Diversified Health would like to welcome Carol Schwall as she blogs her way through the aches and pains, and her experiences as she trains for her first full marathon  in October, here in beautiful Victoria BC.

I’m a runner.

I love running, I never have to force myself to go for a run. Sometimes I will forget for a moment that I just went for a run, and feel ready for the next run already soon after. Running in the pelting rain is my favorite. I enjoy the solitary factor, with just Runkeeper and a playlist to keep me company. I say that I’m a runner, and yet, I still don’t feel like one. I guess it’s like people who have been overweight for a long time and then slim down a lot – they still identify as ‘fat’. Well, I still feel out of shape, even though I have shown myself that I can sustain bipedal forward motion for over 2 hours at a time. Go figure.

I’ve only been running for 21 months (that’s 1 3/4 years). Over the last year I ran 2 half marathons, a few 10k races and a handful of other, shorter races. It seems like the time has come for me to challenge myself to a full marathon. That’s right, 26 miles. 42.2 km in Canadian. Until now, sheer persistence and willpower have edged me past the 10k mark and into the 21.1 km races. No real training, just running a bit further each time. But I know that to be able to run 42.2 km sustainably, I will need real training. So on the spur of the moment I joined a 16-week running clinic. We meet to run twice a week – Wednesday after work and Saturday at 8:00 am – and there are 2 easy, short ‘homework’ runs. We will do hills, stairs, speedwork, and just plain distance running. See, that last one is the one I like best. No problem getting out there and just running. It’s the hard work that I balk at, so that’s why I’m training with a group led by experienced long distance runners.

This past Saturday we had our first small group long run. This time there were only 3 of us. We are the slowest marathon group in the clinic, but I don’t care. Our run leader, Silvia, has done several Ironman triathlons, and is a regular marathon and ultra trail runner. She goes on 5 hour trail runs for fun. She knows her stuff. As we ran for one hour, we chatted about pace and negative splits, about carrying water and what ‘recovery run’ means. We covered about 10 km, choosing our route as we went. We start these runs at 8 am, but I still think it may get too hot on the longer runs, as we inch closer toward the marathon in October.

This evening we did about 8 km, with 5 long sets of stairs smack dab in the middle. That’s the hard work part. But I didn’t whine, nope, I just trudged up and down with the rest of them. Mind you, I chose to do only 4 repetitions, because my lunch was long used up, and we still needed to run back. But I feel great, and certainly earned my dinner.

This is going to be fun! Heck, it already is! And the 42.2 km? I’ll get there in time.

Carol works for a local coffee roaster and compensates for her excess caffeine (and love of bacon) by running as far and as fast as she can in her free time, when she’s not singing in a choir or knitting a sweater. 

Running Clinic by Victoria Frontrunners