Brighton Marathon 🏃🏻‍♀️

As you’re most likely aware, I will be running in the Brighton Marathon 2018, raising money for Guide Dogs. 

Just under two months ago, I did a crazy thing and signed up to run the marathon. Before this, I had suffered from a recurring ankle injury every time I went for a run and it had been four years since I had done any real distance. 

Basically: what was I thinking?

To be honest, I probably wasn’t thinking, because when I set my mind on challenges (big or small), I just have to beat them. I mean, running 26.2 miles is a really really difficult challenge but hey…go big or go home. 

After getting myself a new pair of shoes (I fully recommend going to a running/sports shop that does gait analysis for this), I got straight into training 3 times a week. 

My first few runs were tough. And about a mile at most. But I gradually have built my fitness up and been running regular(ish) 5ks. I try to do 3x a week but at the moment it’s more like 1 or 2, though I’m trying to force myself out of the door more. I’m by no means a fast runner, but I’m getting that buzz from it, which is the most important thing!

The Brighton Marathon takes place in April, so I’ve got what feels like forever before I actually have to run the thing. And as time is on my side here, I’m working my way up to a comfortable 10km run before October/November, when I’ll start getting stuck into the marathon training programme (there are some 17-20 week plans floating around on the internet that seem useful). I want to give myself as much time as possible as I know that it’s inevitable that I’ll miss the odd run here and there. 

As I’m working in London, I won’t get back until dark in the Winter time, so that’s when it’ll be the most challenging time for me to actually do a run. As most midweek runs are much shorter, I plan on heading to the gym at lunchtimes (luckily there’s a cheap one pretty close to my office!) to get in those miles. 

For now, I’m working hard to improve on my stamina and trying to be less concerned with how fast I’m going. Convincing myself of this is hard, because I’m constantly trying to better my time with each and every run, to the point where the slower ones are a little disappointing. I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things anyway – as long as I’m having some sort of fun and raising the money for Guide Dogs in the process! 

Throughout my training, I hope to keep you updated with how it’s going and maybe some tips from the billion books on running that I’ve purchased. If you’d like to read a bit more about why I’m running for Guide Dogs (and donate if you’re feeling super generous), please do take a look here.