Great stuff Liz. Something that made a big difference for me for the mara, and I’ve kept going with it, is doing core work and building up the hip flexors as I know they’re weak spots as they are with many other runners. Happy training!

Doing my first marathon last year, I learned that if the chips are down, I have a stronger self-preservation instinct than competitive instinct (it was hotter than expected or trained-for so I walked and ran, and missed the cut-off by a minute but still got a medal). I also learned that I love running long, I really enjoyed all the training runs.

After the marathon the learning points were GET MORE SLEEP and train for the worst conditions, not the best. I have run fewer miles (this year’s mara is later in the year) but already further uphill than this time last year. Worse hills than I will encounter in the race.

After the next half-marathon 2 months later I learned that it’s good to stretch and roll and do yoga properly and consistently because if you don’t, you might well run out of energy and your bottom muscle might twang and it might be the most horrible half ever!

During training for this year’s marathon, I have learned that it’s far easier to train for your second mara as you have the terrifying fuelling aspect sorted out. Hooray!