Emma’s Story
Aerobics instructor and school teacher Emma Johnston, 28 from Birmingham went from non-runner to competing two full marathons in two weeks. This is her story…
I considered myself pretty fit—I taught aerobics classes after all—but while I was fit enough to teach back to back classes, running was a different matter altogether! On a whim, I tried running a mile at the end of October 2009 and it was a disaster! I was not running fit. I mentioned my urge to start running to a girl at the gym I work at and so, at the beginning of November, off we went on our first very slow jog. We were running about 2-3 miles a run, twice a week and by mid December we had increased in speed (well we couldn’t have decreased!) and got ourselves up to 5 miles 2 or 3 times a week.
About three days before Christmas my sister (who had recently been diagnosed with MS) told me that she had signed us up for a marathon and invited me to join her. I said “no chance!” but after a speech about the fact that she may never have the chance to run one again I reluctantly agreed to join her. It turned out that the marathon she had in mind was the London Marathon on April 13th—a mere 15 weeks away.
I talked my running partner into doing some of the training with me and set about turning myself into a marathon runner. We went for our first attempt at an eight mile run on Boxing Day. It was not a good run! Too cold, too full of turkey, too far— not a good start but over the subsequent 14 weeks I went from a “around the block” jogger to fledgling long distance runner. We planned our big runs so that we would do 12 miles on week 2, 14 miles on week 4, 16 miles on week 6, 18 miles on week 8, 20 miles on week 10 and 22 miles on week 12 so we would hopefully be ready for 26.2 miles on week 14. It was an ambitious plan but failing to plan means planning to fail!
From Christmas until April I didn’t drink, ate the best diet I could and went to bed early on Saturday nights to be up very early on Sunday mornings for long runs. We would drive the route beforehand and drop off supplies of sports gels and energy drinks to avoid having to carry any more than absolutely necessary. We went out whatever the weather and this being England that meant anything from tropical heat to horizontal sleet…often during the same run! It was life consuming—full time job, aerobics classes, marathon training, fund raising…my time was not my own for the entire from the moment I decided to run the marathon to the day of the actual race.
By week 6 my running partner had decided that she might as well train to do a marathon herself. She found a run in Stratford which was two weeks after London. By week 8 I had convinced myself to do that one too. Two marathons two weeks apart….what was I thinking? It seemed like a good idea at the time!
The 4 months of training was a roller coaster of highs and lows. Some of the lows were running in typically awful English weather where, no matter how fast you try and run you never get warm. Others lows included aching knees and sore shins which began to get progressively worse as my weekly mileage increased. Heavy legs and a couple of less than great runs really knocked my confidence but I had a lot riding on my marathons…lots of people had sponsored me and I was determined not to let them down. Winter turned into spring and marathon day finally arrived.
I woke up early on marathon day, had my usual breakfast, put on my bright orange charity vest, strapped my little mp3 player to my arm. I made sure the all-important timer chip was securely fixed to my shoe and also tucked two bags of jelly tots and three tubes of carbohydrate gel into my pockets. When I arrived at Greenwich Park there were thousands of other runners bustling about. I just couldn’t believe the number of people that were there who all shared the goal of running 26.2 miles through the streets of London. The atmosphere was just astonishing. Finally at 9:40, they called all of the runners up to get into their start zone and at 9:45 we were off! Well, the front was off—the other 34,000 of us just walked very slowly forward towards the start line waiting for our turn to begin the race. It actually took 25 minutes for me to reach the start line after the official starting gun had gone off. I was chomping at the bit to get started!
The first 6 miles went quickly—there was a gospel choir, drummers, crowds and loads of excitement. All of the hills are at the beginning of the course so it was nice to get them done knowing the rest of the route was flat. The 6 mile point was also when the rain started. The crowds started thinning, the initial excitement started to die down and I remembered that I was actually running a marathon and that I had another 20 miles to go…
For me, things started to get difficult from about 11 miles onwards. The 10 mile marker was great to see, a real chunk of the journey done, but from 11-16 miles you aren’t near enough to the beginning or the end to feel motivated…I felt like I was in no-man’s land. I had started off running with two other girls but pace differences started to show at the halfway mark and it became too difficult to run together so I went solo from there until the end. The route hairpins at 13 miles and loops back round at about 21 miles. It was soul destroying to see faster runners eight miles ahead of me and much closer to the finish. There were times where I was very, very tempted to jump the barrier and join them!
As the race progressed the number of runners decreased while the number of walkers increased. I had got to 18 miles and I wanted to give up and join them but I had set myself the goal of running every step of the way. My legs were heavy and I was sorely tempted to walk despite my goal but I somehow managed to convince myself I to run to the 21 mile marker and then I would maybe slow to a walk. After 21 miles I decided to run just one more mile. At 22 miles I told myself I could run one more mile to reach the next marker. I continued challenging myself to run “just one more mile” and focused on nothing more than placing one foot in front of the other and reaching the next marker. This is when I remembered that my charity supporters had a spot at 25 miles and I couldn’t very well walk past them now could I so I ran to the 25 mile point and now only had 1 more to go. That was a very long mile!
Most of the people around me were walking by this point. The crowds were huge provided an amazing atmosphere of support and good will. I set my mp3 player to the most motivating song I could think of and ploughed on. There are countdown signs every 100m from 600m onwards and a special sign marking when you have 385 yards to go (the .2 bit!). I was so exhausted when finally saw the finish line that, for a moment I thought I might not make it; my legs were just too heavy. I realised it was “now or never” so I gritted my teeth, lowered my head and broke into a “sprint” to the finish. Oh the blessed relief! I am not one for crying over nothing but I burst into tears as I crossed the line—I had completed the hardest thing I have ever done.
Two weeks later I lined up for my second marathon in 2 weeks and my second marathon ever! Fitness wasn’t an issue—I had proved I could do it when I finished London—but tired legs were. Despite feeling heavy legged and sore I set off on another 26.2 mile run. Maybe it was the fact the course was less busy or that I paced myself better or maybe my previous 26.2 effort had increased my fitness but either way I actually ran this marathon slightly faster than my first. In four months I went from a non-running aerobics teacher to a veteran of two marathons and raised lots of money for a very worthwhile charity in the process. The challenge from start to finish was a roller-coaster of physical and emotional challenges but it’s something that I am very proud to have achieved and I am glad I did it!
To see more from Emma please visit out http://www.youtube.com/user/Funkstep22
