised. We all went to our allotted pens and I waved goodbye to Richard as he was in a different pen to me (much faster than me!). We gathered and waited for the race to start, everyone eager to get going and lots of people having a last minute nervous wee! I had told myself I didn’t really need to go but just minutes from the start line I dashed into the nearest porta-loo and went; I really did need to go after all! I thought best to go before I crossed the start line and activate my chip timer! 

 

I set off a little too quick, I knew I would I couldn’t help it. I am used to running alone or with my little dog Pete, and with all these people around me I didn’t feel comfortable with so many so close to me, so I worked my way up the field. I wanted a 4hr marathon time and I was running with people aiming for 5hrs so I kept over taking people until I found a comfortable bit of spacing. I passed the 4hr 30 pacer and settled down. I had several humbling moments but a stand out one to me was a guy running in a Bliss charity vest, it said hand written, “This is for you Son”, that really resonated with me as I have children myself and I cannot imagine the pain of losing them. I spoke to him and we chatted for a little while. He told me how he had a 2 year old, he said it happened last year and he said he still hadn’t got over it. I don’t imagine you ever would just learn to live with it I guess. I felt in awe of his determination to do something positive and run the marathon for charity. 

 

What struck me most at this point was the variety of different people running for different causes; all ages, shapes and sizes and abilities. So inspiring to be amongst so many people all wanting to do a marathon for their own different reasons. All these people were drawing on their own inner strength to complete a marathon so I felt even more compelled to do the same thing. 

 

I got to half marathon distance and checked my time, even with a number 2 stop(sorry too much information but I feel the need to keep it real). I was running faster than my planned pace of a 9 mins a mile; I was 30 seconds a mile faster than I should be. I was a little worried I would run out of steam so I thought I would look for someone to chat to so I would slow down a bit. I found a man from Lincoln. Sounds random but I am actually from Lincolnshire originally. He was very friendly and he told me he was running another marathon next week (yes I thought he was mad too!). Anyway we chatted away and he told me how he was a postman and his wife was doing the London Marathon this year, he would be supporting her rather than running. For some reason I then decided to run on passed him and ran the next few miles in my own head space. I love running for this reason because you can just float off to your own world.