Where are we now? Marathon Update

So I may have over promised on my regular blog updates. But I hope I can be forgiven. I underestimated how challenging it would be to work full time, see friends and family, organize Christmas bits and bobs and train for the Marathon! So I will try and keep this brief.

Running is like the ocean, sometimes it comes in waves. Big ones and small ones. Sometimes I can run six miles other times I cannot even run one. Something that is becoming more and more apparent the harder I train. It is how important these three things are:

Food
Mindset
The Why

Food. If you know me you know that food is life. The problem is running miles on miles and eating sweet foods do not go together. I am becoming more aware that I need more fuel [the right fuel!] to keep me going. I have always had a love hate relationship with food, always seeing the healthier foods as not nice or unappetizing. Always enjoying the instant gratification from the sugary goodness in chocolate! I am retraining my brain to see these healthier foods as positives that help me perform at my best every time. This is a change in relationship not just for the marathon but for life. And given how impatient I usually am, I do recognize this will not happen over night.
Mindset. I now make sure all my training takes place in the morning. That often means waking up in a mood at 5:30AM because I want to stay in bed, but reminding myself, that is not an option. Having taken on advice of previous Marathon runners and also friends committed to their workouts I now see why they have this mindset! By exercising first thing, there are no excuses, no I need to stay late at work or I am too tired. This has massively increased by train vs no train ratio the right way! It also means my mind has not started running yet and worrying. I am a worrier and easily get myself stressed. So making my legs run whilst my brain is still half asleep has been a great way to get my mind in a good place for the day ahead.
The Why. If you follow me on Facebook you will see 95% of all of my posts are reshares of the wonderful charities that I am running for. Each charity is: Proactive, in spaying, neutering and educating people on animal welfare. Caring, money or no money, space or no space, if an Animal Angel finds an animal in need every single one of these charities finds a way to feed, look after and rehome the rescued animals. Strong, without dampening Christmas. Not every story has a happy ending, not every dog makes it through the abuse they have already suffered. But they do, unquestionably feel true love in their final moments when these charities rescue them. I struggle to watch a documentary about animals in the wild, yet alone being there when an animal passes way in front of you. The individuals behind these charities are undeniably strong. So what is my Why? My Why, the reason I am doing this is because for every one animal rehomed another two need to be rescued, for every two rescued there are another six puppies – it goes on and on, some would give up. But these charities just don’t! Each day is taken as it comes, and if you can support me running 26.2 miles to help me raise at least £3,000 this will mean their amazing work can continue and take a small amount of the financial worry away from them for a time.

I am currently say at 5% (£165.00) I am incredibly grateful for those who have already donated. But if you find yourself tomorrow in a giving mood, myself and the charities would be eternally grateful.

I will be updating Nat On A Map my Facebook page over the next couple of days with links to the charities so you can check them out for yourselves. I am currently in the process of writing my first STAR BLOG: Montego Bay Animal Haven, so you can find out more about the charities individual methods, programs and needs. This should be up soon. Thank you for your continued support. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, and a healthy Happy New Year!

To Sponsor me please click here this will take you to my Just Giving Page!

Here are a selection of post run success pictures (I will try and get some more interesting ones for the next post! maybe less sweaty and red too!)