Your way: how to start running marathons from scratch and run to yourself
Liga Sarukhanova – journalist and mother of two children, without a sports past. But in recent years, in her social networks – there are all photos from marathons and international competitions. And a couple of races a year would be okay: they with her husband do not miss, it seems, not a single start. We asked Olya specifically for BeautyHack to tell her story: how she started to run and where she gets the motivation not to give up training.
First 5 kilometers
Flashback My youngest daughter is one year old. In the early morning I get up on the scales, I see a figure close to 80 pounds. I sigh. I’m finishing up a pancake. I open Facebook and read the post of my friend, with whom we are in about the same weight category. She writes that she recently started running and registered for the 5 km Colorful Run. Ha, I can do it too! Probably.
I put on dusty sneakers, stretched workouts from the far corner of the closet, and go to the park. Jogging briskly and in a minute or two I understand that … I can’t take it anymore. Shortness of breath, leg pain, heart jumps out. And I’m only 31 years old! ..
This moment of truth came as a shock. Upset. Pissed off. But also showed a new goal. I started to run not so much to lose weight (in principle, the reflection in the mirror was quite fine with me), but to prove to myself that I was not a “wreck”, but young, strong and healthy. To argue with you.
The first five kilometers without stopping I ran after 3 months of regular training. I was engaged in the plan in the online application (I downloaded the first available free). I registered for a charity race, I was preparing for it. She talked about this in social networks so that it would be embarrassing to “merge.” When I crossed the finish line and received my first well-deserved medal of the finisher, I realized: I want more.
I started to run with my husband
My husband at first treated my jogging condescendingly – they say that you suffer from nonsense. For him, there was no other sport besides the “rocking chair”. He haphazardly pulled the pieces of iron in the hall, washed down the training with beer and slowly grew wide, like most married men. But seeing how I gradually update my wardrobe two sizes smaller, I thought hard. I gave him running shoes and registration for the first race. So we began to go out to the park together. Arthur had very good running abilities, his results for an amateur are now very decent. As for me, victory over oneself, small personal records became a cool motivation for him. A great form, well-being, endurance, and that’s all – just a nice bonus. To become the best version of ourselves is our common credo.
Sometimes finding time for a run is another quest. We both work on a tight schedule, plus for children – schools, courses, classes … Sometimes there are simply no strengths, there are not enough hours in a day. We connect common sense: firstly, we are not terminators and not Olympic champions. Therefore, if midnight is approaching, but they didn’t have time to run, then we postpone the training for tomorrow. Secondly, all the same, the habit of sports disciplines all spheres of life.
We manage to train together only on weekends, and on weekdays we simply distribute responsibilities. My husband likes to run in the morning more – then he trains to work, and at this time I take the children to school. And in the evening – he picks up, and I can find an hour after the office.
To be in shape and run marathons, as it turned out, you do not need something supernatural. 4-5 hours a week is enough. 2-3 hours on weekends can always be carved out, as well as a couple of hours on weekdays morning or evening.
Sometimes laziness wins. But when there is a goal (the marathon will not run itself), laziness ceases to be an excuse in 99% of cases. I know that I will curse myself for this laziness at 33-35 km … The main thing here is to start changing clothes, tying up sneakers. Sometimes reluctantly I go out into the street, through “I do not want to.” But it’s worth starting to run, I understand: but it’s cool that it came out! It’s nice to be well done in your own eyes.
Triathlon, or First Iron Distance
So we began to set common goals and prepare for them together. Dozens, half marathons, full 42-kilometer marathons … There are really no counts in total for five years. For two, a hundred will come out for sure, if you count running, triathlon, swimming, trail starts. We are interested in running along new routes, so having studied Moscow with our feet, now we select those races where I want to go, which fit the schedule, which cost sane money (getting to New York or Tokyo together is very expensive, so we postpone them for later). Absolute freedom.
When the goals became serious, we went to a running school together, and then continued to work with the coach. We plan all starts together. We discovered running tourism – we take children, friends and go for medals, and at the same time open new cities – Munich, Riva del Garda, Kazan, Sochi, Minsk, Budapest, Paris and many others. Now we are preparing for the first “major” (there are only six starts with a golden status in the world) – the Berlin marathon. Ideally, I would like to run all six “majors” –
