Final Running Journey Thoughts

On another note, when I moved away to Rome, I became part of a very closed and friendly running family, a family which I hope to stay in close contact with and run with them again after I have moved back to London. I met the Tiber Runners the second day I have moved to Rome and I am so thankful they have included me with such welcoming charms. Although I didn't speak Italian and only some of them spoke English, we were able to connect without problem because we all shared a great passion for running. Through something as simple as putting on shoes and heading out onto the streets, parks or river banks, I have made a solid group of friends, which I thought I would never get to experience in my short amount of time in an alien country. And these people run hard! They really put in the miles and handwork and they really inspire to become a better runner too. I am extremely thankful for Coach Alessia, who takes the run every thursday from Nike in Rome. She is a runner. She is a competitor and she races in the regional races, winning one after the other and it is such an honour to be able to be coached by her. She really made me believe that I could get faster and better. I also have my Roman family to thank, for starting to appreciate my calves a bit more. I mean, like I said before, I still really don't like them and wish they could be smaller, but, when I am always surrounded by them discussing about my 'Polpacci' (calves in italian), one starts to blush, and I am beginning to try and see the appeal in them.

I mean, I have to thank my huge calves and my thunder thighs, I genuinely believe that it is the existence of these humungous body parts that have helped me in avoiding some running related injuries (I hope I haven't jinxed myself now). I have also adopted the whole running on the ball of my foot ever since my dad's teaching, taken in running posture notes from Born to Run, and other sources. Also, looking at instagram photos of Elites and runners in general and how they tend to land and position themselves in a run. Combine all the information together and I think I have came up with quite a good pose that lasts throughout the run without becoming too rigid or too exhausting. I have also started training. I don't really have a plan, other than trying to fit in a short tempo run, a long run and a training session with some core work and yoga throughout my week. My workout does not consume my life. I am a designer that is currently working so I cant just dedicate all my time to working out (although in the past month it must seems like thats all I have been doing but I blame that to #Chasesummer! By the way, go #crewwasabi!). All in all, I like to enjoy my exercising time and never really put too much pressure on myself. The last thing I want to happen is for me to start hating this healthy lifestyle and slum back to what I was like when I first moved to London.

But I believe that wouldn't happen. Mostly because of the great spirit of the running community and family I have made. I actually feel like anywhere I go now, I can enjoy the city with a run, I can meet like minded people with a run and I can relax myself after a long day of sign seeing with a run. All of these must be doing something good for myself.

Now, back to the original topic, from god knows how many entries ago.

Marathon.

I have finally decided to take the plunge and do it next year, in the year 2015. Why, because I am currently having some major FOMO. Actually, no, I just think that may be, perhaps, I am kind of ready for it. Even though it has only been one year since I started running half marathons.

I look at all my running friends around me and a lot of people started running way after I have but have already complete one or two or three or even more marathons. I am starting to feel a bit like a failure. What has taken me this long to compete in one? What am I so afraid of? Why don't I just do it like everybody else is doing?

To answer that, it is because of myself. It is precisely because I will judge myself to harshly about it that I am really afraid to make that jump in distance. I have said previously, when I don't complete a run in a certain time I really beat myself up for it and get very upset about it.

Another reason is that I feel I am not prepared yet. I want to reach a certain time in my half marathon and possibly a 20 mile before proceeding onto a marathon. My current PB for a Half marathon is 1:38:00 and I have yet to run in a timed 20 miler. I would like to bring my half marathon time down to 1:35:00 before even considering a marathon. 

But In the past year, I am starting to feel that in order to get faster at my half marathon, I need to start training for an even longer distance and testing my endurance, before I can bring up my speed for a shorter distance, like how I have done with my 10k to half marathon jump.

Also, for this, I have Ade to thank. He is one of my very good friend from RunWest and in 2014, he went and did the London Marathon and I am so extremely proud of him to have done that. I am even more honoured to have been part of his training journey and was able to do a few long runs with him before I left the country. On one of those training run I managed to do a marathon distanced run, without originally planning to do so. It was after this amazing experience (my legs were fine the next day, what?!?!) and able to do this training run in a humble 3:51hr that I feel, may be, perhaps, I am kind of ready for a marathon.

Currently I am trying to bring my pace down to a 7.30min/mile on a 12-15 mile run, while focusing on some Yasso 800 track work out. I believe if I continue working on this, I will be ready for my road to marathon in 2015. I know people always say, enjoy your first marathon. As this is your first race, it will always be a PB. But I don't think I can live with myself if I went by that. I am very competitive when it comes to running and many other aspect in my life, and I am the most competitive against myself. This is exactly what gets me down sometimes. I am so competitive that I beat myself down and I feel terrible about myself and my not so great achievement that sometimes, I just think, what's the point?

But I think everyone has those moments and they come and go. So now, I want to be able to prepare very thoroughly. But I want to be really prepared. I know there are days that you don't know what might happen and may be on race day you wake up and you have diarrhoea or that stupidly I have decided to get really drunk the night before and wake up hungover. Whichever situation I might be in I want to be really prepared because I don't think I can live with myself if I chose to do a marathon and I didn't get the time I really want. Again, this is probably why I still haven't done one, is because I am so afraid of the could have, would have, should have. I need to just grow a pair, and accept all the possible scenarios and be as prepared as I could be.

Also. I want to start travelling to places and different countries and meet like minded people. I want to meet all the crews around the world. I want to meet all the runners around the world. I want to meet all these crazy people that think running 26.2 miles is a great idea on a sunday morning when you could be lying in bed with breakfast. And I think even though running a half marathon is still a great distance to travel for, to run a marathon is an even better reason to travel for.