Kerre Woodham’s World

Course you can! Harden up! If you finished the half and you could walk – albeit gingerly – the next day, and your pelvic floor didn’t collapse at the 17 k mark, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn’t run a full marathon. If your body coped with 21 ks, then it’s merely a matter of reprogramming your mind. The reason that you felt like you couldn’t have run another step when you crossed the finish line of the half is because that’s the distance your mind and body were prepared for. They knew what they had to do – so they did it. If you’d suddenly sprung a marathon on them; if, in a fit of endorphin-induced madness, you decided ‘Bugger it! In for a penny, in for a pound – I’m going the whole way’, your mind and body would have rebelled. The mind would go first – at some point, you would have thought ‘I’m mad! What in heaven’s name am I doing?!’ and as soon as your mind went, your body would rapidly follow. Hopefully it would be your legs that would give way first and not your bowels, but either way, it would be an ignominious end. On the other hand, when I was training for the Auckland Marathon, at no time did I kid myself that by running a half, my mission had been accomplished. My goal was a marathon and the half that I ran was merely a training run en route to Auckland. And when the well meaning supporters and helpers were calling out to runners at the 20k mark in Auckland, ‘Come on! Almost there! Not long now!’, I didn’t in any way feel resentful or envious as my mind and body knew the job was only half done. When it comes to planning a marathon, don’t think about the full distance. Nobody tries to eat an elephant by stuffing one straight into their gob. You take it bit by bit – and that’s the way to approach the marathon. For me, my eureka moment was when I was running for an hour on the treadmill at the gym quite early on in my training. I finished and thought to myself I’d only have to do another three and bit of those and I’d have run a marathon. For others, it’s the thought that they only have to run 5ks eight times. Whatever it takes – you’ll work out a way of dealing with the distance. But remember – if your body managed a half, your body can certainly manage a full – it’s only a matter of building up your mental toughness.