Ran a marathon in 4 months

Ran a marathon in 4 months:

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Ran a marathon in 4 months.

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First, a bit of context.

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

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Writing.

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Meditating.

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And Reading.

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

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The book that forever changed the direction of my life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2023 - run a marathon.

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

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Never done a race.

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

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But said why not.

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

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Almost exclusively on a treadmill indoors.

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

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Only ran outside twice.

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

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

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

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The last 15k I switched between walking and running.

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But nonetheless, I got through it.

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Few lessons I’ve learned for next time.

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

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Run outside more.

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Bring more gels.

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Put the body glide all the way down your legs.

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Don’t feel guilty for walking at the beginning.

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Don’t feel guilty for walking ever.

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

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Proud of what I did.

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

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Accomplishments are made with preparation.

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Showing up for yourself.

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Progressing.

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Improving a bit every day.

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Staying patient.

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Then pushing through the inevitable failure along the way

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I can’t believe it tbh.

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

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Not too bad for this former small chubby Indian kid.

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

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

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