Well folks its 2020, the start of a new decade, new goals and of course being the luckiest girl around getting a place for the London Marathon.
To run the London Marathon has been on my bucket list since I began to take running more seriously a few years back, however the chances of getting in were slim. Nevertheless, I decided to take a chance on fate and hey I made it in. Since I am new to the world of marathon running, I did my very best to do as much research as I could and looked for plans that would suit a new marathon trainee such as myself, but who isn’t new to running at all. Boy, that was tough! Looking online at various websites, social media, books, speaking to other runners in the club asking them if I could have a look at their training plan to see if it would suit me. It takes a lot of preparation which I now value and respect even more as a runner and to whomever runs a marathon. Kudos to you my dear friend.
Meanwhile, a slow an unprecedented illness began to take over my body, I blame the fact I work with too many kids (it’s the teacher life). By the end of the term, I had built up a severe cold which I thought it would be over by Christmas time. NOPE. Turns out I ended up in urgent care on Christmas Eve and BOOM, I was diagnosed with a severe chest infection and given a round of antibiotics. That put me out of action for the rest of December. This gave me time to work on finding the right plan for myself and really focus on the foods I will be eating during this time and what I want to focus on for this marathon, which is to complete the whole distance and tick another off my bucket list.
This brings us to January. Thinking that I have recovered as much as I could from my illness, I decided to start my training plan on the 3rd of January, feeling a bit out of breath, I ran the Ealing Mile. Overall, I felt good (yes it was tough) but I managed to pull through and get around felt good to be back stomping around the area of Ealing. Not to worry I thought, thinking I would be able to get around at cross country the next day.
Saturday. Well I thought I was well enough to do Middlesex XC Champs at Wormwoods Scrubs and boy I was wrong. The coughing and shortness of breath was enough for me to pull out of a race (first time in my running career that I do so too) and I was gutted. The cough returned and somehow I managed to get worse from the first round of illness. The stubbornness in me did not listen to my body and I didn’t give it time to heal completely. Now on my second round of antibiotics and told not to do ANY physical activity (yeah right, I’m the PE teacher, but yes I will be more cautious in my teaching of lessons), I must listen to my body this second time and really let myself recover. Marathon training has been put on hold…. until this upcoming Saturday which I can finally start running.
Let the good times start….on Saturday.
