Here, one of our runners, Vix, tell her story of preparing to run the Uganda Marathon 2017. Her first ever marathon event, she tells us about the highs, lows, and challenges of training to run 42K through rural Uganda, all in support of the Charity Project ‘Women’s Soroptimists’.
We return to Vix’s story in part 2 of her training blog…
Part 2: The Best Laid Plans
By Vix Anderton
The best-laid plans….as I wrote my last blog post here, I was getting ready to do my first 15-mile training run, the furthest I have run. Unfortunately, I came down with what might have been the world’s worst cold, resulting in 11 days of no training (with 4 bedridden days over the nicest weekend of the year so far). Far from ideal when we are only 6 weeks away from race day.
The good news is that I no longer sound like I smoke 60-a-day and it only took a week or so to get over that horrible cough. I am back to training and I really do think it was worth taking the time to recover properly before getting back out there. But it has not been easy.
I did manage my first 15-miles over the Easter weekend. Considering it was only the second time I had run in nearly two weeks – hmm, maybe I should have worked back up to it a little – my pace wasn’t too bad and I managed the run in 2 hours 20 minutes. But it hurt! I run along the Thames so I ended up running past Westminster around mile 10 and it took all my willpower not to hop on the tube and go home! My legs and feet were complaining viciously in the later miles; I literally flopped onto the sofa as soon as I walked through the door, I was just so tired. All that said, my legs were a bit sore the following day but back to normal within 48 hours and I did get to test my hydration and fuelling so it was a useful training session. And I ran 15 miles without stopping! I’m just going to take a moment to bask in that little first!
I’m back following my training plan this week and, whilst I’m feeling the effects of missing two weeks’ training, I am getting back into the groove. But I am not feeling good about the marathon at all right now. I’ve only got a couple more long runs planned before tapering kicks in so I don’t feel like I have much time to work this all out. I started out with an (unrealistic) intention to run sub-4 hours, based on a couple of sub-2 hours half-marathons. Right now, I will just be happy to finish! 26.2 miles feels like such a long way and I am really questioning my sanity in signing up. Maybe this is a normal part of the process and getting ill is just one of those things. I just hate not doing things well or not achieving my goals. I know this all totally arbitrary and nothing bad will happen if I decided to ‘only’ do the half-marathon or if I run in 5 hours rather than 4 but that is completely beside the point! Argh!
I’m really looking forward to the group run in early May – I’m hoping that spending time with some of you and making some new friends will help lift my spirits. In the meantime, if anyone has any tips or advice, I’m all ears!
Watch this space – we’ll have more training updates from Vix soon! And if you’d like to check out her fundraising page, you can do so here. Thanks for writing such a wonderful blog Vix! 🙂
