MARIA'S MARATHON BLOG

Warm up

When Dad first mentioned the marathon to me I jumped at the chance - an opportunity to raise money for Topsy, a charity he cares so much about; and a way of shifting some of my chub from too many pizzas and red wine! I am one of those people who always commits to distant events and when they actually come round I normally find a way to wheedle out of them but I can’t do that with the marathon so now onto my training. I started training properly in January at the same time as starting a new job in recruitment (terrible mistake!) It was very long hours from 8am-7pm everyday, stuck in an office and even having to take lunch at my desk. This meant that I was getting up at 5.30am most mornings to squeeze an hour run in before work, pounding the mean streets of Hampstead in the pitch black. At the weekends I was doing one very long run on a Saturday, from where I live in Belsize Park, North London to East Dulwich : a lovely route through central London around 10 miles in total - not that much but in my defence I was only starting out!

Middle Distance

I unfortunately only lasted a month in the job. The hours were long and I wasn’t able to run anywhere near as much as I would have liked. This didn’t concern me just because the marathon was fast approaching but because running for me is a form of therapy it allows me some peace in such a hectic city as London. So I packed the job in the end of January and this allowed me to focus on my training more, I was managing more runs and longer ones too! I was running for an hour and half 4 times a week and 2 and half hour run on a Saturday-I really should have measured these by miles and not by time-a habit I’ve got into over the years! I started working for Camden Town Brewery as a sales rep looking after NW postcodes in London which was perfect as I live right in the centre but I also have Soho and Mayfair which, for anyone who has lived in London know how cool those areas are! It’s a great company, relaxed but professional and a really cool brand-the opposite if where I was before. Because its field sales I have the freedom to plan my own days and so training really ramped up since I was able to go at a normal time in the morning! The other side of the coin is because its field sales I went from sitting on my bum for 10 hours a day eating Pret baguettes to walking around London flogging beer for 9 hours a day, safe to say a massive change but I think its actually helped my training. I noticed my stamina was getting better and my abs were finally starting to come back from the holiday they had over Christmas!

Home straight

It is now the beginning of April and the marathon is looming…in a good way! I’ve been taking tips from my boyfriend Tom who comes from a line of marathon runners and has done the London marathon twice. He says now is the time for training to taper off and concentrate on keeping my health in tip-top condition. So I have one 15 mile run left to do this weekend then I’m going to be doing shorter ones. I’ve been doing yoga, pilates and body pump classes at my local gym to supplement my training. I’ve been having vanilla whey protein shakes for the first time ever! And been relishing being able to eat all the carbs I want without feeling guilty! I don’t expect to break any records but I’m hoping for a reasonable time and not to be overtaken by too many people dressed as bananas! I’ve really enjoyed having something to train for and I really hope I do my Dad and the rest of the charity proud!!

Fun-raising

Now this is an area where I have been slightly slack and left a little late-but not to fear its all happening this week! My only excuse is the fact I started two new jobs in the space of two months and this meant I had lots to learn in a short space of time and so my focus was admittedly on this. My boyfriend Tom is a sports trader and he came up with the clever idea of holding a fundraising event based around the Golf Masters which is going on this week. We are having all his sports betting friends round this Sunday for ‘game night’ (I always thought that was American football?!) anyway I’m going to make ‘game-day food’ mozzarella sticks, burgers, hot dogs and chips for the guys and they will pay an entry fee. We are then moving onto the fundraising part of the night with cocktails made by me and an undisclosed ‘buy-in’ fee which will also go to Topsy so safe to say I’m utilising Tom’s contacts! I’m confident I will hit the target with a few days to go…always a close call with me, but as they say old habits die hard!