Ran a marathon in 4 months:

‍

Ran a marathon in 4 months.

‍

First, a bit of context.

‍

Since leaving medicine in 2018, I decided to implement 3 daily habits.

‍

Writing.

‍

Meditating.

‍

And Reading.

‍

One of the first books I read was Think and Grow Rich.

‍

The book that forever changed the direction of my life.

‍

It made me write my down a goal for when I turn 40.

‍

Decided from that day that every year I would accomplish something for myself.

‍

2018-2019 - Read 50 books in a year. Read 52 non-fiction books in 52 weeks while taking notes on most of them.

‍

2019-2020 - Get in shape and run a marathon. I lost 25 pounds in 3 months, started training for a marathon then Covid happened.

‍

2021 - Write 100 blog posts in a year. Posted 500 to my website.

‍

2022 - Learn a new language. Started with a month of Duolingo and failed. 

‍

Shifted my goal to continue reading and writing so read 75 books and wrote 250+ blog posts.

‍

2023 - run a marathon.

‍

Jan 1 I decided I would run a marathon this year.

‍

Never done a race.

‍

No running background besides those few weeks I trained in 2020.

‍

But said why not.

‍

For the last 4 months, I’ve been training 4-5 times a week.

‍

Almost exclusively on a treadmill indoors.

‍

Did a 3 hr and 15 min run on a treadmill.

‍

Only ran outside twice.

‍

Today, I finished my first one in less than 5 hours.

‍

Considering where I started this year, I’m so happy with the result.

‍

I didn’t account for my quads collapsing at kilometer 27.

‍

The last 15k I switched between walking and running.

‍

But nonetheless, I got through it.

‍

Few lessons I’ve learned for next time.

‍

Increase training up to 20 miles/30k to get your muscles used to that distance.

‍

Run outside more.

‍

Bring more gels.

‍

Put the body glide all the way down your legs.

‍

Don’t feel guilty for walking at the beginning.

‍

Don’t feel guilty for walking ever.

‍

Considering I’d never run a race before and this was my first one, I’m happy with it.

‍

Proud of what I did.

‍

Setting a goal, putting in the work and achieving it.

‍

Accomplishments are made with preparation.

‍

Showing up for yourself.

‍

Progressing.

‍

Improving a bit every day.

‍

Staying patient.

‍

Then pushing through the inevitable failure along the way

‍

I can’t believe it tbh.

‍

From not running to running a marathon in my first race after 4 months.

‍

Not too bad for this former small chubby Indian kid.

‍

He’s now a guy who ran a marathon in 4 months.

‍

P.S. If anyone wants to do the same, here’s the exact program I followed

‍