The Loch Ness Marathon is one of my top favorite runs of all time..... the scenery is beautiful, the vibe is awesome, and the entire weekend is a whole lot of Highland fun! π¦π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώπ
Saturday: including the Expo and monster hunting
The weekend starts with the Expo on Saturday, where, along with collecting my race number, I also met a few members of the Nessie family and a giant can of soup! Of course! π€£
The rest of the day was spent fuelling with doughnuts, continuing with the Nessie hunting, lunch, doing some essential Nessie-themed shopping, and a nice walk around town being tourists. Thanks Cors for my race day hair!
Sunday: bagpipes and a breakthrough!
Sunday started at 5:00 AM π΄π« with Theo wanting to get involved in getting ready....
.... followed by the 7:30 AM bus pickup from the ice rink town (so many buses - 6000 people doing the marathon!!!)...
....a big convoy all along the loch to the start near Whitebridge, and then standing around in the rain for an hour at the start line...
Standing shivering in the wet and cold isn't really in my top favourite list of ways to spend a Saturday morning, but Loch Ness has the absolute best start line in the world, so I can make an exception. Standing in the misty rain as the bagpipes played is such a splendidly spine-tinglingly atmospheric (if chilly) moment! Once we were off, I settled into my rhythm, and enjoyed the run, finishing in 3:33:02 which is a brand new personal best for me ☺️
I never thought I would set another marathon PB. My last one was back in 2015, and no matter how hard I tried over the years, a new target time felt as elusive as Nessie (well actually even more elusive —there have been 17 official Nessie sightings this year already!)
When I crossed the finish line, I don't mind saying that I had a good big cry (and thank you to the very lovely marshal who gave me a massive hug!). I think it was relief—not just for surviving 26.2 miles of managing my mind and it's negativity, but also for shedding 11 years of those thoughts, and finally proving myself wrong!
I do think that adding in structured weight training into my routine has been helping to build up my physical strength, which has definitely helped. But also (and more suprisingly to me!) I also think it’s helping to shift how I think about things. That to get stronger in what you can lift, you have to fail along the way as you build things up, and that's OK. And actually, without failing, you won't get stronger or progress. So failure is part of the process. And I have started thinking in that way with my running too. Before, I would look at speed sessions/ training plans and think, there's no way I can run that pace, I'm not good enough for that, and so I wouldn't try it. But now, although obviously those thoughts still circle in my mind, I more often than not ignore them, and just go out and try it anyway. It's so freeing! So what if I can't do exactly what the session says? Who actually cares! I'll probably still manage more than I thought I could, or would have done without it, and over time, by keeping on doing it, you'll get there in the end.
Thank you Matthew at MKW Fitness! I absolutely love the sessions I do there with Andrew twice per week, and I never thought I would say I find weight training fun! But there you go: sometimes doing something completely different in one area of your life helps to unlock what you’ve been aiming for in another π
A soup-er weekend (thanks everyone for giving us your goody bag soup tins that are too big for the plane!π₯«)
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