London marathon place!! Am I mad to think I can do this?!

[Elba84]

So having put in a ballot for the London marathon (first time) on a bit of a whim when a bit drunk I have unexpectedly been accepted.

A year ago I was able to do a relatively comfortable 7-8 miles, slowly, but for a number of reasons have not run this year until about a month ago. I can now just about manage a 30 min 5k but that's it.

A bit of me is thinking this could be an opportunity to push myself and to some extent turn my life around a bit (necessary for a number of reasons!). Any experienced runners who can tell me if it's even possible to do this in 6 months time?! I certainly won't be running with any time ambitions, just to finish. Or should I try and defer (is it easy to do this?) and get some half marathons under my belt next year? Don't want to set myself up for failure and injury, but will not waste the opportunity either.

Wow some great tips and encouragement here, thank you! Just come back to this after a pretty crap week and was starting to think I'd maybe deluded myself that I could do it, but going to throw myself into it. Getting over a cold and a 60 hour week so will just go for a gentle run today, but have made a plan for next week (shift work, so I think the only way forward will be to plan each week in advance and accept that sometimes I will have to just get on with it and run when knackered!). I have 'Run like a girl' sitting unread on my bookshelf actually- will make a point of reading it!

I like the idea of getting public transport and the running back- especially as confidence grows in my longer runs. I also love doing parkruns so was thinking of incorporating them into longer runs by parking a certain distance away and running to/from my local one to break up the run. It's about 7 miles away so could even run from home later on I guess.

Ah, thanks MumOnTheRun! Will ponder the tricks that worked for me and report back soon!

Great to find this thread, I got a ballot place and have one week left to pay for and accept it. I have run half marathons in the past but the furthest I've run in the past year is 10 miles.

I am part of a club but the majority doing London have good for age or championship places so are speedsters. I know of one other ballot place but he's a speedster too. A few are doing Brighton, Manchester or Southampton so hopefully I will be able to find people to do long runs with.

At the moment I run 2-3 times a week (one run is often replaced by a bike ride), swim once and do one strength and conditioning session. So I think all I really need to do is the long runs, I'm doing the rest already.

I am not giving up wine!

No need to give up wine myfavourite, in fact we may need it to get to the start line! Maybe just not a whole bottle the night before a long run...
Good luck with training, I am not a speedster either and don't know anyone else doing it, so will just grit my teeth and get on with it I think!