One could argue that I have perhaps already run the race of my life and am yet to cross the finish line so why on earth would I want to sign myself up for another race?
BUT I am.
Late last year I started toying with the idea of preparing for the Gold Coast Marathon in July. If I stop and think about it too much then I may just give the whole thing away so instead I'm just going with it.
Richard ran a marathon a few years ago - it's 42 km and tells me crossing the finishing line is the best feeling in the world. 42km is more than 4 times longer than any other race I have ever run.
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At first I googled to see if it was even possible to prepare in that amount of time and apparently it is. Then I chatted to three different running friends who all said the same thing - cautiously - you sure you don't want to try for the half first?
Maybe I do. Maybe I should. My trainer says I'm crazy and then in the next breath she says if anyone can do it I can. A lovely girlfriend from work gave me a box of Raffaello chocolates my favourites and two sets of running socks with a note saying I can run the chocolates off.
But I figure aim for the marathon if I don't get there I'll do the half instead. Either way there's going to be plenty of kms in these legs over the next 6 months.
I have 27 weeks to prepare. My only foreseeable hiccup will be surgery in April which is when the program steps up but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I have completed two days so far. I run every second day. I used this program and converted it to something achievable and something that works with my schedule. I wanted to incorporate my park runs each week on the saturday and complete my long runs on the sunday.
Surprisingly the program isn't anywhere near as fierce as I imagined it would be. The first 11 weeks are really just run/walks for 20/25/30 minutes. I've just switched that to 5k runs four days a week. I am also planning on doing the progressive run series at the super centre beginning in February.
It's ambitious and scary but bring it on I say! Any other marathon runners out there ?? Tell me this is doable please...
