My First Marathon (Or How it Humbled Me as a Chronically Ill Girly)

I ran my first (and possibly only) marathon. 26.2 miles completed. I crossed the finish line uttering animalistic noises with the bottom half of my body screaming at me. A week later, I’m still not recovered. Training did not go as I intended, either. The original date I had planned for got pushed due to a few well-timed illness flares and some personal events that paused my training. And I came back to it each time because I knew this was a goal I needed to complete for myself. I had multiple people tell me I had plenty of time in my life to accomplish this but I held a knowing in my gut that this was my time. And it was.

            Here’s what my training plan looked like, altered for my body and my lifestyle as a chronically ill fit girl.

-         Max 2 runs per week. My joints take several days to recover and for inflammation to subside; the plans that have 5 days of running per week are not realistic for my body. 1 long run, 1 shorter intense run. I knew this from the start and yet my slow recovery still managed to surprise me.

-         Patience with myself. Some weeks when I was in a flare, I couldn’t run at all. I worked my cardio in other, safer ways and still moved my body. This resulted in me not getting the higher mileage I should have been at prior to the race. In the end, I had to trust my fitness level and know that this training was that way for a reason.

-         Prioritize my diet. Leading up to the race, I leaned heavily into higher carbs and protein. I even leaned into the gels and candies that I knew would provide the quick energy I needed. During my training and race day, I took a gel every 30-ish minutes. I won’t lie to you: during the marathon, the time all blurred together and I know I fell behind on this part.

-         Prioritize rest. I work as a personal trainer and I also coach fitness classes. This means I do anywhere from 5-12 hours of required cardio prior to my runs. I focused on my sleep when I was not working out and I also ensured I rested with my legs up and simply existed even though it drove me crazy.

It’s hard to know when to rest and when to push through so you can grow. Some days, you need to push. Other days, if you push, you will be immobile and in a good amount of pain for several days. You know your body. You can do hard things. You just have to do them your way.