After Charlotte finished her first marathon on Sunday, I asked her to share some words here. Here’s her advice to budding marathoners.

Last Sunday I joined the ranks of London marathon finishers. I ran a consistent pace all the way, and even persuaded my tired legs to speed up fractionally at the end, whilst raising £2300 for Age UK in the process. Here are some of the steps on my journey to first-time marathon runner.

To begin

– Relax (but make a plan and see it through). I dreaded the miles and hours on my training plan, but in the end I loved training almost as much as the big day. Laura wrote my plan for me, and then I just had to make sure to tick it off, one run at a time.

That may not sound too thrilling but setting a mini-goal of ticking off a run and achieving it gives a little boost of self-confidence, and four of those little boosts a week added up to a brilliant feeling. In addition, I have a busy job as do a lot of people who decide to run a marathon, and fitting in my runs made me more efficient and organised in the rest of my life.

Running your first marathon is hard. All those months of training were essential to get me through some of the tougher miles on the big day. It was only because of my training that I knew in the tough moments that I could keep calm, keep going and I would be fine.

To prepare

-Be kind to yourself. Remember you are demanding a lot of your body in the crucial training months, so the nicer you are to it the better.

I missed runs on my plan and I even missed two weeks due to illness; if that happens, stay calm. Part of being kind to yourself means not beating yourself up when you have a bad run.

One of my favourite discoveries of building up running fitness is those fleeting moments when body and mind seem to synch up perfectly in that particular moment and running feels so easy and free. Some runs feel like dragging two sacks of lead instead of legs. Without the bad runs, there would not be the good ones.

– Enjoy it. I went to Laura’s running groups; being in a group and having a chat was a much more pleasant way to get through some intervals or hill training. Make long runs an excuse for being out for a few hours on a weekend, in my case this meant discovering London’s tow paths or parks. Stop and rest if you fancy, take a detour to check out an interesting sight if you want, plot a route that ends in a pub if you need, just enjoy it.

-You are what you repeatedly do. One of the most powerful things I have learned over the past few months is that I can change how I think of myself. One of the hangovers of never being very good at sports in school is that, when it came to physical activity, I always mentally defined myself as the girl squirming in her hockey skirt trying to avoid the ball, probably cold and being rained on.

Because of all those hours of training and ticking off my completed runs, noticing my legs getting stronger and my body finding previously unthinkable distances manageable, I started calling myself ‘a runner’, ‘fit’ and ‘sporty’ in my head. The amazing thing is that as soon as I told myself those words, I actually did it. Now I can say that I am a ‘marathon runner’ and there is no way I am going back to thinking of myself as the asthmatic at the back of cross country class.

-People. Whilst fundraising and posting about my training, I spoke to a lot of people. People’s imaginations are sparked by a marathon – it certainly caught mine – and they have been so interested and supportive. There are also the people I have met, whether through running groups or charity training days.

Even my best friend Marty has very stoically become a regular training partner, not to mention a great runner, and paced me through many a tempo run; and the hardy Welsh fell runners in my family have started to see me in a different light. This equates to a sum total of fantastic positive reactions which make me feel privileged and excited in equal measure.

The Big Day

The hype is not wrong; London is a brilliant marathon. Running across Tower Bridge, having just spotted my Mum and Dad in the crowd, I felt absolutely unstoppable. As strangers shouted my name I learned that running and trying not to cry is challenging, and finishing in the mall made me feel like a much slower, more tired, Paula Radcliffe.

I did cry at the finish, due, in equal parts to: sheer exhaustion; the emotion of having prepared for something for a long time then actually just bloody doing it; and the reality of having to hobble the short distance to meet my friends and family.

Everyone is different, but in my experience, as great as the day was, the run up to the marathon is just as good. I think all those miles have certainly changed me for the better and, I would like to hope, permanently.