My first marathon goal.
I have a goal of running a marathon in under 4 hours this year. I had planned to share my story after completion, but having never run a marathon, I’m going to share my in-progress journey hoping to inspire others.
My running experience in the past was not spectacular but has prepared me for the process of attempting to run a marathon in a targeted time.
Gold Coast ½ marathon.
My running journey began ten years ago, and it didn’t start too well.
Being fit I entered the Gold Coast ½ marathon imagining it would be easy. I hadn’t run much more than 10km but didn’t think that it would be a problem.
Everything started well on event day, and I was running along at a decent pace. But then hit my running barrier at 17km. With only 4km left, I couldn’t run anymore and had to walk.
I dragged myself to the finish line and got an unimpressive time of 2h 36m.
Being pessimistic at the time, I considered my 17km running limit and slow run time a failure. My interest in running declined.
My fitness reduced afterwards until I got a wakeup call from my nephew, which prompted my transformative 40kg weight loss journey here.
Bridge to Brisbane 10km.
Fast forward to two years ago, and my employer had organised a company run. My fitness had been improving, and it sounded fun, so I signed up. There were a few options, and I picked the 10km race.
We had a few sign-ups, but some withdrew, and by race day there was only three of us remaining, the CEO, his EA, and myself.
On the day of the event, there was no chance of us meeting before the race, as there were people everywhere.
The race got divided into different pace groups. Those with previous quick times went to the front and also started earlier. I found a spot in the beginner section in front of the walkers.
I ran well during the race, maintaining a good pace, seemingly endlessly overtaking people.
At the end of the event, I found the CEO who had finished first out of the three of us. The EA came through a few minutes later. We then went and enjoyed breakfast and coffee and awaited our race results.
When the results come through, I had run a good time, a little too good as my time was quicker than the big boss. Oh no, even though he had finished first, he had also started earlier than me, and I had run a faster time. Had I just made a career-limiting mistake? He wasn’t that sort of person, but the thought crossed my mind.
It reminded me of a time at a previous employer.
Let the CEO win?
We were having a good time at a work Christmas function at a bowling alley. The CEO was a good bowler, and so was the junior CEO in training. Nobody was close to beating either of these two.
When the CEO had finished his last bowl, the junior only needed to hit a couple of pins to win.
He hadn’t bowled a single gutter ball all night, so he was a shoo-in for coming first. And then disappointingly bowled a gutter ball. Then on his final chance, he bowled another gutter ball.
The CEO ended up coming first, and then we started to put two and two together. The junior guy was either very unlucky or had deliberately let the CEO win.
That’s not my style — I believe in always doing your best.
But jumping back to after the race, the thought did cross my mind.
After the race, I didn’t do much running until this year, when everything started coming together, and my motivation went into overdrive here.
