“A goal should scare you a little and excite you a lot.”
– Joe Vitale
I did it… I ran a bloody marathon!!!!
From the very beginning I always said I would never run a marathon… I also use to
say I’d never run a half marathon. I have run 10 half marathons since October
2023.
Our running coach and group are mainly based in Melbourne and so many of them
run the Melbourne Marathon. Last November when it was leading up to the day to
jump online and buy tickets for the Melbourne Marathon my husband, Kim said, let’s
do it. Let’s try and get tickets to run the Melbourne Marathon. My reply was, you go
ahead and do the marathon, if we are going I’ll register for the half. Kim just said,
you can’t go all that way to run the half, do the marathon.
Nope, I wasn’t buying it… Well things changed suddenly that morning… Here I was
online trying to score a full marathon ticket… eeekkkk…
The first lot that went on sale first thing in the morning we both missed out. We
jumped on for the 2nd time and I was able to get a marathon ticket, Kim did not. I felt
sick. Kim was the main one that wanted to run this marathon not me. I said to him
you have my ticket and I’ll jump on and purchase a half ticket, there are some still
available. He said no!
By the time I thought I wasn’t going to listen to him, I’ll jump online and purchase that
half ticket and well, they were all sold out too.
Being relatively new to the running world and these bigger events I wasn’t aware
there were other ways of purchasing tickets. We purchased an accommodation
package that night and was guaranteed that second full mara ticket. I felt sick,
scared, excited and then oh my what have I done.
The months started ticking away very quickly, then I started our Training Plan which
did not go to plan.
Life does get in the way, working full time, being a wife and mum and then I was
struck down with a virus for 6 weeks, so my long runs were not very long at all…
This was over July and August. I could see on my plan what distances I should’ve
been running and just couldn’t… I was worried, my coach wasn’t.
I was well enough to pick up training at the end of August.
My long runs were on a Sunday morning, by myself. Kim is a lot faster than me so
we’d be out there at the same time, just not together.
After my 30km run I felt so good and actually said to myself, I reckon I can actually
run this marathon.
My 32km run was done in such strong winds, but I had a good run.
The week after, I ran a fast City to Bay and ran a time that I didn’t think possible.
My plan on the following week was a 38km very easy run. I did not want to do it, I
had to drag myself out the door.
We parked the car in a central location so we had extra water, electrolytes, gels etc.
I was going to run 5km one way, 5km back to the car, then 5km the other way, 5km
back to the car and so on, until I got to 38km.
I got to 26km and hit that brick wall.. I had tears and really didn’t know why I was
doing this. I pulled myself together and off I went again. Kim rang me when I was at
the 28.5km to see where I was at. He’d pulled the pin at 34km and was back at the
car. He offered to come and pick him up. I said no, I’d be so disappointed. By the
time I got back to the car and Kim I was at 30km. I had another drink and gel and
asked Kim to go to the servo and get me a coke please. Real coke, no coke zero.
I kept running towards town and by the time Kim had gone in and bought the coke I
thought I’d be getting closer to the 38km mark.
I pulled the pin at 35km. I could not physically or mentally go any further. This is
where all the doubts started coming in again. How the hell was going to run another
7.2km in 2 weeks time.
I pulled up very sore from this run. No running at all. I went to our Physio the
Wednesday before the event not knowing what it was or if I’d be ok to run. My
biggest fear was getting out on course and being in pain from the 15km mark and not
finishing.
Physio assured me I will run Sunday, and I will get to the finish line. It was just my
body telling me enough was enough. So I was given exercises to do.
We were driving to Melbourne and left on the Friday morning. We stayed at Ballarat
Friday night. I woke up Saturday morning wanting to go home. I felt so sick with
nerves and questioning everything again. We ticked off our first Interstate parkrun,
Wallaby Track parkrun. I chose to do a slow jog/walk. Mentally I needed to know if I
could run without pain
Parkrun felt great!!
On to Melbourne we went. Went to the expo and then spent a few hours at Salt
which was joined to the Pullman where we were staying. They have magnesium
spas, cold baths and saunas.
I don’t do cold, so spent a lot of time in the spa and sauna. My body was feeling
good.
Italian restaurant for tea to carb load, then into bed.
I think I slept for about 3 hours in total. Woke up at 4am thinking I was going to be
sick. Up at 4.30 to try and eat, that was hard.
5.40am off to meet our Runnez crew for a photo before the start. Coming down the
lift of the Pullman, the hotel was full of runners.. wow what a vibe.
All of a sudden I was at the start line
The first 21 – 25km felt good… then my biggest fear, I needed the toilet. At the
27km mark I saw 3 Portaloo’s.. no line up so I headed straight to them. They were all occupied but no line up. This put 5 mins on my time but I’d rather that than the
alternative.
Feeling ok.. saying to myself this feels way better then my last long run. My coach
was going to be at the 32km mark so I was looking forward to that. I got there, trying
not to cry, had a quick chat, flat coke, lollies and off I go again. 10km to go.
I got to the 35km mark and boom, there was that wall.
Those last 5-7km are brutal!
I rang Kim at the 40km mark in tears, I really didn’t know how I was going to get to
that finish line. He couldn’t hear me with all the background noise.
It was so hard to transition from walking to running, it hurt, it seemed better if I could
jog really slow. The positive here is that none of the pain I was experiencing was
from what I went to the physio for 4 days prior..
Then there were pacers that came up behind me. These 3 pacers helped me get to
the finish line. Their encouragement is next level, just amazing.
I was hurting and cramping but with their words of encouragement and then seeing
the MCG I forgot about it and dug really really deep. I made it, I got to that finish line.
That feeling running into and around the MCG was next level, I was so emotional and so bloody proud and so worth it all!
Melbourne marathon was brilliant and I am so glad I was pushed outside of my
comfort zone and ran 42.2km’s. The support out there on course from people you
know and from complete strangers is amazing.
I did it.. I ran a bloody marathon!!!! How lucky are we to be able to run events like
this!
Renae is a member of the RMA community and lives in South Australia.