At the foot of Marathon Everest with a long way to climb

The definition of a marathon:

1. A long-distance running race, strictly one of 26 miles and 385 yards
2. A long-lasting or difficult task or operation of a specified task

I think the Virgin London Marathon 2013 falls into both of these!

So, my marathon journey has well and truly begun. I applied for a ballot place and for the second year in a row, was unfortunately denied one.

Unphased, I then decided I would go down the charity route and have secured a place with the Run For It team, raising money for Age UK. I’m really excited to have secured a place and although I know the next 6 months will be a challenge, I’m determined to cross that finish line.

I’ve always been quite a sporty person – I was on the cross country and netball teams at school, and represented my county in athletics a few times, but it’s only been in the last 12 months or so that I’ve started to enjoy running again. Having said that, it’s mostly been running on the treadmill, and I haven’t been running long distances – the odd 5k here pushing towards a 10k.

The idea of running 26.2 miles is really daunting at the moment – it’s the thought of hitting that pavement continuously for over 4 hours without collapsing that’s really getting to me. Or running from my house to Haywards Heath – that seems near on impossible!

I’m quite a competitive person however, and would definitely consider myself as positive. So although it will take time, no doubt hurt, will require willpower and changing my life, I WILL get there. I’m taking one week at a time – it’s not a sprint race after all.