run a marathon

One year in the planning and 7 months of training later I can scratch this off the to-do list. My first marathon completed.
My plan was for under 4 hours and my final time today was 3:53:00.
The pace really started dropping off in the last 10km although my first half was a PB for that distance.
The only injuries apart from incredibly sore thighs and hams are two small blisters.
It would have been nice to have some sort of feeling of accomplishment but nope.
Running is still tedious with little reward apart from becoming very fit.
What the hell is a “runners high”??

Time to really commit and get and an entry in even though my training is getting a bit slack.
$75 buckaroonies..ouch.
...Plus a new pair of headphones, running destroyed the old ones after a few runs.
Still waiting to crack the 30km run mark with other, shorter, runs geting in the way on Sundays. Longest raining run has been 27km so far..
I have noticed that the training guide for marathons doesn’t work for me. I simply need at least one day after a 10+km run for recovery.

Well, a 25km road race under the belt in 2:02.
Discovered the magic of drinking sports drink rather than free water on long runs and a handfull (2oz) of glucose sweets at the half way mark. Worked wonders and last 5km die didn’t happen.

Managed to fing MP3 player headphones that don’t fall out when running. Now with 4 hours of podcasts to listen to long distance runs are bearable.

Last weekend was a 1/2 marathon and the training has paid off with a 5min improvement on my previous pb from 2 years ago. With a 1:41 for the half the goal of under 4 hours for the full marathon looks doable. Long training run is up to 20km on Sunday but now there is running the day after the long run. Eughhh…
Oh well, the half wasn’t that bad although the hail storms during it sure were different.

Which seems like a lot but the training is a 30 week plan and also includes a 1/2 marathon, 25km competition, 30 km competition leading up to the big run. Currently at 40km / week with the long run at 15km. Going to need to slow down on the long runs because my training pace is currently 5 min/km whereas my race pace is planned to be 5min 40 sec. However my 10km race pace is 4min 30 but I honestly can’t imagine this pace extending to 42km!
Anyway, news running shoes has seen some soreness go away and the runs are getting easier.

Done half marathons, done plenty of 10km runs. Done a few 50km plus Rogaines.
Target time is under 4 hours. Only started running when I was 40. ;-). It’s never too late…