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Marathon Training : In the Home Straight

October 7, 2014 By Bibi Rodgers 1 Comment

Happy after my first 20 mile run

Happy after my first 20 mile run

Marathon training this year has strengthened my soul. It may not have felt it every mile, but overall, I’ve got out a hell of a lot more than I’ve put in.

During the 16 weeks that I have been training for this year’s Yorkshire Marathon, I have left  a job where I felt very secure, and loved my colleagues, to move into an unknown, kind of scary field, hours away from home – for the excitement and challenge of it. To see how much I am capable of when I take that step. As I said before, we marathon runners are – for some reason – not content with just being ‘content’.

I don’t know if I would have had the nerve to take that leap if I hadn’t had those very long marathon runs to have long talks with myself – talking myself in and out of the decision, meditating, sometimes having a little cry. In that time, I found reserves of resilience in myself that I didn’t think I had. “I can run mother-lovin’ twenty miles on a WEDNESDAY night before Bakeoff, I can do anything.”

Picture from the very beautiful foolishfire.com

Picture from the very beautiful foolishfire.com

One of the runners on Light Night asked me a really thought-provoking “Do you feel you know yourself better, having run a marathon?” – my  answer was a resounding YES. You can’t truly imagine how you will behave under pressure until you’re actually there. (Not that it necessarily went the right way last time)

Now, the interminable wait until race day, to see what the training and my inner reserves interact to produce.

I read in Michel Roux Jr’s lovely book The Marathon Chef (sadly out of print; I managed to bag an ex-library copy on Amazon) that training for a marathon is the hard part, so enjoy the race once that’s behind you. Sounds so simple, maybe it’s obvious, but I’d never thought about it like that before, and am going to keep that in my mind. This race is the culmination of weeks of effort, I’ll revel in the experience.

What am I going to be capable of?

We’ll definitely post news on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram throughout the day, so be sure to follow all of those if you don’t already for the most up-to-date ridiculous outpourings of emotion.  Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Related posts:

Becoming a Runner: How to Keep Moving!
Exercise, Wellbeing and Mindfulness
Becoming a Runner - My Story

Filed Under: Fitness, Races, Running Tagged With: marathon training, positivity, training

« Beetroot and Roasted Red Onion Soup
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  1. Happiness Podcasts says:
    March 20, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    […] round up some of the podcasts on the subject that have been totally rocking my world lately. Since taking my new job, I’m driving all over the country, and these are really helping me feel like time in the car […]

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Award-winning food and fitness blog. One of The Guardian's Top 10 Vegetarian Blogs. Jayne and Bibi Rodgers - vegetarian runners, plant based fitness, mother-daughter, marathon running, veggie-cooking chatterboxes. Find out more

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