So here we go... my first ever marathon and my first ever blog. What on earth am I doing!?! I've never ever thought about writing my own blog or running a marathon for that matter so I'm not quite sure how I find myself doing both! I've done 5 half-marathons so far in my little running 'career' and at the end of every one I've said the same thing.. "there's not a chance I could turn round and run back again!", usually followed by "there's no way I'll ever enter a marathon - that's just stupid!". Hmm not quite sure how I've gone from this state of mind to shelling out my hard earned cash to pay for the pleasure of dragging myself round 26.2miles of hell!
Well actually, that's a lie, I know exactly how it's happened - a bad combination of a competitive streak and peer pressure! When I heard that a couple of my close friends were signing up for the marathon I was tempted, but then when my best friend said she was doing it too, I couldn't not do it. It became something I HAD to do - something to tick off the 'list' before I was 30, I needed to do it if they were going to and it would be a brilliant thing to do with my lovely friends. All of a sudden it seemed like a really good idea. Other runners gave me lots of encouragement and reassurance about being able to do a marathon after I'd smashed my PB at the Great North Run in September, and before I knew it I was typing my credit card details into the website and my place in the Edinburgh Marathon was secured.
Then it hit me - what on earth am I doing?!? I can't run that far! I don't have the time or the patience to train for it! Uhoh!!!! And so I find myself facing this daunting challenge with no idea how I'm going to do it, but I do know that I can't back out - I can't quit now, I'd rather crawl the course on my hands and knees than change my mind about it (there's that damn competitive (?stubborn/ ?stupidity) streak again!).
So that leads me to the reason for this blog.... I'm hoping that by writing about my trials and tribulations (I know there will be many!) that it might help me through the torture the next few months is going to bring, help me keep laughing (not resort to crying), keep me motivated and hopefully allow me to get that finishers medal! So thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the journey!
