It is now only 3 weeks away from the Brighton marathon . My foot stopped hurting around 3 weeks ago. For the last 3 months I have been slowly upping my training, determined to be fit enough to run come April. Last year I underestimated how fast I would be able to run in my first ever marathon and placed myself in a slower pen.I spent the first half of the route running around people, by mile 22 my legs had cramped up from the quick slow intervals i had to endure at the beginning of the race.
Despite my legs disobeying the commands of my brain for the last 4 miles by shuffling, I finished in a completely unexpected time of 3.33, a full 27 minutes faster than I thought was possible. A combination of not knowing the pace I was running in training (no running watch), and a speed interval first half of the race, had helped me over achieve. The joy and sense of achievement was bliss. This, I hoped, would be the first of may races, building up to a ultra-marathon. The I broke my foot and put on a stone of weight eating chocolate.
So I had to reassess my goals for 2014. First and foremost I needed to get out on the street and start building up to 5k. Rebuild my core strength in the gym and slowly over weeks push my distance out on the weekend.
This work will lay the foundation to (fingers crossed) allow me to finish the 2014 Brighton Marathon and build up to the tough, hilly Trail Marathon Wales in June.
