This is my marathon…Dublin City Marathon 2015 Race Report

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

Those are the words I kept saying to myself yesterday as I ran the SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon.  Over 15,000 people took part in the marathon yesterday and I was one of them.  As I ran, I passed (and was passed by) many people; I started to think to myself that we’re all here with a story. We all have our reasons for running this marathon, our own journeys that got us to this point. Being part of that crowd of marathoners and processing my own race, all I could think was ‘this is my marathon’.

I finished my marathon in a time of 6:51:15, which was twenty minutes off my target time of 6:30:xx but I’m absolutely delighted and proud of my achievement! The key word for me is finished!

My race report is going to be a little different. I won’t be giving a mile by mile replay like I normally do. Some miles were boring, some were exhilarating, some were exhausting! Instead I’m going to trace my way around the course and note thoughts, feelings and experiences I had on the way.

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Making a list…checking it twice

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

So earlier in the week I posted this photo on twitter.

There seems to be a bit of interest in it so I thought I’d post the full thing here and explain a few things here and there. It will also help me clarify things for myself, and it may prompt me to remember something else I’ll need to add!

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Sports Massage: Touched for the very first time!

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

Back in August I went for my first ever sport massage. This was to help keep the legs injury free while I upped the intensity of my marathon training, hitting longer and longer distances.

Despite my initial nervousness, it turned out that the sport massage was just what I needed.  But I almost didn’t go, so before I tell you about the sport massage itself, I want to tell the whole story.

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On running for the Dublin Simon Community; with guest writer Alison from DSC

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

This is probably the most personal post I’ve ever published on my blog. For one thing, I’m introducing myself (hi, my name is Carrie; nice to meet you!) but I’ve also invited Alison R. from Dublin Simon Community to say a few words about the charity, and what they do to help the homeless. What she has shared is amazing, and her story is really inspiring and gives me so much hope for the people DSC are trying to help.  But first, let me tell you why helping the homeless is so meaningful to me.

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I’m This Fat Girl Runs….AMA!

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

Tomorrow will be 4 weeks until my first marathon. I’ve had an amazing year so far of preparing and training and a big part of what’s helping get to the starting line is the community of runners on twitter.  I really enjoy interacting with you all; asking questions, getting advice and giving encouragement.

I realised lately that mostly I talk about running, and occasionally a band or gig I’m going to. So I thought what better way for my running friends to get to know me a little better than to do an AMA style blog post.  I got a lot of great questions so I’m going to answer them here.  I hope you enjoy the post!

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When confidence gets shotted*

Posted on by thisfatgirlruns

When I was a kid I went on a fairground ride with my sister. I can’t remember how old I was, maybe 12 or maybe younger. The ride was called The Zipper and from the ground it looked like a lot of fun.  There were these buckets spinning around this long oval wheel which was also spinning and the whole thing didn’t look too bad. I was tall enough to ride it and my sister was older than me so into a bucket we hopped.

It wasn’t fun; it was terrifying. I was terrified. We were being spun around and around and up and down at the same time and it wasn’t stopping, it just wasn’t stopping. The bucket spun around without warning and without any rhyme or reason. It flipped every which way while spinning around and around. The sky and the ground rushing towards and away from me, the screams of other people on the ride. It was terrifying. It seemed to go on forever. I screamed and screamed for the ride to stop but of course the only person who heard me was my sister and she couldn’t do anything about it.  I don’t remember getting off the ride but apparently I was crying and I yelled at the ride operator because he didn’t stop the ride. I was so scared and upset at being so scared.

What scared me the most was the complete and utter lack of control I had. Fair rides were never the same for me after that!

I’m sharing this story because it’s the only way I can describe what happens to my thoughts sometimes. It’s like my brain hops on a certain thought bucket and then this thought just spins around and around in my mind, always spinning, this way and that with no control. Sometimes I can take hold of these thoughts and stop the ride, other times I just can’t. Sometimes the thoughts are benign, sometimes it’s an idea or a question or a plan. Other times, it’s a dark, nasty and negative thought; usually about myself.

What does this have to do with running? Today; everything.

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