If you’re a follower of this blog, you know that I only started running February of this year and just joined my very first road race (Condura) the month after. My aim was really just to lose weight. That was then. After experiencing my very first road race and several races later, I realized how fun it is to run with other like-minder runners, improve my speed and simply exceed my own expectations. I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs during races and I made sure I listed them down in this blog to help other newbie runners. And now I’m ready to take the next plunge. Hopefully, my experience will also help other beginner runners dreaming of calling themselves a “marathoner” someday.

When I told people I’m joining marathon, I was met with skeptics and people who offer encouragement. Bakit nakakailang mileage kna ba every week?! You cannot avoid people who will belittle your abilities. In fact you can only treat them as a source of encouragement to push and believe in yourself. I consider this a battle because this will be a test of my physical endurance and determination. In fact I believe I’ve already won 50% of the battle, and that is the courage to join the race. The other 50% is if I make it within the cut-off time.

For my reader’s information, I’ve been working my butt on my trainings (10-15km on Mon-Wed-Fri with 30km-35km long runs on Sundays). I must admit that I didn’t train for six months like what I’ve been reading from marathon related literatures. Where my short-training will carry me is the next big question. Personally, I do believe I can finish this race-but within the cut-off time of five hours, I don’t know. God willing, I will be able to do this and really hoping I’ll call myself a marathoner on that day.

Wish me luck!