Today marks the beginning of the third week of my marathon training block. With just 15 weeks left until the Vancouver Marathon in May, the reality is starting to set in fully. These past few weeks I have been running and excercising every day and I don’t think I remember the last time, were I didn’t feel sore. The weeks have been filled with highs and lows: I can feel myself getting stronger and faster but at the same time I feel myself getting frustrated over the slow progress. There are days were I feel like I could run the marathon tomorrow and then there are days were even running the smallest distances feels impossible. Running has been a very important part of my life for a while now, but training for a full marathon is a whole new level of commitment to me.
Looking back, my running journey started in June of 2023 when I had set myself the goal of running 10km in September. The only way that I can describe those first few months is: painful. But apparently that didn’t scare me off enough, because right after finishing my first race, I signed up for the Prague Half Marathon in April. That winter and spring I spent countless hours on streets and trails, trying to get as much time on my feet as possible. In April I crushed the 21.1km with a new PB and it was one of the best days of my life. After that training block I decided to take some time off and just enjoy the beauty of running without any race pressure, but the goal of running a marathon was always in the back of my head. Before moving to Canada for a year, I subconsciously knew that I wanted to challenge myself. So after countless hours of thinking this whole project and seemigly unachievable goal over, I finally signed up for the Vancouver Marathon in May. I know that running a full marathon is an incredible achievement, so I’m trying to go into this experience open-minded and with a positive mindset (with the hopes of making it to the finish line!).