When you sign up to your first Marathon…

The 30 before 30 list is still going. I’ve not actually looked at it recently but times a ticking so I need to get on it. Number 8 on the list is RUN a Marathon. My main reason for this is so I can post a photo of me, my husband, my kids and my medal on my instagram when I finish the race with the caption ‘Wife, Mama, Marathon Runner’ (if any of you readers steal that before I get a chance to post it then I will hunt you down). My second reasons are summed up in 9/18/20 on the list – generally shift the baby weight and be healthier heading into my third decade. Theres also the goal setting and believing part of it too, as summed up nicely by Richard Branson;

I’ve never really been a runner. I mean I’ve run, but it does not come naturally to me. I love the head space and the repetitiveness of it, but I look like a tomato and have a lot of limbs all over the place when Im running. I decided to sign up for the Dublin marathon rather than just start running because it gave me a tangible goal. In hindsight a 5k would have done the same job but go big or go home/yolo.

From consulting with friends who are marathon finishers, and my sister who is running with me heres my top 5 things you will notice happening when you sign up to a marathon/start running.

1) Regular measures no longer count. Every drive, walk or trip is measured in race distance. My house to Supervalu and back is a 10k, my house to Longford is an hour in the car and just over a marathon to run, my house to my dads house is an ultra marathon. I could go from my front door half way down the N6 and still have not covered a marathon which is frankly quite sickening.

2) Your running technique is pretty interesting. I’ve been known to run in body control underwear (to reduce wobble) which really decreases your stride and makes you run like you have a poop in your pants. I’ve also done the ‘shit someones driving past i’ll just walk a bit’ so that no one actually see’s me run – run. Lets not forget the ‘if I bounce up and down when I run my hair will swoosh and I’ll look awesome’ run. Im now at the point where I’m ok with my incredibly slow pace and the fact that I walk up a hill rather than run, my technique is no where near great though but practice makes perfect slightly better, I hope.

3) You have all the gear but no idea. We all have to start somewhere and for many of us that place is a sports shop. You only go in for a decent pair of running shoes but you come out with foam rollers, sports bottles, ipod arm holder thingys and a running monitor. When out running you awkwardly try and change a song on your ipod but end up with contorted arms, you drop your holder water bottle at least 5 times and your brand new trainers scream ‘NEWBIE RUNNER EVERYONE LAUGH’ at the other runners you see out.

4) Rest days are the new Fridays. While I used to long for Friday and the start of the weekend now I long for Monday, the day of rest after four whole days of running every day. Rest days FOR THE WIN.

5) You judge your ability to endure the marathon compared on other things you have done. My main one is 16 hours of labour vs 6 hours of running, I’ll take the running thanks. There was also the time that I walked around with 4 broken toes and a fractured foot for 3 days before going to hospital, which obviously was way tougher than running 26.2 miles. I’ll be fine, wont I? yes?

Three months to go until the big day. Training is not going amazingly. Its going but my knee keeps playing up which is preventing me from running as far as I would like.

I’ll keep on pounding the pavements in the hope that soon I will push through and experience ‘runners high’ and magically lose about 2 stone, tone everything up and develop a hair swoosh run, but alas its a marathon not a sprint.