Hey all, Georgia here! I wanted to write a little about my journey and training for the New York marathon that’s being held on November 6th. I’m doing the run for cancer research on behalf of a friend who lives over the pond in England, who I met on business travels with my dad who was recently diagnosed with and beat stage 3 liver cancer and is now in remission.
I was never a runner, I couldn’t run 100 yards to the local mall, never mind 26.2 miles, that’s what my head was telling me when I started. But that’s the hardest part isn’t it, that self belief that really with some training, you can do anything.
How I started
So I started off easy, I downloaded the Huawei health app that went with my phone at the time (that Trump ruined!) and I started tracking little runs here and there. The app was set in KM, which wasn’t a measurement I was really comfortable with as I’ve always worked in yards or miles but I soon got used to it. I started off running 1k every 2 days, maaaannnn it was hard! But after 3-4 runs it got easy, and I started doing 2k, 3k, 4k, 5k, then once my legs were used to it I started jumping up quickly. I did my first Coos bay 10k shortly after in 58:41, I was so happy with doing sub 1 hour for my first 10k!
I progressed shortly after into booking half marathons, again, man it was difficult. My first competitive time was 2:11:47, then 2:03:21, then 1:59:33, I was so happy I did it in sub 2 hours and it shot me off on a new mission, marathon training. Whilst my body gets stronger doing marathons I can really get some good 10k and half times in, that’s my thinking here and it worked wonders.
My running routine around blogging and parenting has been quite scarce, I don’t have time to run for 3 hours + weekly unfortunately so what I do is split my runs across the day and make sure I fuel properly (I will touch on nutrition later). I run 5k at 5am, 5k at 9am once the kids are at school, I do all of the house work and chores and then depending on the day I’ll run a 10k before picking the kids up or maybe longer. I’ll do this 3 out of the 5 days per week and then have 1 day’s rest and run a really long one at the weekend, between 25 and 35k, I’ve yet to break 40k but I’m definitely not far off!.
Nutrition
The main thing with running is nutrition, once you break that mental barrier about running and start to love it, it’s about fuelling right. If I’m running 5k I’ll eat 2 pancakes with blueberries around 2 hours before the run, if it’s 10k I double up with 4 and have a snack bar too. Any longer than that and I have a huge pasta dish with pesto for the salt and carb content, so I can pile in 150g carbs before the run (I have to do this 3 hours before).
Now during the run it’s key to keep hydrated, and also key to have gels on the long runs too. If you don’t you will cramp and/or inevitably hit the wall. My favorite gels are the SIS gels without caffeine, that boost is so welcome when it comes, an influx of carbs to keep you going instantly and some hydration too, there’s also SIS tablets to go in your water that help massively.
With gels, the aim is to take them before you become tired, because once you’re tired it’s over, you can’t recover to normal. I begin taking my gels at 5k, 7.5k, 10k etc just to make sure there’s some carbs in storage. Every 30 mins of running I make sure I drink a full bottle of water (I’m a heavy sweater) to avoid cramps and if you maintain this, you can run forever once your legs are conditioned. This has been essential in my training honestly, no one wants cramps and no one wants to hit walls.
Sportswear
You. Have. To. Have. The. Right. Shoes. Don’t go cheap, you’ll end up injured as I found out. After my first injury I decided to get tailored shoes through the doctors, they checked my pronation and I bought the correct supporting trainers and have done 500 miles in them so far and they’re still fresh. If you find a perfect pair, buy 2. Alternate your use so they wear down equally and so your midsole on the 2nd pair doesn’t break down from lack of use.
Am I ready?
Who knows what will happen on the day, but mentally I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, physically I’m the lightest yet strongest I’ve ever been, I could not be more ready. Now it’s just touching wood that I don’t get injuries, I’m aiming for 3:30:00 for my first marathon and it would be amazing if you could all wish me some luck! I’m running my first 40k next week (current PB distance is 37.8k) and I’ll push through the final 2k extra distance on marathon day, but for now I feel ready, mentally and physically.
