On the 1st October I decided to enter the ballot for the 2023 London Marathon. Running a marathon is on my bucket list of things to do in my forties. I have always wanted to run the London Marathon since a young age, I just can’t run! So anyway, I thought I would apply and see what happens. I applied last year and the year before and was unsuccessful. Would I be lucky this time round?

Since I applied, I thought I had better start training, just in case. So I started doing Couch to 5k. Week one and I had to run for 1 minute and then walk for 1 minute, and repeat this 8 times. Well the first 1 minute run nearly killed me, haha. And I want to run a marathon? What was i thinking….

Week 2 of Couch to 5k and I have progressed to running for 90 seconds and walking for 90 seconds, repeated 6 times. Lots of swearing and sweating. I’m not sure I am cut out for this running malarky….

Week 3 and progress is being made. I am now running for 3 minutes!! Actually thought I was going to die and couldn’t breathe by the end of the session on Monday, but by the Friday I was managing to run the 3 minutes quite comfortably.

Moving into week 4 and the running intervals have increased to 5 minutes. I was dreading this over the weekend knowing what I had to face on Monday morning. But to my surprise, I managed to run the 5 minutes and still be alive at the end of it.

I had literally just finished my Couch to 5k session on Monday when I received an email. It was the ballot results for the London Marathon. Was I in or was I out?

Drum roll……

Drum roll please …….

And I AM IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG I actually can not believe it. Totes emosh and a million thoughts going through my head. I currently can only run for 5 minutes and in 6 months time I need to run 26 miles!!! I really must be insane. BUT, I will do it one way or another 🙂

Watch this space for training updates and progress. I need all the support and encouragement I can get!