Well it’s been just over 3 weeks since I received my London place and I am still absolutely buzzing! Sitting in front of everyone with my jazzy painted burger king crown is probably the closest I’ve ever been or ever will be to becoming a queen (prom, beauty, HM, Beyonce etc etc) – besides, who wants to do those when you can run the London Marathon! I can’t wait to run for the club in 16ish weeks, and run a marathon where I feel like I actually know what I’m doing. (Please don’t talk to the people who tell me I train too fast, they’re all liars.)
I am going to start this blog by providing you with a brief history of my background in running and sport in generally. While my journey as a runner began just over 2 years ago, sport has always played a fundamental role in my life. My first true love was one typical of many Canadian children – ice hockey. From the age of 4 to 18 the ice rink was my second home. I feel much of my success as a runner stem from hockey – from the ability to push myself during training and competition, set personal goals in my performance and my competitive drive. It’s probably no shock why I love cross country so much!
“The young athlete, aged 6”
I fell in love with running shortly after I moved to Ealing and joined the Eagles. I had ZERO intention of becoming a “runner” as I was simply looking to get a bit fitter and meet some people. It’s safe to say that I have most definitely become a “runner” and kept myself rather busy with all the training, racing and social opportunities that come along with the club! Joining the club was one of the best decisions I have made in my adult life. I’ve been able to meet so many people, challenge myself, relight my competitive side, get seriously faster and compete in some very interesting races!
Leading up to the race I have a few goals that I would like to achieve in my training and racing:
STAY INJURY FREE – I trained for Manchester last year and was injured on my very last long training run.
Run Fleet half in the 90-99:59 minute bracket to qualify for the Welsh Castles ladies team, and to get a new PB (Currently it sits at a frustrating 1:40:09 from EHM)
Maintain my speed in other distances. I’ve set a fair few PBs in the last 6 months, and I would like to continue to build on those in the lead up to London.
As for the race itself, I am hoping to shave an hour of my 2 year old marathon PB which currently stands at 4:40:55. Typing that out sounds slightly scary, but I have learned loads over the past 2 years, built a ton of speed and most importantly become more vigilant in my training. Like many others Eagles, I will be following the ever famous P&D training plan pulled from the book “Advanced Marathoning”. I’ve been lucky to get my hands on the complicated and VERY technical interactive spreadsheet. No, I am not being sarcastic… If you’re interested in seeing it, ask me to pull it up on my phone the next time you see me, and marvel at its glory. Filling it in after every run feels like some weird backwards running advent calendar.
Going forwards, I’ll probably write mostly about running (obviously), loads and loads of cross country, trying to fit training in when you get race FOMO so you sign up for everything (remind me again why I signed up for Box Hill???), eating (I may even include some tips on how to slink into the storage cupboard at work, shovel food in and exit so your boss doesn’t catch you and tell you off), more eating, and many other wonderful surprises (I didn’t say poo, so way to go being immature and thinking it).
“The still young athlete, aged 29”