10 February 2011

Coming out of the closet

Okay readers!  Here I go ....  I am coming OUT and announcing to the world wide web that I AM going to run my first ever marathon this year.  The Gold Coast Airport Marathon.  On 3 July.  All 42.2kms of it.  I have never even walked that far in one go, let alone run it, but now's the time to give it a shot, don't you think?  I've been inspired to do it by two people - one is a running group buddy, Therese, who is off to Paris in April to run in the Paris Marathon.  She was telling me this week at training that you get SEVEN hours in which to complete it and best of all, the hydration stations have cheese and wine!  Mon dieu!  That marathon is only two months away but Therese does not seem fazed at all, despite being one of the slowest runners in our group.
Her relaxed attitude to it made me realise that it's not really such a huge deal, is it?  I do tend to make mountains of molehills and get myself wound up.  Therese is looking at it as a fun thing to do and a great way to sightsee around Paris!  I know already that for me, finishing my marathon is not going to be about doing it in under 4hr 30mins.  It's not!  It will be about just finishing it.  Once I have finished the first one, then I can start thinking about getting faster, but I need a baseline from which to start don't I?  I improved my half marathon time by 15 minutes over three years so I have plenty of time in the future - and plenty of other marathons - to get faster!
The second person to inspire me is another blogger, Mal (RunShuffleRun).  Reading about his efforts to train and eat properly and face hurdles to also complete his first marathon (the same one as me) really, really, really makes me feel "less alone".  Not that I am alone at all in my endeavour.  My running group, InTraining, has a Marathon School that I have joined and all my friends there are ultra supportive of my efforts, but they have all run marathons before so those first-timer nerves are no longer there.  Also, I am one of the slower runners in the club and those ultra-fit types can't possibly remember what it's like at the very beginning - can they?  They were probably able to run 20kms from kindergarten....
As far as my dieting is going, I have lost 3kgs but those peanut butter Lindt balls really are my undoing...  How can I say NO?  Each one is 2 points so I eat them with caution.  In fact, look what happened to my lunchbox today while I wasn't looking!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Jen! Well done on making the leap. I look forward to reading your marathon tales - we can compare notes. Mal

Anonymous said...

hmmmmm peanut butter lindt balls


l.f.