I ran a marathon!
I didn’t think I could do it at first. I wasn’t a long distance runner, just casual running and racing. Then I had a desire to take the ultimate challenge – run a marathon. Just one thing to know, before I started training I found out I had sjogrens syndrome and there were lots of symptoms that I had to manage during training and during the race. This made the challenge more interesting.
Start from the inside
When trying to achieve any goal you need to have some passion or something inside you that you hold on to and when you feel the need to give up you go back to that place. You get your strength from there. I didn’t decide to run a marathon until I felt that passion within me. Then I found a training schedule and built a running circle of friends, changed my diet and walked away from part of my social life. It takes dedication to do it. Training can require 5 days a week depending on your plan and many times you feel too tired to go out and party after. You realize that if you eat pizza or greasy food then run it hurts, so your diet has to change too. You start to eat for energy and sometimes its strategic – pasta the night before a long run, oatmeal for breakfast, proteins, no water 3 hours before a run, etc… I’m just saying your life changes and you need a little passion to get you through.
Physical Strength
My training began a year before my training began. I began to run more when I knew that I was going to run a marathon. I found local groups to run with and got people at work that were runners to run races with me or go on runs with me. I started to practice being on a schedule to be strong enough to start. Core training, cycling, weight training, yoga, tempo runs, speed training, long runs, longer runs… These are all important! When I felt like I was tired and had nothing more to give a run buddy would say “use your core” “use your arms” so having a strong core mattered as well as strong arms that can swing back and forth for hours to carry you and having strong calves and strong hips and quads and the list goes on. Being physically fit was necessary to prevent injury and successfully complete the marathon.
So I did this and ran a marathon!