The first run

So it turns out, marathon training is kind of hard! Why did no one tell me this?! Training is not going well, not well at all. In fact I’m sort of freaking out a little! I’ve read the books (well flicked through them at least), studied the websites, brought the kit, eaten way too much wholemeal pasta and yet the actual getting up and running bit is just not really happening!

It all started at the running shop last March...So I went to this specialist running shop on a very wet, dark Thursday. An impossibly fit looking lady took one look at my feet and produced several pairs of trainers. To my horror, she instructed I run up and down the street outside the shop.


In the middle of the city of London, in a suit dress, in the rain, I ran like a penguin up and down the street, trying to weave between the bankers and their enormous umbrellas. I looked like a fool! A FOOL!

A hundred and something quid later and I was the proud owner of trainers, running socks and an ipod arm band.  I was extremely excited about my first run, like a naive child at the dentist before the drill starts! I rushed home from work, pulled on my running kit, (the kit being some old jogging bottoms and an oversized ‘I heart NY’ t-shirt - another classic look for me!) and was ready to go. I froze at the door. What if people saw me running? No one should have to see that! This is going to be so embarrassing!

Eventually I mastered my fear, crawled out from under the bed and believing that my headphones acted as some sort of invisibility cloak, off I set.


I was intending to jog down to Clapham common, run around the park and return home. A nice easy 4k run to start me off... Oh my god! Seriously, it was horrific! I got to the end of the block and thought I might actually die, a quick U-turn and I returned to my building (why oh why do I live on the third floor!). It wasn’t a pretty sight, I was spitting, sweating, could barely breath, my chest hurt. It took hours to recover, actual hours, maybe days. I looked like a tomato! I’d only run for 5 minutes. It was less than half a mile! Not having run since the age of 15 probably didn’t help matters.

Thankfully things have improved slightly since then. The running look has actually got worse, I now have a very snazzy black head sweat band to keep my ears warm, which works perfectly with my black running leggings and black thermal top. It’s a great look, I like to think I look like a ninja! The training has been very up and down, November saw the pavements freeze over and turn to ice which meant no running for weeks. I did manage a run on Christmas day (a bad idea after a breakfast of chocolate) and by the first week of January I was on my game! 2 x 45 mins runs in the week and an 8 ½ mile run/walk on the weekend, it was looking as though maybe, just maybe I could do this marathon.

Then disaster struck, I got the January lurgy, 2 weeks of swollen glands, snot and temperatures meant no running at all. I attempted to go for 9 miles on Saturday and only managed 2. Agghhh I’m back to running around the block! With only 11 weeks to go, I’m scared!