firstly im not very elequent so its going to be a very short and sweet post ,
needless to say i was very nervous as its my first marathon , not only that but there is no support on the route that was planned as its up and back of a old disused railway line there was the odd dog walker and people in new trainers avoiding the mud but like i said no support lol , mostly the dogs walkers were grumpy and had the dogs on extendable leads making for tricky marathon running . i started off in the room with all the "real runners " in there fab gear and calf socks ( cant get any to go over my little fat legs so was quite put out lol ) .. so i left the room after signing in and getting my race number and decided to go watch the start of the parkrun instead as the marathon started from my home parkrun
i then went back up to the race breifing and listened very intently as we were told we would NOT have to run up the hill at the end ( thankyou jesus for that miracle ) as lindley the RD of challenge running did not have permissions ! i can literally say ive never been as happy to hear anything as i was to hear that
i started off in my normal slow and steady way and as usual everyone was pulling away very quickly but did i let that phase me ,,, no i did not , i was more than prepared to come last and as long as i got in under the 6 hr cut off i was gonna be a very happy bunny !
my first half was a very nice pace , very strong , very focused with a little bit of trepidation that i may not make the halfway 3 hr cutoff as i would have gotten pulled out there had i not , anyhow , made it to turn around in 2 hrs 40 mins with time to drink a nice fat coke get my water filled and back out again for the return journey home , again not too bad felt ok , was hydrating and feeding myself on the move as id trained to do and was feeling great , until my ipod just stopped working and then pretty much al i could think of was how i wanted it to be over as it was soooooo boring on the flitchway ! .. dirt path trees dirt path trees etc etc , i have trained with and without music on long runs , i have aways run solo on long runs so i know how to keep my head in the game , however my head was having none of it , so i started a run / walk plan , i dont know why as ive always run but i just didnt have it in me , around mile 22 ish i saw a girl i knew who had come out to " run with me " honestly i dont know if this helped me at all and i dont think it would have helped if i was feeing strong and going along beautifully either but thats by the by , so i was chatted to for miles whilst every now and then having a spurt of a run just to keep myself from falling under cutoff
round mile 26 my coach saw me and decided to motivate me to finish strong , i was ok but tbh i think i would have liked the race to be 3 miles shorter ,
i powered over the line to cheers and whoops from people who had come out to see me from running club , i have never felt so alive and so special as i did in that moment , i was hoping to finish in 5 59 59 because even 1 second over would have been a DNF , however i managed to finish in 5 47 21 and also scooped a prize for being DFL ( dead f@ing last ) .. WINNER !!!! i did finish strong , no one knew id struggled for a few miles i have a VERY good game face , that fact i could still run over the line was testiment to my training and my sheer bloodymindedness !
i did say i was only doing one marathon , apparently i chose pretty much the one no one else wanted to do but with my anxiety i think the stress of doing one further afeild would have got the better of me the travelling and the mega crowds so i picked a local one , and now im sat here thinking about signing up again next year ! thankyou C25k family for believing in me way back when , please let this report inspire 1 person to have a go at whatever you want to do , .. nothing to lose everything to gain XX
Written by
secksy34
Marathon
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SO well done for gritting it out and finishing with a flourish! I saw your Strava recording and it's an unbelievably long distance when you see all those km's listed and try to follow the course...sooo looong!!! I'm glad there was no hill to finish on.
You have acheived your ambition! What a start to your year.
Amazing acheivement...amazing you.
Don't forget to ask for your Marathon badge on here too!
Well done - what am amazing achievement, you now know that you are capable of anything you care to take on. I hope you are suitably proud of yourself! Fantastic!
I was just chatting to my daughter in law, telling her about your amazing journey and she told me about a ‘fellow northerner’ that she had met when she was volunteering last week at park run, who had mentioned they were doing the Flitch Way marathon
Showed her your pic and - yep what a small world! Apparently you had a selfie taken together 😁
Congratulations secksy34 on completing your first marathon, lovely photo of you and your bling medal, what a great start to the year for you. Ask the administrators to change the badge word "half marathon" on the right side of your username to "MARATHON" once again congratulations 🎊 😊.
Haha my shorts have been called many things but never that before X and thanks I'm not a words with so was quite chuffed when I'd finished my " report" lol
I think because we started at about the same time and I remember you scared to run outdoors and now you run rings around me, your story is extra special !
Such a fantastic report secksy34 - you did it!!👍👏🏅🏃🏽♀️👍😀 I totally understand your reasons for choosing a smaller, more local marathon and if I ever come to run one ( not this year that's for sure!) I think I would be tempted to do the same. What a fantastic achievement and one that you will always be so proud of....and yes, I am sure there will be others who follow in your footsteps, inspired by your achievement.🙂 Rest up well now - you deserve it!😀
You did it and you were awesome doing it! Huge respect to you for going for this distance and seeing it through. You look really happy at the end in your pic which is great too. Congratulations!
Brilliant secksy34 well done. Great to see you conquering a marathon. What a wonderful journey you have been on from starting C25K to now. I havent got anywhere near a marathon yet but after reading you report... perhaps!
oh i didnt expect to inspire anyone to do a daft long run lol , just to do whatever they think they want to do !!
im hoping to be out for a " little run" tommorrow , maybe a 5k or 4 miles depending on how i feel after mile 1 lol , i always laugh when i refer to X amount of miles as small runs ... especially as we all know how long a minute can feel at the beginning of the plan X hapy running to you too X
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. i started off in the room with all the "real runners " in there fab gear and calf socks ( cant get any to go over my little fat legs so was quite put out lol ) .. so i left the room after signing in and getting my race number and decided to go watch the start of the parkrun instead as the marathon started from my home parkrun 
Well done Secksy 
Royal Berks 10k race report
