Picture: Pintrest
August, September and October were pretty miserable months. I was moping a lot and having a bit of a woe is me time. I wasn’t making an effort for friends unless they were contacting me first. I was finishing work and heading straight home and eating crap and watching TV until I went to bed.
Enough was enough though and I knew I had to snap out of it. One of things I felt like I was missing was exercise. I missed the ache in my muscles and that drained but exhilarating feeling you get post work-out from the release of endorphins.
I decided to re-join the gym. I was a pretty fair-weather gym bunny. I always managed to find excuses not to go and earlier this year cancelled my membership as it £60 that I could really do with in my pocket, especially as I was only going once a week, if that. Plus it was summer and I thought I’d run outside more!! Yeah, good one.
To give me that extra boost to go more often, I let my best friend talk me into signing up for a half marathon….. in March!! She had put herself into her work ballot for a place in the London Marathon but was unsuccessful. The charity she was she going to run for, Myeloma UK, offered places in some other races through the year, one of which was the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. I think I might have been drunk (or at least hungover) and I said “Yeah I’ll join you!”
At first, I thought I’ll never be able to run 21km (13.1 miles). I usually run about 5km and it leaves me feeling like I might collapse and/or throw up at the end. However, I’ve been pushing myself through and slowly building up my distance and stamina. I find the first few kilometres the hardest. I just want it to be over with as quickly as possible. Then at about 5km, it’s as though my body has resigned itself to the fact that it’s been pushed and I can manage to get to the target distance I’ve set myself. Last night I aimed for 9km and managed it in 58mins. That’s roughly an average speed of 6mins 26 seconds per km. If I can manage that pace the whole way through, I’d finish at 2hrs 15mins and 15 seconds. We’re in the starting wave of 2hrs and 15mins so I definitely would like to achieve a time that is sub that!
I’m aware though that those are treadmill times and running outside greatly differs. I need to fit a lot more running outside into the training to get used to the climate, atmosphere and dips and hills. Pretty much giving up drinking after Christmas will also be something I'll be having to get used too.
WISH ME LUCK, I definitely need it.
