Advice please - am I kidding myself? Marathon

[bbcessex]

Hi all

The nub of my question is this - I am v overweight and improving my fitness - my running is a super-slow shuffle - am I fooling myself to think I could do the Edinburgh marathon in May?

The long story...

I've recently got back into fitness following an 7-8 year break. During that time I put on loads of weight and became very sedentary outside of work.

A few months ago, I finally got in the right headspace to make a change and joined 90 day online fitness & nutrition programme which has been great.

Over the last three months, I've lost 2 stone and become much fitter. I am still 2.5 stone overweight, which as a 5'4 woman is significant.
My resting heart rate has gone from 75 to 62, which I'm delighted about.

My daughter has a chronic disability and I would like to raise money for his charity and also raise the profile. I work in a sector where I could get quite a bit of corporate funding, provided I was doing something genuinely difficult.

Hence I signed up for the Edinburgh marathon late at night this week whilst in hospital with my daughter - pretty much in an emotional state, and now I'm not sure if it's achievable.

The Edinburgh marathon has a time limit of 6.30 hrs - I've just got up to running 10k on this fitness programme and my time was 1hr38 mins .

Is it even possible to improve enough to get round in about 6 hours?

@YeOldeTrout

I don't disagree that a completion might be possible in ideal circumstances...

However the injury cost of said completion might not lead to a sustainable exercise habit long term.

Also assuming that OP has a DD with some health issues probably meaning far less time available for training.

From a consistent 5K time of 32 minutes with one relatively easy child I managed a 2hr 20 half in about 5 months. My 10k time was 1.07 before I really started training. Training even for a half at that pace was bloody difficult- not so much physically as actually having 3-4 hours when I was "busy" and "unavailable" at the weekend

Hi bbcessex, I’d suggest joining RMR ‘Run Mummy Run’ too. It’s a really supportive Facebook group and the feeling of support and camaraderie from all the women is brilliant. You get the support without being patronised or mansplained to. Good luck for your run, whichever one you do.

Yes, you can do it, as long as you make it your priority between now and then. I trained for the London marathon from scratch (ie I had never run) in 7 months. You need to build slowly though or you'll get injured. I'd suggest finding a run/walk programme and making sure you build in some yoga too to keep flexible. Worth getting a foam roller too.

Honestly so much of it is a mental challenge - forcing yourself out on winter training runs even when it's dark and cold and you're knackered - and you sound like you are in the right mental space for this.

Good luck!!