Belief.
Let’s go.
It’s on… 46 years old and I’ve signed up for my first Marathon! 3rd April 2022 is the date, Manchester is the place, the journey starts here and now.
Why has it taken so long? Fear, followed by more fear I guess. I’ve run a few half marathons in the past and frankly if my memory serves me correctly I’ve always thought there’s no chance I could run that distance again. 26.2 miles, 42.2 kilometres! It’s always been beyond my mental capacity, so what’s changed? Belief. Suddenly I have some belief that I could do it, or should I say can do it. Well today my head says I can do it, tomorrow may be a different story.
I’ve been running on and off through my life, there’s been blocks of time when I was committed and times when I had zero interest. Illness has always been an Achilles heel. I’ll run for a couple of months, three, four times a week then pick up a bug, a cold an injury or have a kidney stone that’s made me put my trainers back in their box and leave them in there for months, sometimes years. Many years.
On the 12th October 2019 inspiration struck in the form of Eliud Kipchoge breaking the two hour marathon barrier and I’ve been motivated since that day. New trainers where bought, Strava was employed and I started running again. 19 months later I’m still running and have developed a bad (financial) addiction to running shoes that’s taking all my will power to control. Saying that, I don’t buy much other stuff. There have been a couple of niggles, my right achilles being my main cause of concern but it’s not stopped me. I’ve taken a couple of weeks off here and there, but this time I’m desperate to get out and run again. Learning to slow down to speed up, train better, stretch and listen to my body. Running makes me happy and gives me space and time to think. It’s certainly helped through these lockdowns, I don’t want to stop and finally have some belief that I could run a marathon.
So 11 months to go and counting, let’s see what we can do.
If you’ve managed to read the above and are still here, I thank you. I have never classed myself as a confident writer and would never consider myself to be a ‘writer’ in general. My grammar is probably poor, I wouldn’t know but hopefully the above wasn’t too bad and maybe I’ll become a more confident writer too on this marathon journey.
