I decided to run my first ever half marathon!

I decided to run my first ever half marathon! As a complete long distance novice I thought I'd share my journey with you!

I've always ran.  I've been to the track since I was 11 years old but I used to be a sprinter and hurdler.  An 800m warm down was my idea of absolute hell and running longer than 10 minutes was an absolute no! As I got older I branched out into other sports, swimming kayaking, triathlon (which I

was terrible at as I pretty much need stabilisers!)  Whilst doing these sports I always carried on running but it tended to be no further than 5km.  If anyone dragged me on anything longer I was most put out! That's not to say I've never done any endurance races.  I've kayaked for 76 miles for over 17 hours straight and competed in race the sun a bike, climb Helvellyn, kayak, bike race and have done long swims amongst other events.  However in my brain when it comes to running, I am a sprinter.  

So what made me decide to do a half marathon? 

There are a few reasons but I'll try to keep it short! After having children there are few sports that don't take up too much time.  With running I can chuck my running kit on go out and run very easily from my house and this year I ran my first ever 10km road race, the Brewers 10k. Running Form sponsored the race  and I was very kindly gifted an entry and I absolutely loved every minute of it. It pushed me outside my comfort zone and got me to thinking what more could I do? So after an interesting year with mental and physical health (thanks covid!) I thought I'd set myself a bit of a challenge. I always love to hear everyone's race stories when you come into the shop and to be honest I've been so inspired by all our incredible customers achievements I've just got to give it a go!

My goals 

 My goal for the half marathon is literally just to complete it! If I get round in under 2.5 hours I will be gobsmacked and unbelievably chuffed! but, if that doesn't happen finishing will be such an achievement for me.  At the moment I have started a 16 week half marathon training plan on my Garmin and am on week 2. Fickle old me has  managed to stick with it so far although I'm not going to lie, I started one, didn't like it so swapped to another!! I'll write another blog post in the coming weeks for those who are interested on how the Garmin training plan is going and how to set it up. 

Challenges

My challenges for the race I think will be my brain telling me I'm a sprinter so I can't run 13.1 miles, and the strength aspect.  I have diastasis recti where my stomach muscles have separated during pregnancy but haven't knitted back together.  This mean's I have quite a weak core and a few back niggles but I'll definitely be working hard on strengthening as I know that's going to be the main area where I have weakness.

I'm both looking forward to and dreading the training for this but I have the best support from friends, family and colleagues and I work in a pretty good place for kit, nutrition and physio advice! I've yet to commit to a race but I'll keep you posted!