Oh my god I did a marathon, it still hasn’t sunk in!
What a marathon it was, I think I went through every emotion possible through those 26.2 miles.
When I turned up at the start I was really nervous as I was on my own and just wandered around not really knowing what to do with myself for an hour until it started, I rang my husband and he told me to just sit down and take it all in. It was great to watch everyone getting ready in there own way, it took my mind off the run.
Before I knew it it was time to get in the pens and start the run, I made sure I stuck to a decent pace as I have made the mistake many times before to get carried along with the crowd and go to fast and then suffer later on in the run.
The support around the course was brilliant, people handing out sweets and water and really cheering you on calling your name and telling you your doing well. The first half went well I managed to keep a steady pace and was consistent every mile, I felt good and was really positive.
Then at 17 miles the legs started to hurt and the negative thoughts started to enter my head that I’d still got 9 miles to go and I was starting to suffer. I decided to walk for a bit and phone my husband to get my spirits up, but as soon as my husband answered I burst into tears, he was really positive and told me to just take the time to walk for a bit compose myself and I would start to feel better. I did what he said and he was right I started to feel better mind wise but my legs just kept hurting especially my gluts (bum cheeks ha ha) and my IT bands. I kept stopping and stretching them off and that did help, then the next emotion crept in and I started to feel angry about my body hurting and the fact that in training everything had felt so different in training, I put that anger to use and kept running.
Because it was a warm day I ran out of my energy drink quicker than I thought and couldn’t get an energy gel from the water stations for a while so I asked a man if he could spare me one as I felt like I was running out of all energy, he was so kind and gave me one and it helped for a bit. But I think it had got to the point where nothing would help anymore and it was about digging deep and getting to the end.
At mile 22 my body just hurt that much and I didn’t have anything else left, I ended up walking which really got my down and I felt really deflated. I ended up ringing my husband again and bursting into tears and just couldn’t wait to get to the end to see them. I ended up running and walking the rest of the run, finally there was light at the end of the tunnel and I could see the finish it was such a relief!
At the end of the finishing tunnel was my husband and two children and every emotion came flooding out and the tears started flowing once again.
It was such a hard run and I am still suffering today, my feet are still swollen, my legs still hurt and I have the post run blues. Which I think is the worst thing about afterwards, as you can’t really enjoy being proud of yourself and the fact of what you have just done doesn’t sink in, I’m sure this will pass as the days go by and it will finally sink in.
Everyone keeps asking me if I will do another one, the truth is I don’t know, I’ve learnt a lot from this one and would definitely change some things about the training and nutrition. I feel like my body doesn’t actually need to taper and I would be better to train up to the day, because when I did 20 miles then the week after 10 miles then the week after 22 miles I felt great on that 22 miles and I think if I had carried on for the whole 26.2 I would have enjoyed the mileage. But that 22 miles was my last run and it was 4 weeks before the marathon. I think if I did do another one I would try the training up to the day and not taper and see how different it would be, as Sunday felt like I hadn’t trained properly.
I have really enjoyed writing this blog and I really hope I have inspired some people out there! The plan was to just write my blog up to my marathon, but I have decided to carry on writing about my experiences and my highs and lows of running, dieting and exercise as it really helps writing it all down.
Thank you for all your support x
The Running Bug 