It’s 29 days until the Nike Run To The Beat half marathon. Why is this important – well until 2.30pm yesterday afternoon it wasn’t however I received an e-mail to say I’d won a competition and the prize was a place on the half marathon. I was and still am in shock. Yes you’ve read right – I’m running a half marathon in 29 days!
I entered the competition on my commute into work (you know the ones in the paper that say e-mail your details and a winner will be picked); the week before the prize was a pair of festival tickets and I wasn’t so lucky plus I for some random reason thought the half marathon was in November so even if I did win, it would be fine – just another goal for #operationyummymummy – plus it wasn’t like I was going to win or anything, surely!
The competition was run by Vita Coco so I will also be receiving a hefty delivery of coconut water which I’m actually looking forward to trying – but hang on aren’t I forgetting something? Oh yes it’ll be the small matter of running 13.1 miles in 29 days!!!!
You can see the recurring theme – 13.1 miles is a long way I only trained for a 10K and yet still managed to acquire a pretty ugly (and now partial) toenail as a result – what the heck is going to happen after this little adventure?!
In the last 24 hours I’ve come up with my very own plan – I know I can complete a 10K so it stands to reason that if I reduce my effort by 30% and couple it with walking I should be able to complete the course in 3ish hours. No drama – but and this is one humongous but my plan aka pretty please with all fingers crossed will only work if I train at maximum effort and take on the right nutrition plan. I suppose this is the part where I should come clean and admit I know a small amount about each – already I can tell this is going to be an interesting training plan!
I’ve had mixed response from the people I’ve told so far – my family really don’t want me to do it and think I’m bat crazy to even think it’s possible without serious injury. However a couple of people have been really encouraging and to be honest that’s just what I need. There is no guarantee that it will be ok, there is no guarantee that I won’t pick up a serious injury, there is no guarantee that I’ll finish the race, heck I can’t even promise that I’ll make it to race day without a catastrophic injury from training but what I can do is give it my all and make sure every run, every weight session and every boot camp counts.
There are no certainties with any of this – as I write this I keep shaking my head thinking what are you doing you crazy crazy lady. But hey #operationyummymummy is all about my limits and where’s the fun without the challenge? So who’s with me for the mayhem of the next 29 days as I train for a half marathon – oh yes the great big 13.1 miles of elephant in the room!
