Respecting the Distance

Posted by: Alison Chisnell on: March 2, 2014

• In: Running | Training
• 3 Comments

It’s 5 weeks to go until the Brighton marathon…and there continues to be lots of learning and personal development in all of the marathon training. Annoyingly, many of the lessons I am having to learn several times over, but am still determined that I will put the changes into place for next time around, for the next week, next day or the next run…after all, that is what training is all about isn’t it, learning to do things differently.

I started February having completed a 14 mile run, which at the time was the longest I had ever done…by the last day of February I had clocked up over 120 running miles in the shortest of months and finished the second 20 mile run in the month. Even to me, that sounds pretty good! The month has definitely had highs and lows though: I have certainly experienced cumulative fatigue from the long training runs and generally a lower level of energy overall than I enjoyed in the early days of training. Again and again I have learnt the power and importance of good nutrition and eating properly….more often than not, by getting it wrong and struggling in the long distances!

Marathon runners talk about respecting the distance of 26.2 miles, and I am finding that equally true of the long training runs. If I haven’t prepared for a long training run properly, if I haven’t eaten the right food in the days leading up to it, if my head is not mentally in the right place and if I am not fully rested and well hydrated, sooner or later I will struggle. I managed to demonstrate this (not so) admirably when I ran 20 miles with Flora on Friday: from 15 miles onwards, my communication and conversation dipped lower and lower until all my energy was consumed with just keeping going and not giving up. It was a tough run, made tougher than it had needed to be by inadequate preparation on my part. The lovely Flora was a complete star and kept chatting away to me (we joked afterwards about ‘Flora Radio’!) and definitely gave me more than she received in support on that particular run! The main thing though, is that we did it, however imperfectly on my part…and onwards and upwards we go. We’re definitely getting to know each other very well through completing this adventure together too… 😉

Big smiles after finishing 20 miles!

There is another distance that I need to remember and respect too though and it is one that I often forget about: the journey I have travelled in the last 21 months from complete, resolutely determined non-runner into a very-nearly marathon distance runner. I honestly never thought I would be running a marathon and I feel both hugely proud that I have got this far and quietly confident that I will be able to complete the journey. That’s another positive thing to think about while clocking up the miles in the final few weeks!

I’m raising money for Mind the mental health charity and Flora is running for the MS Society…if you are able to sponsor either of us, please click here. Thank you so much for the wonderful support.

Tags: Brighton marathon, Marathon training