It started with a 10K...

Hello!  Welcome to the first post of my new blog - Marathon Girl.  I'm the Bristol Beauty Blog, and you may know me from my beauty and fashion related scribblings.  However, I'm also a wannabe marathon runner.  I thought that today, being the London Marathon 2011 day, it would be a good day to start this second blog dedicated to my attempt to run a marathon in 2012.

This blog is going to be about my training over the next year and my thoughts and feelings about different aspects of running.  I don't want to bore my beauty and fashion readers to tears by posts on hill sessions, fartlek and tapering, so I thought it deserved its own space on the internet.

So how come I am running a marathon next year?  Well, it started with a 10K... My colleague has persuaded me to join in the work team running the Bristol 10K in May.  Over the past couple of years I've taken part in a couple of Race for Life events, but I've never trained properly for them, so it's been a very half-hearted effort, and I've not run them without a bit of walking.  However, I am determined to run the whole 10K and have been training for it for the last month.  I'm feeling confident that I will be able to run the whole distance now, as I'm up to nearly 4 1/2 miles in my training, so it's not too far to get to the 6.2 miles (or 10K) distance.

At the moment I'm training just to cover the 10K distance for my May race, but I know my time will be terrible.  I'd like to do it in under an hour, but I think that's highly unlikely given my current pace.  I've signed up to do the Race for Life 10K in July as well.  I ran (well walked mainly) this last year, and there was a very small field, so it was really relaxed, as well as on a flat course.  I'm hoping that by July, I'll not only be able to get round the course at a trot, but run it in a reasonable time as well.

So where does running a marathon come into all this?  Well, I've always wanted to run one, but never really stuck to running training enough to be fit enough to contemplate one.  Although, I'm not fit enought to run a marathon today, I'm hoping that by next April it'll be a breeze!  Or bloody hard work, but worth every mile!  A few weeks ago I was looking on the internet for some running events I could do, as I'm really enjoying my training and realised that there was a marathon in the town where I went to university, where I still have a few good friends.  I happened to be looking on the marathon's website on the day after this year's marathon had been run, which was also the day that entries opened for next year.  Without thinking about it too much, I just signed up, and as I was so early with my entry, I got my place confirmed immediately - there really is no ducking out now!

So hopefully in 51 weeks I'll have just completed just over 26 miles by the sea, along the south coast, and I'll have a medal hung around my neck - I've just got to get through those two pesky 10Ks first, not to mention the training!

This blog is going to be my training diary, as well as other running related posts.  I realise it may be a bit off topic for readers of my beauty blog, which is why I've separated it out.  If you're interested in running and want to comment and/or follow my journey you're very welcome!  Any support will be gratefully received!

Thanks for reading! xx