Yesterday I spent much of the day watching the Brighton Marathon tracker app. I had four runners taking part and a couple of friends running, and it was exciting viewing. Everyone finished and I asked one of those runners, Lisa, to write a few words about her race.

I have always been a bit of an on-and-off slow-paced jogger since my early 30s. The odd 10K, a couple of half marathons spread over about 10 years. I finally got around to a marathon in October 2015, running Chester off the back of a generic training plan downloaded off the internet – I finished in 5:34, a really enjoyable but also painful experience.

Having run one I then became curious about whether I could improve my times as a 40-something runner. Having followed Laura’s blog for a while I approached her and asked for a plan for Brighton to get me under 5 hours if that were possible.

I followed this plan over 20 weeks – tailored exactly for me, including breaks for family holidays. It was challenging but doable , my longest run was 18miles, and I completed it all bar a couple of runs and more importantly enjoyed almost all of them!

I was very excited on the day of the marathon and a bit less less nervous than I had been for Chester, I think because I was confident that I had followed the training plan and done some of my training runs at marathon pace. And we made a weekend of it, having never been to Brighton before.
The weather on the day was absolutely perfect, sunny but not too warm and the route was amazing, much of it along the seafront, where the crowd support was fantastic.

I ran the first half slightly ahead of my target pace, felt OK, so then planned to try and hold that pace for as long as I could. I saw my husband in the crowd at just after half way and still felt pretty good at that point, although the photo he took said otherwise!! The next few miles got tougher, but the crowds helped as did all the other runners alongside me.

I managed to stick with the pace until almost 21 miles when I really started to struggle. Miles 21-23 run through an industrial estate with very little crowd support, almost the only place on the course like this, and it made a big difference to me, and lots around me. The urge to walk for a bit was almost overwhelming and I stopped briefly at a water stop to refill my bottle, which it turned out was almost full.

After giving myself a good talking to I got going again and then at 23 miles hit the seafront where there were literally people lining the rest of the route shouting support. It felt like I was in the 100 metres Olympic final, and suddenly like magic, my legs hurt less and I managed to speed up a bit.

Credit: Brighton Marathon

The last 3 miles were tough, but I had the company of both Superman and a man bizarrely dressed as a banana. I managed to get ahead of the banana just before the finish so he didn’t quite make my finish line photo!!!

I finished in 4:56:08, 4 minutes below my target and 38 minutes quicker than Chester only 6 months ago. I was so pleased with my time, I had hoped but never really expected if I’m absolutely honest, and would have been happy with 5:15.

Running a marathon has been one of the best things I have ever done, the feeling at the end lasts long after you have crossed the finish line and I would encourage anyone to have a go.

I’m told I don’t look like a runner – run a marathon and you’ll see there isn’t a “look”, you’ll see all ages, shapes, sizes, that’s one of the things that’s great about a marathon, anyone can do one.

One word of warning though, I don’t think anyone ever does only one. I am registered for Snowdonia in October, and only hours after completing Brighton am thinking which flat one I can do next year, and wondering if I can get maybe under 4:30 with another plan from Laura…..

Well done Lisa! Thanks for sharing your story.