Hey dears!! It is already 4 months ago when I ran my first marathon ,I am still remember how nervous I was the week before , feeling that I had pains everywhere even without any signals of injuries. The psychological point was the reason of all my insecure feelings on my body.
It was on Friday ,6th March, when my group of running friends and I took the flight to one of the most beautiful Balearic Island,Mallorca! Also, with a wonderful forecast of 24 degrees during our stay on the island.
Once there , I had the opportunity to stay at Melia Belver Hotel with the rest of 261wm Coaches from others cities like Madrid with Psicofonde and also the rest of the runners ,which took part on the race. Defiantly , a lovely running atmosphere! the day before of the race we had a warm up run with all the runners and Katherine Switzer beside the sea .It was incredible time!.
The day before the race , 261wm London team ,we went to pick up our race pack and see all about 261wm Expo at Melia Palace Hotel. A beautiful venue ,where we have the opportunity to get our Race number ,find our name at 261wm Race wall and get ready our hair style for the race with comfortable plats done by LLongueras beauty salons in Mallorca.
Sunday 8th March just arrived! What a such nice way to celebrate International Women’s day running my first 42,295 m at 261wm,the excusive race only for women showing to the world that all of us, we are Katherine Switzer ,the first woman on the history that ran a marathon and elevate women’s rights against social obstacles by those times.
At 10.00am hundreds of women by the start Line we began our challenge after months of training. Impossible to describe how incredible it was to run my first marathon with a such nice friends from different countries ,cheering each other during the race, keeping the smile all the way and talking without speak with one language, the language of running.
However, what can I say about my experience. I am a long distance runner since 15 years ago but I never ran a such big distance and it wasn’t my plan run a marathon with 27 years old. My knowledge says that you need to be really consistence to prepare your body for 42k. Long training sessions, impact in your joins for long hours ,it was something that make you think if it would be the right time to do it. But when 261WM team told me about it the whole idea of drive the training session in London for the race pushed me to challenge myself and do my fist marathon for a really good reason : Celebrate Women Rights doing my passion: Running!.
After a great race running beside the sea with a perfect temperature for running, I finished my 261WM in 3h40min.Belive me that I was surprised with myself how good I was feeling during all the race and also about the time, when my expectations were finishing around 4h if everything was going good. I think the key was to follow myself by my own feelings every single km, no pushing too much even if my cardio was strong to go higher ,considering that it is 42k and my muscles are not use to run this long. I think my training program and run with the head rather than focus on my performance was the key, anyway I will share with more dipper details about my training program and race on the next post.
In resume, it was a wonderful experience to do a running trip with friends sharing our feelings, cheering each other and having fun, supporting every km which is the most important thing and at end of the day. Well done guys and thanks so much London team !! Marathon girls Weronika,Rebecca and Maggie it was awesome run 42km together ,supporting each other even when we couldn’t even speak ,it was so good girls! Thanks to my crazy Erea for pushed me the last 200 metres against the rules, I knew that 10k for you wasn’t enough!
Thanks for this incredible running scape with all of you and looking forward for the next challenge !!
All the best,
Miriam Jimenez