"How do you know if someone has ran a marathon? Don't worry - they'll tell you"
I might as well just cut straight to the chase, I ran the London Marathon last Sunday. It was HOT. If you’d read our New Years blog then you’d have known I was aiming for a sub 3.30 time. Unfortunately Sunday was just not my day, and after a lot of self reflection over the last few days I’ve gone in a full circle of emotions, but glad to say that the 26.2 miles didn’t defeat me.
Last week all participants received emails from the event organisers saying that due to the expected weather forecast we should forget about target times, to reduce our pace and just enjoy the day. I think most runners, myself included thought “do they not know how many miles I’ve put into training for this?” and tried to believe that these words of warnings weren’t applicable to us. Long story short: they were!
Even whilst stood in the sun at the start line runners were all asking one another at which point they’re going to throw in the towel and forget about chasing times. Everyone’s answer was different, for me; start off at target pace and see how it felt after a few miles. Looking back, if I’d gone off slower I’d have probably done better. At 10 miles I knew it wasn’t going to be the race I’ve daydreamed about for the last 4months. At 15, I shouted to my dad that I was just going for sub 4.
What Sunday showed me was that running a marathon truly is a mental game. Did the 3.45.23 time do myself justice for the 630+ miles I’ve clocked in the last 5 months? Probably not. Even when I finished I didn’t see it as a success, but after some self pity now I understand that success is not just measured by quicker times. But failure is most definitely dictated by how you persevere when things don’t go your way.
I’m glad to say London Marathon once again, was brilliant, and has not deterred me from doing another! Bring on the next…. (Edinburgh 2019 – I think it will be you!)
On a side note I think tomorrow my legs will just be able to manage a small run. So the first thing I’ll be doing is 3.7miles for Matt – to finish his marathon.