I did it!

On Sunday 22nd May I donned my beautiful new fluorescent yellow trainers and did the unthinkable… I ran 26.2 miles in the Edinburgh Marathon! And I must warn you that I am going to make the most of my allocated 250 words for this blog in order to gloat! Those who know me, I would hope, would concur that this does not happen often (the gloating that is, not the running!).

I completed the Paris Marathon last April and was due to complete my second marathon in Nottingham last September. However, 2 weeks before the race, having put in the gruelling hours of training and spent entire weekends focused on running and not enjoying a pint with the football, I developed my second bought of pneumonia. This rendered me poleaxed for the best part of 3 weeks. I was devastated.

So, although I had mastered the 26.2 miles previously in Paris, my training this time around was somewhat marred by the fear of an ever impending respiratory failure of some sort. Having had to take nigh on 3 months off running post pneumonia, every training run felt like my legs were tackling the long distances for the very first time. This was on the one hand exhilarating as I felt a huge sense of achievement with each long Sunday run. However, on the other hand it was slightly terrifying as I was genuinely uncertain as to whether I could do it.

However, despite all the odds, last Sunday I travelled to Edinburgh and ran my second marathon in exactly the same time as Paris the previous year - 4 hours and 3 minutes! The only down side was that I left those afore mentioned beautiful new fluorescent yellow trainers on the train on the way home (along with my runners medal and commemorative t-shirt!).

The 3 minutes have been niggling me somewhat and as I lay recovering on the sofa yesterday barely able to move, I decided to enter the Chester Marathon on the 9th of October later this year, determined to achieve a PB and rid myself of those pesky 3 minutes. Watch this space…

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