Training for a marathon is tough.
But having 2 kids under 3, a full time career and an online business to take care of makes things really difficult. Choosing to train for a marathon on top of all that with practically zero experience was a stupid idea.
In fact if having stupid ideas was an Olympic sport I’m pretty confident I could represent Ireland, go to the 2020 games in Japan and place a respectable 7th or 8th.
How did I come to make this ridiculous decision? Several years ago a good mate of mine ran in a local 10k race. We met up in the pub after and got onto the discussion of running. He somehow convinced me to sign up for event the following year and I began training.
Anyone who’s done it before will tell you that going from practically zero running to 10k is actually pretty tough. For a guy more suited to deadlifts then distance running this was a massive adjustment. It took discipline and training and it wasn’t really enjoyable (at least not at first). But I took part, finished it in a somewhat respectable time and I felt like I’d been hit by train. But the feeling of the event and the crowds support, it was awesome.
Over the next year I ran on and off and decided to see if I could do better. So I ran another 10k this time I was more comfortable with the distance and my time was much quicker.
“Sure 22k was cool and all but why not the whole marathon?”
So I got to thinking again: I wonder if it’s possible for me to finish a half marathon. Although the distance was a bit daunting I signed up for Rock and Roll Dublins 22k race.
I made an absolute balls of it. I went to a family wedding the night before and drank late into the night. I arrived home far to late and decided I needed to carb load so I ate a whole box of Rice Krispies at like 2am (true story). Those Rice Krispies plagued me bouncing around in my stomach for 22 painful kilometres. But I did it, my time was terrible because of the porta potty stops along the way but the race itself was awesome.
A couple of years went by, and my brain went off on one again. “Sure 22k was cool and all but why not the whole marathon?” I wonder if I have what it takes to finish it? And so one evening it dawned on me that these questions will never go away until I try it and longer I leave it, the older I become and the more difficult the task becomes. I googled Dublin marathon and signed up. Even if I fail to complete it at least I’ll get the answer to those questions.
Around 1% of the worlds population ever even attempts a marathon.
Then I looked into the metrics of it, I immediately regretted it. Around 1% of the worlds population ever even attempts a marathon and on average, for big-city marathons, for every 1,000 people who register for a marathon, 820 of them will start the race and about 650 will finish. That’s about 79 %.
Oh, and then this was this reassuring gem that I stumbled across: A small new study finds that marathon runners can experience short-term kidney injury after the race.
How’s it been training? In a word: Tough. The learning curb has been steep. I learned things about myself I never could have known otherwise. I have learned things about human physiology I never knew. Things that you can only learn about first hand, you have to go through it in order to know.
You see after running 20-25k the rules change. It’s a whole different game and I’m an absolute rookie. For instance: if you don’t manage to hydrate properly you run out of water you stop.
If you’re running for a few hours and it’s hot you can run out of salt from sweating so much and you cramp up and stop.
After about 30k, things just ‘feel different’
If you run long enough you will at some point run out of glycogen (hot the wall) and guess what happens next? Yup you stop. (Thankfully I’ve learned to supplement with energy gels to prevent this now).
Unless you adhere to the rules you risk running out of steam and grinding to a halt. It doesn’t matter who you are or how fit you are, you will stop. Then there’s the distance itself. The repetition of all that running causes wear and tear on joints and tendons on a level that weighed workouts never really do. After about 30k, things just ‘feel different’.
Then there’s the mental hurdles, the days you reach the 22k mark feeling gassed already and have to deal with the reality that this is only the half way point. The questions start to pop up in your head: “Where the hell do you think your going to find another 22k from??”
The thoughts of running the actual event, the 44k turmoil is even the hard part. The hardest part for me has been the drain on my spare time. Trying to find 3 hours in one day in which to run and the hour or so after before I’m able to function 100%. Finding good weather, a clear day with no rain is ireland isn’t all that common even in the summer and I’ve been drenched to skin more then once.
So what’s the point:
I love the mental clarity it gives me. I’m the type that is constantly has thoughts running through my head and we live in a world now that is now so connected through technology that a few minutes of peace and quiet is hard to come by. But distance running simplifies things brilliantly. You stop worrying about things that don’t matter and your only concern becomes putting one foot in front of the other.
I also love the feeling of pushing my distance week after week. Every now and again I’ll find myself at the point where I am now running further then I ever have before in my whole life, and how many times in your adult life can you say that?
“life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it.”
Charles R. Swindoll
Right now I am very excited for race day. The feeling of pushing myself to a place few people ever do and seeing how I deal with it, mentally and physically.
Belt.