The Journey Begins – Week 1

Hi All,

You either already know me or don’t have a clue who I am, so here’s the start. I’m Hayley and I am running the London Marathon 2019 in aid of The British Lung Foundation in memory of my Granny Brooks who I sadly lost in January 2018. My gran suffered with a chronic incurable illness called COPD which I will touch on throughout blogging. I have no doubt that she would be ecstatic with pride with my efforts for London Marathon 2019.

I am in full swing with charity fundraising activities however one night I thought well how do I keep people updated on how I am getting on?! Firstly, I want to make it clear I am no Mo Farah but I am going to give it a right good go! I am just someone who enjoys running maybe not the pain but definitely the sense of achievement at the end of a run/race! The furthest I have ever ran is 18.8 miles, I thought that would of put me off for life! Yet here I am writing a blog which to add is all new to me! Now i’m ready to start my first week training for London.

My first ‘race’ you could call it, was Aviemore Half Marathon a couple of years back – if you ever get the chance to go its one of the most beautiful places in Scotland. My dad made me sign up and told me it would be ‘fun’ ..er ok then. I had only ran about a maximum of 3-5 miles before the half marathon. I promised myself I would train for it but it never did happen! I think I even used to tell people I was training when I really wasn’t because does 3 miles count as training? – ha. One exact memory I have of my gran and running. Is that she had every faith that I would be successful at running and completing it. However when it came to my dad, she thought he would struggle to the finish line. Only to find, that it was my dad picking me up at 4 miles from the pavement telling me to keep going when I refused to move – eh?!! It was one of the hardest things I had ever done at that point in my life, I struggled. I didn’t know anything about running and certainly no knowledge on what clothes to wear, shoes to wear, gels and hydration! I precisely remember about 11/12 miles telling my dad to pick me up at the hotel we had passed and to carry on without me. The last mile felt like a lifetime away and I was in a lot of pain, but somehow i managed to finish it. My only advice to someone going to signing up for an event who has never ran before – train and don’t put pressure on yourself! I now know why there are training plans out there (there is loads!) and why these events are taken seriously.

Since then, I swore I would never run again purely because I couldn’t walk for about 2 weeks! However I have since completed a few races and got that ‘running bug’, not sure how it happened but it did! I tend to run about 4 times a week now or any opportunity I get – I enjoy it! Things I’ve learnt 1)you need decent trainers 2) you need proper socks 3) food is fuel 4) there are many different types or running and so forth! When it comes to running gear, surprisingly I’m not a fussy runner! For instance, my watch. I have a Garmin Forerunner, its a tacky little watch and i have had it for 2-3 years now. One thing you will notice at a race, is there will be runners with the newest and latest gear but maybe that’s there thing!

Anyway, here I go. Week 1 of training for London Marathon.

So recently I took part in the Wirral Way 10K run with Sharon (running buddy I met at Helsby RC!). A good excuse to go out and run 6 miles on a Saturday – I even hit my PB on antibiotics I thought that was pretty decent. Monday, the first day of the plan (5 miles). The whole day I acted like I hadn’t ran before. Speaking to Jay (that’s my boyfriend btw) saying it’s the big day! Day 1 of the plan!

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So, I got home from work looked at my fridge there was the first 8 weeks (not the whole 16 week plan) staring at me in the face. Before this I had tips in work from Senead (a close friend/work colleague) to try listen to podcasts while I run. But I’ve never done this before? Im used to getting my playlists on!

I got into my running gear, not the coldest night but off I went with my podcast for my first 5 miles of the plan. Serial is the name of the podcast, now if you have interest at all listen to it its a good podcast. However, picture me running down dark roads listening to a murder investigation. Did the run go quick? Yep, Was I slightly freaked out? Yep. Overall podcasts seem good and I will try it again but maybe not a murder and something more upbeat – if anyone has recommendations please let me know. (Also, I wouldn’t advise anyone to go out on dark roads without reflective clothing, head torch or bright clothing btw!)

The first 5 miles was fine, I was like a new women when I got back home and thought how hard can it be? I will be running a half marathon distance in 4 weeks (I have a slight confession half marathons are my favourite distance). But it then starts to sink in, well some Sundays you will be running 20 miles or I will be running back to back Saturday and Sunday – how am I going to do this?!!

I plan on completing a total of 23 miles this week, I think I normally would average about 20! So I will keep you updated on how my runs go. If you don’t know, all runs are different. The weather, how tight your shoes are, have you eat the right thing, zero energy, tiredness – they all come into play. But then one day you go out and can run and run and run a bit like Forest Gump.. ok maybe not that extreme. You will have days that your slower or your quicker, I will do the park run and try get my best time. Am I exhausted? Of course! I’ve just pushed myself to the maximum for 3.2 miles! But am I focused on time for London right now? Not at all!

I tend not to put a time on it if I’ve never ran the distance before, running 26 miles is an achievement in itself! I will talk about time another anyway or I am going to start rambling for a while.

Now get, set, go! Another 5 miles tonight! The raffle is in full swing this week and winners will be announced on the first week of Feb! There may potentially be a charity night in the cards for the raffle release so I will keep everyone updated!

Again, I would like to thank everyone for supporting me and all the local companies for there generious donations.

Hayley x