What have I done?! – London Marathon Blog #1

It was 23.04.2019 – the day of the London Marathon.

My running coach Jenny was taking part, I was on the sofa watching it, glass of wine in one hand and mobile phone in the other.  Our running group were frantically sending messages on Whatsapp throughout the race as we tracked Jenny’s progress.

The excitement was intense and I got carried away and applied for the ballot following the momentum of my running group.  Surely, I wouldn’t get a place when around 440k people were expected to apply for it and guess what … I did!

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I received my confirmation in the post in October, me – the most unfit and overweight in the whole running group was the only one to get a place.

I was supposed to do my first half marathon the month before I received confirmation of the London Marathon place but due to personal stresses with my Father in law and his failing health, I completely lost my focus with my training and sadly I never did it.

The day I received the confirmation about my place in the London Marathon was a really important day for my family as we had found a lovely care home for my Father in law and all of a sudden everything seemed a lot more positive!

I have a motto in life – never miss an opportunity and don’t have regrets so I could not possibly decline it but how could I ever be fit enough to do it?

I needed to get my health and fitness back on track so I saw this as an opportunity (although extreme 😊) to do that and I decided to raise funds for charity.  If I was going to put myself through this, I was most certainly going to make sure I raised money for a very worthwhile charity too!

The next six months would either kill me or make me stronger!

Lots of pre-conditioning training done so far and I have discovered strength training which is really good to build myself up and minimise injury.  I am now into the 16-week formal training plan. I am really scared but I am also in a positive mindset and being really well supported by my lovely running group.

I promise you this will be the biggest personal challenge of my entire life but I have decided to go for it and raise some funds for a really wonderful charity, Mind who provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem.  They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.

Good mental health is so fundamental for us all and exercise is such a positive thing to help our mental health.  The irony being that I should have kept running throughout my stressful time as it would have helped me so much.  It is so important to continue raising awareness and funds to help support so many people in need of the right information and support.

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