A BIG Announcement!

Friday's workout: Nada. I wanted to run this morning, but decided to rest since this is Running Advent Eve and therefore the last day of complete rest before running 23 days in a row.

I still don't have much to say...

But it's just my luck that a dear friend of mine has something HUGE to say today!  Jen and I have been friends since high school and even though many miles (and a really big pond) now separate us, we have remained close and become even closer in the last few years thanks to blogging and running.

Take it away Jen!  

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Hi everyone. 

I’m Jen. I blog over at Two Itchy Feet. You may remember me from way back when I did a wee guest post for B about a measly 5k I’d just run. 

Well, things have moved on quite a bit since then. I’ve completed not one, not two, but three whopping half marathons, shaving more and more time off my PBs (2:19; 2:08, 2:02) but not quite managing that ever elusive sub-2-hour time that I’m after. I’ve run a bunch of 10k’s and even managed a 26:12 5k PB (quite the achievement for slow-plodding me). I’ve also participated in my first relay race through the streets of Cambridge in a nod to the movie Chariots of Fire and have completed my first ever duathlon (10k run, 22k bike, 5k run), although it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped (must. respect. the distance.)

The husband and I after nearly dying during finishing the London duathlon

So, you see, I’ve been keeping busy. But it seems that there’s still one distance that’s been missing from my list of running achievements. Ya know, that big ole’ elephant in the running-room. The thing that most of my running buddies have faced, conquered and, as in the case of B, thrashed: the 26.2. 

Now, I’ve always, always, always said that I’ll never ever run a marathon. It’s just too long and hard. Having three halves under my belt, and clearly remembering how I felt after each one of them (and the consequent DOMs), I swore to myself (and made my husband swear to remind me of this!) never ever to run a full marathon.

Then I went for a short run with my younger sister Becci.

Editor's note: I remember when Becci was in elementary school...and dancing like a crazy person at what I believe was her 13th birthday. Now I feel super old!

Becci had just run her first 5k (strangely in the exact same time in which I’d run my very first 5k). Becci was telling me that she’d love to run a 10k, even a half marathon with me one day but that she just didn’t think that she could. It was too far.

Becci and I after our first run together

So I told her that she couldn’t think that way. After all, having just completed her first 5k, no one would expect her to show up and just run a 10k, or even an HM. No, she’d build on the base she’d just established, she’d build up her mileage slowly and intelligently, and the day she’d rock up to her first 10k or 13.1 miles, she’d be ready to kill it. 

The minute I finished my little speech, realization dawned upon me. I’d just argued myself out of every reason why not to sign up for my first marathon. Just like Becci, I wasn’t expected to just rock up and run it. Nay. I, too, would have to build upon my already established base of 13.1 miles, I’d be given sufficient time to increase my mileage, my stamina, my ability. I, too, could run a full marathon.

And so I signed up for my first full marathon, the Greater Manchester Marathon on the 28^th of April 2013. It boasts to be the flattest marathon in the UK (thank goodness) and I’ll have a great group of gals around me (well, probably running way ahead of me…) to support me. 

Yup, that's the kind of support I get from my gals!

So there you have it. I’ve just made my first marathon announcement on RunnerB – never more fitting as she’s the one who’s so very much inspired my running and blogging alike. I’ll let you go back to what you were doing now while I get back to my panic attack.

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Way to go, Jen! I am so excited for you and can't wait to follow your training and race. I know you can do it! If I win the lottery I promise to get my booty over to England and at least cheer you on!

Anyone else out there planning to run their first race of any distance?