"If anyone has any tips on training for their first marathon please let me know!"

As I got no response (clearly not a popular blog) I did not train for my first marathon and just decided to run... here's how it went.

Why I have always wanted to run a marathon

There are multiple reasons why I wanted to run a marathon. It's not only a great feat of fitness but also a mental challenge. It requires grit and discipline to achieve a good time while not being injured.

Running, for me, is a really good metric of how my life is going. Am I running regularly? Am I running without pain or injury? Am I holding down a good routine of health, sleep and nutrition? Is my life balanced enough that I can maintain a good running schedule along with work, social life and other passions? Am I fit enough to actually run 10km and beyond... and at a decent pace?

If the answer is no to any of these questions (which it often has been since the start of covid) then something needs to change in my life to correct this.

Influences

My dad was the same way. I grew up watching him religiously run 4 miles every Tuesday and Thursday morning and run 8 miles on Saturday morning. Whatever the weather, without fail.

How to become a Champion left a significant impression on me when I first read it which kept me running and only running for a long time.

I read What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami in the months leading up to my marathon and his experience really resonated with me. Running is a sort of theraputic escape into one's body and mind. It's certainly more than just exercise. A way of life.

To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past journals the experience running can have on ones life. Certainly an aspiration to be running marathons into my 40s.

My running career

Please don't get the wrong idea. The total time and energy I have spent thinking about running completely dwarfs my time on foot. Probably by an embarassing margin. However, I have ran a fair bit. As a child and teenager I ran probably twice a week and competed in local races. I ran my first half marathon at 17 with a time of 1hr 43min (while injured and with little training but it was for charity).

During university I decided to focus on basketball instead of running. However, I was incredibly injury prone at university and couldn't sustain an extended period of exercise.

Why I ran my marathon on that day

During the summer of 2021 I decided to hike the highest peak in each country of Great Britian. I hiked Scarfal Pike and Ben Nevis on the same weekend. Sore knees and soaking wet on the path down from Ben Nevis I had the realisation that I can sustain exercise for 6 hours. So, by my silly reasoning, I had 6 hours to complete a marathon. As an aside, they all look identical in the rain. I'll have to hike them all again in the sun.

The morning of/day before my marathon I was running with a friend, who is actually a runner. We were discussing the diffculty of a maraton and how hard they actually are to run. The gist of it was marathons are hard but not that hard to complete but difficult to run fast. Seeing as my goal was just to complete one, I felt like it was possible. It's all a mental game right... So I decided to run a marathon the next day. I would take it slow and just get round.

The run

I decided to go to bed early. Too early. I was properly excited that I was finally going to run a marathon. So excited that I couldn't sleep. At 1am I decided I'll go for a little walk to cool my core temperature so that I could sleep. But what if I walked in my running shoes... ok I'll do a light jog and see how it goes...

Before I know it I had set off on my first marathon at 01:30 without any support, sleep, food, or anyone knowing what I was doing. Running round a city and going to parts of the city I'd never been and certainly had reason to avoid.

... Find me for a pint for details of the actual run. I'm also bored of typing right now. Maybe I'll get round to typing it out. ...

I ran the marathon in 5hrs 30min - 30 minutes shy of my limit. I ran 22 miles and walked the last four.

The aftermath

I haven't ran since. I couldn't do exercise for a few weeks but then I forced myself up Snowdon two months later. Five months later I started playing basketball until I got injured. A year on, I now find myself wanting to become a runner again. This time enjoying the process rather than reaching for the goal. Or as the late Kobe Bryant said.

"It's not about the destination, it's about the journey... that's the dream"