It’s over. I’m done.

After 7 months, 575 miles, 145 hours, 49 minutes and 32 seconds of running, my marathon training is over.

It’s hard to believe but the numbers say it all. I did it!

Training has been hard. There were times I wanted to toss the shoes under the bed, crawl under the duvet and stay there. There were days I didn’t want to run, days when I wasn’t supposed to run but wanted to. There were days when I wished I could run further or faster or longer, days when I felt I COULD and days when I DID!

When I started training in April, I was running about 10 miles a week.  At the peak of my training I ran 35 miles in a week.  In September I ran over just over 129 miles.

During my training I went through all the ups and downs I was warned I would go through. Feeling excited and exhilarated one minute, to feeling deflated and defeated the next. I had bad runs and good ones, disastrous runs and epic ones. I have cried tears of frustration, of happiness, of exhaustion, of elation. I have been convinced I can do it and certain that I can’t. I even very nearly quit.

But I’m here now; at the end of my marathon training. And I have no regrets.

This week, for the last of my taper I went for two 3 mile walks.  Monday’s walk was really the walk that said it all. Instead of following my usual training route into the park, I went over my old running route; the roads I used to run on when I first started running.  I remembered my old milestones; the first lamp post I ever ran to, the bridge where I finally ran my first km, the flagpole which marked my 2k run.

From barely able to run 120 meters to planning to run 26.2 miles.  I’ve come a long way, literally and figuratively.  Monday’s walk brought it all back; somehow it was important to revisit the past. It was an emotional walk. I was literally walking from where I had been to where I am today…waiting to run my first marathon.

I’ll have more thoughts closer to the day, but I wanted to post these thoughts now. Somehow it feels meaningful this way.