The news came through that the 7 marathons race that I was training for is now only happening every two years. That means that the 2021 race is no longer happening. There is no way that we will be able to raise the entry fee by the 2020 race, nor will I be fit enough. The decision had to be made about what to do and how to progress. In some ways, you could say that it was fate telling me that I really didn’t have time, or the money, to do everything that had to be done next year as well as training for the race. In 2020 we are going to 4 weddings, including our own which has three weeks of honeymoon, we have an holiday planned for October, my business is at a very interesting and critical stage etc. The list goes on. I also had to consider the mental energy that would be taken up by focusing on the race for two years. It would be completely draining.
The decision that I have come to is to take a break from all things world marathon race related. This will be my last blog for a while, but I may well post bits on Twitter and Facebook every now and then. As for my training, I am going to continue with the 11 activities per week as I enjoy the schedule. Mad, I know! Rather than working on a mix of speed and endurance, I am solely going to work on my speed and try to get much faster at half marathons. Benson and I looked at a couple of the previous half marathons that I have done and I need to be 15 minutes quicker to come 1st in my age group. That is a huge ask as I will need to run over a minute faster per mile. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is huge.
I haven’t given up on doing the 7 marathons world challenge and this year of focusing on speed may well be the year that makes doing the race that much easier, if doing 7 marathons on consecutive days can ever be in the same sentence as the word easier! Watch this space and we will see how things progress.
A big thanks must go out to Benson from The Fitness Garden. He has been a pillar of strength to get me this far. Whilst we are taking a year out, he has kindly said that I should stay in touch and he will help nudge me when I get stuck on ideas.
My Journey to the World Marathon Challenge 2021 