Harry, over at Barefoot Ted’s mailing list has written a great post about the marathon. He makes a very valid point. I am pretty sure that I could just about stagger through a marathon right now. It might take me 8 hours, and calling it running might be debatable, but I have covered over 26.2 miles on Dartmoor in about 8 and a half hours, with a heavy pack. On the other hand, there’s no way I could run a 5K in under 20 minutes, or a 10K in 40 minutes.
I am taking the slow and steady approach to my running. I run when I feel like running and don’t when I don’t. I have worked up to being able to run 5K relatively comfortably, but I’m still pretty slow at it. I aim to build up a decent base before moving on in distance. I think that way, I will eventually be in a position to run a marathon without keeling over.
Slow and steady might not win the race, but I’m hoping it will mean I can keep running injury free and, most importantly, keep enjoying my running.