When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!
Trondheim marathon is less than two days away! For the last couple of months I have been wondering whether I would at all be able to participate in any of the distances, but I have just signed up for half marathon and I am really really looking forward to it!
Things haven't been going as planned this year. After an incredibly successful 2017, I was perhaps a bit too ambitious in the beginning of 2018, and
wore myself down with just a bit too hard training over time. As a result, I had to skip Bergen City half marathon at the end of April. But May was good; the weather was wonderful; I kept to the mountains and terrain, and at the beginning of June I was surprised by my performance at
Bergen Fjellmaraton. You might remember all my good excuses during Fjellmaraton, one of which was that I fell and hurt my knees badly towards the end.
Although the knees were sore and stiff for a while, only nine days after Fjellmaraton I participated in a 27 km run from the center of Bergen to Knarvik. This race deserves a post on its own, which I never found time to write. It was such a wonderful experience, thanks to my friend Annbjørg who guided me through it helping me all the way. The race traverses over quite a few mountains, and I was again surprised by my performance there. I took this as a good sign for the coming goal of running full distance at Trondheim marathon, feeling happy that my knees seemed already to have recovered after the fall.
Then during the summer holidays, I started slowly to increase my running distance with Trondheim marathon in mind. I was building up really cautiously, running only every second day, only one long run during the week, and the length of the long run only slowly increasing. Still a few weeks into this scheme, towards the end of a 24 km run my left knee started to hurt really badly. And after that I was more or less unable to run throughout the summer. Whenever I tried, it started hurting after a few km, so I simply stopped. The nice weather continued, so again I kept to the mountains and the terrain, and the knee started to get better, albeit very slowly.
A couple of weeks ago I started street running again, just to discover that my running form was completely gone. I gave up the Trondheim project totally. There is of course no chance of being able to run a marathon, as the knee is still not 100% yet. And my form did not motivate me to try a half marathon either. At some point I was considering 10 km, but then I found that it started too late in the day to fit the schedule of the rest of the family. So I was simply planning to skip the race, and just cheer for the others from the side line. Aksel, Frank and Annbjørg are going for the full distance, whereas a bunch of other friends from Bergen are doing the half marathon, and I thought I could at perhaps keep the marathoners company through the last 10 km and then cheer the half marathoners to the finish.
But then a friend suggested that I could help her achieve a half marathon PB. And that changed everything! The desired pace seemed doable for me without pushing my knee too much, although it would by no means be easy, given the lost form. Suddenly I had a new goal for the race, meaningful and within reach, and the motivation came back immediately! I am so grateful to her for this suggestion, and quite surprised by its effect on me. Still I had a small hesitation about whether or not the knee would survive 21 km...
On Wednesday I went for a 10 km run in the aimed pace for the race, both to test the knee and to test the form. Both seemed to be up to the challenge, and right afterwards I signed up for the race. After that I received yet another request of pace holding with the same finish time, so now I feel like a real pace holder. I really really hope I will be able to guide and motivate my friends in the right pace throughout the race. I am surprised to find out that this is actually even more motivating, exciting and fun task than trying to achieve a PB myself. And it fits so well with being an
ambassador for the race. In fact, I've always dreamed of being a pace holder. Now I get to try it out, and perhaps I can volunteer to be an official one another time.
It's all about finding the right motivation!
