Mentality for the Marathon

Training for the Nottingham Full Marathon is proving to be one of the toughest challenges I have ever come across. So, I’ve decided to blog about my lessons. Whatever I learn, I’ll jot it all down here. And don’t worry, I have over 3 months left of training, so there’ll be plenty to come.

Training for a half marathon is one thing. Training for a marathon is quite another. You’re now in another league. So you’ve done a half marathon. Please, for goodness sake as well as your own, don’t let yourself believe it’s “just double”.

I considered putting ‘get outdoors, just go and run’ as number one. But, after my recent running experience, I decided against it. Getting your head in gear is so much more important. Besides, if you can’t get your head in the game, you’ve got no chance of getting yourself out of the door.

How it started

For the last 2 months or so, I’ve been battling with myself. For me, it’s been one of the biggest battles in my fitness journey I have ever felt. My mind has been endlessly and painfully fighting between two thoughts.

First thought: I can’t do this

Second thought: I can do this

Last night, I had a sudden realisation. At 10pm, my boyfriend and I had just begun a video game. He said to me “so, run tomorrow before uni, 8am?”. I sighed my instinctive sigh. “I’m not gonna wanna do that”. Honesty told him, to which he said “then, let’s go now”.

Taking the bull by the horns

Before I knew it, it was 10.10pm, we had stretched in the dim of the kitchen light, filled our runner’s water bottles and stepped out the door. I’ve never run at night before. But wow, the stars worked their magic. I realised:

IT’S NOT A CASE OF “CAN I OR CAN’T I?”. It’s a case of you can do what you tell yourself you can do.

I verbalised it all, mid runner breath. The hardship of mentality suddenly made sense. I mean, think about it. The human mind is very, very powerful. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook. Barack Obama ran the United States of America.

If the same mind, the same function, the same foundation of a human mind can produce the necessary equipment to walk on an astronomical body that’s outside of the Earth’s realm and survive, can run a country, can create one of the most popular social media platforms in the entire world, that’s a pretty powerful mind.

Mentality matters

Your mind is the same mind as theirs. You just have to train it. That’s all there is to it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it will be easy. No, no, no. I’m saying it will be tough as hell. 26.2 miles is, by no stretch of the imagination, easy. It’s no walk in the park. It will push, test, challenge, hurt you.

But think about Mark, Neil and Barack. If they can run countries, create £billions projects and walk on the moon, you can train your mind to get through 26 miles.

Running a marathon is not just about the leg movement, or the burn in your thighs on that killer incline, or the quickened heart rate. The first step is not to get out the door. It’s to believe that you can do this.

Next time you hit a wall with something and tell yourself “I can’t do this”, talk back to yourself. Tell yourself that someone has finished a marathon before, lots and lots and lots of times. So, it is possible, and you will do it. There really is no such thing as can’t.