Dannie Carr's London Marathon Story
Dannie Carr's London Marathon StoryBeing constantly overtaken by Bananaman was no joke.
Nor was it funny that the rhino who kept appearing at my side could run faster despite his weighty costume (to add insult to injury, he also got far more shouts of encouragement than I did). I had my name on my t-shirt in Madonna-inspired fluorescent orange but to no avail until at 16 miles a familiar voice in the crowd started yelling with lots of enthusiasm. I turned to see my friend and colleague, Kate, cheering with much glee... then I felt a million times better. There were, though, still 10.2 miles to get through, eight of which involved running through severe hamstring cramp, though I didn’t know that in advance of course.
Getting to that 26th mile was the best feeling I have ever had. Yes, it was tiring. Yes, it was emotional. And, yes, my legs were hurting. It had been a huge journey getting to this point – the training, the sleep, the nutrition, the injuries, the occasional loss of faith, the boredom of the same tunes on my I-pod, the stretches, the chafing… and it was all completely worth it.
It was worth it because I could brag about it. It was worth it because I could eat what a wanted for the last few weeks leading up to it. It was worth it because I made special friends at the starting line and en route. It was worth it because I chatted with the generous people in the crowd who gave me jelly babies and chunks of juicy orange. IT was worth it because of the strangers none of us had ever met who stood for up to 7 hours to applaud the thousands of us who took to the streets of London that day out of pure generosity and human spirit!
How did it all begin?
And how did it all begin? Well, with a daft idea really. Or at least I thought it was a daft idea."I'm going to do the marathon!" I stated one sunny but hung-over morning to a group of friends.
"Really?"
"You're a nutter!" "It's a long way you know..." – this one was somewhere along the lines of stating the bleeding obvious of course.
I honestly don't think the reality of what it really involved had hit me at this stage. I had done half marathons before and knew that they were tough enough. But I've always been of the mindset that anything is possible if you, well, set your mind to it!
Training is Tough!
Training started slow and steady. In fact it was frustrating. I wanted to suddenly be running 26 miles without sweating like some super hero. And that was never going to happen.Once you hit as little as a couple of 6 mile sessions in a week it starts to get tough, especially once you start to add in hill and speed sessions. Your mind can play terrible tricks on you and my brain has a terrible habit of going to the negatives. I’d be running for 10 miles and out of that I might have had to walk for about half a mile but my mind would blather on at me about how I really should have run that half mile and about how I really must do better next time. That didn’t help much. I had to learn to reframe. Easier said than done!
There would be runs when I would forget to eat properly beforehand. That sounds silly really but when you're juggling a busy schedule and trying to fit in training as well as the other demands of everyday living it can be easy to take your eye off the nutritional ball. Too little carbohydrate consumed the night before could seriously end in tears alone in the middle of Hackney Marshes the following day. That was far from motivating.
If I hadn't had enough rest that week my runs would suffer.
If I didn't get enough verbal encouragement from my friends my runs would suffer.
It hit me hard when my running buddy, Rachel, had to pull out mid-way because of a torn calf muscle. That left me facing those long rainy runs on my own and feeling decidedly sorry for myself.
Yet I soldiered on, using a range of running websites and blogging as my virtual running partners. It wasn't quite the same but it really helped having some sort of running community to chat with, ask questions, share experiences and such like.
I wasn't perfect. I missed a lot of runs. I cut a lot of runs short. If I hadn't, my time would have likely been much faster. I would have been more prepared. I think.
But you live and learn. When you run, you learn a lot. You mainly learn a lot about yourself and your habits. It gives you time and space to think and breathe and wonder. And it gives your body a chance to really find out what it can achieve when it's challenged. I was surprised and incredibly thankful for what mine was able to carry me through.
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