Not sure marathon running is for me, I can barely run 5K at the moment.
Wow, if I had a pound for every time a woman said that to me and then 3 months later she’s back in touch saying,
Hey Julie, guess what? I have a marathon place
There is just something about that distance that gets people curious. It is the ultimate running challenge.
Yet, I have found it to be more than just that.
The biggest challenge running wise in my view is being able to run your first 5K without stopping…and I seriously mean that.
By the time you are signing up to a marathon, the probability is likely to dictate that 5K of non stop running has at least been achieved at some point in the past.
No…the big challenge with Marathon Running, is not the running at all, its the bullshit narrative that follows you around for 8-10 months saying,
What the hell are you doing?
Who do you think you are?
This is never going to happen
I was stupid ever thinking I could run a marathon
But then of course eventually you prove yourself wrong and just get on with the job of training and before you know it you are on the start line of your first marathon. But boy would it be easier if you knew every one went through this, and wouldn’t it be great if I could read about someone else who has similar fears to me before embarking on this journey?
Well…funny you should think that….
As today I launch my 7th book.
YES.
I now have 7 self published books available on Amazon.
Something just 4 years ago I would never have dreamed possible.
I always wanted to be a writer…it was my dream as a child, but I always thought I would write fiction though, and probably not until I was retired…I never saw this coming.
I remember writing the first ebook when my daughter Rose was only a tiny baby. I wrote it between breastfeeding and changing nappies. I made £300 in the first week the book went live, the first £300 I ever made from this blog…with the book still selling well on Amazon.
The process was scary, I didn’t know what I was doing, I had nobody to ask for advice from…and most of all I didn’t want to look like an idiot.
There are no guarantees in life, even when you think you have something under control, even if you have done something similar before, anything can go wrong.
In 2014 I ran the Brighton Marathon, my training had been excellent, my 5K time had come down to 30 minutes 6 seconds, I had more miles in my legs than ever…I should have been on track for a sub 5 hour marathon, knocking 50 minutes from my debut race 2 years earlier.
I was in great shape.
But then I twisted my back in a weird way picking up my daughter and ended up unable to move with muscle spasms. A doctor told me I had a weak core and was Too Fat to Run…which did wonders for my confidence…and that 5 hour marathon moved further and further away from me.
I finished in 5.56…gutted that the opportunity to get a PB was lost.
In the same year I launched a book which I thought was my best work ever, How to Run with a Baby a guidebook for women with kids who were struggling to exercise. I still stand by the fact it is a great book, but for some reason it never caught the eye of my followers, or general readers on Amazon…and it now sits there lonely, and I normally give it away for FREE on Mothers Day.
Shit happens.
Failure is always a possibility.
But so too is success.
Which is just as well, because the new book The Fat Girls’ Guide to Marathon Running is a cracker of a book, I could feel it as the words flew out of my head onto the screen at a rate of notts, and as I laughed to myself reading back the proof copy. Plus, I have already had some wonderful reviews from women who got their eyes on a few chapters in advance of the launch.
This book is not only a comprehensive training guide for marathon runners training in a larger body, but it also deals with the big question of
Why would anyone want to run a marathon?
And talks about all the things which affect women who run in larger bodies during this training process, everything from mingeries to chesticle chaffing, runners trots to arse swamp…I have left nothing out.
When you look on Amazon at running books they tend to fall into 2 categories
- Training Guides
- Stories (either normal every day people or athletes)
Mine is a mixture of the two, with lots of funny stories but also some hard hitting training advice that will not only get you to the start line, but safely to the finish line too.
What I didn’t realise I would write about though, was the impact of marathon running on my life, and how I have used these transferable skills elsewhere on my journey.
I can’t wait to see how this book is received.
Get out there and show your support, remember you do not need to be considering a marathon for this book to be useful or motivational to you, wherever you are on your journey.
Click here to buy the kindle version
Click here to buy the paperback version
(Amazon are yet to link the two)
And do please help me spread the word on social media and in real life, lets get this book in the hands of the women that need it. Feel free to copy this image and share it with the link http://amzn.to/2h5XwPJ
