My Mini Marathon Experience!!

On Monday 3rd june I took part in the Flora's Womens Mini Marathon. I couldn't have even imagined walking it last year let alone jog it. When I started jogging with my work buddy Alison at the end of April, she brought up the Mini Marathon and how it was 40 days away. Not going to lie I was a bit apprehensive about doing it, I'm by no means a jogger but I accepted her offer. I took it as a challenge, another goal for me to achieve! We started training hard, everyday after work we'd go jogging and not going to lie I was pretty tired after every session. College exams did get in the way a bit and I found myself in the 2 weeks prior to the Marathon not doing as much jogging as I would of liked. Everyone told me that you're suppose to have all your training done by the week before the Marathon, I didn't really pay attention to this at all. I'm pretty sure that's the week that I pushed myself a little harder. Two pieces of advice, drink as much water as possible and buy proper jogging gear well in advance of the Marathon. I bought the latter the weekend of the Mini Marathon and I was in a panic trying to get stuff sorted. Penneys/Primark have a great range of running/gym gear so I'd definitely recommend hitting them up. I picked up a pair of capri leggings from them for €11 which were perfect. They also had a handy pocket in the back that fit my phone, Ipod and leap card, just what I needed!

The day before the Mini Marathon Alison, her Mum and I collected our numbers at the Woman's World Show in the RDS. I personally didn't think was all that and didn't buy anything at it. I called in to see my Aunty in hospital afterwards and gave her some of the treats that were in my goody bag. She was particularly fond of the new Special K Chocolate Biscuit Moments. We had a good chat about everything from College to Marathon. Ever since we were younger she always told us to just do are best and thats what she told me whilst I was there. Little things like that mean so much to me, when my Nanna told her on Tuesday that I finished the Marathon she was beyond proud. My Nanna is seriously the best she called up to me on the morning of the Mini Marathon to wish me the best of luck, she's always been my biggest supporter and believed that I could do anything I put my mind to.

The day of the Mini Marathon was a complete scorcher, I wasn't expecting it at all. I was telling customers in work I was really looking forward to jogging it but only if it didn't rain and if it wasn't ridiculously warm. Of course it had to be ridiculously warm! Having never participated in previous years I wasn't the expecting the big crowds when I turned up. Getting the Luas with Alison and her Mum was crazy, we were so squished! Once the race started and I set my pace, it was all plain sailing. That is until I lost Alison after 3KM, I turned around and she was gone. I kept going alone left's just day I'm so glad I brought my Ipod with me. I waited for a bit to see could I spot her but I was talking to so many people afterwards and they were saying how you always end up losing people. 80,000 people take part in the Mini Marathon so the likeliness is that you'll never find who you're looking for. If like me you like to listen to music while you run, I'd definitely recommend buying one of those straps for your arm. I seen so many people with these and I felt envious, I had to carry my Ipod for the whole duration of the Marathon. Buying one of those holders would of certainly made things easier. Paddy made me a Mix CD of songs to listen to during the Mini Marthon which included a remix of Daft Punk & Pharrell Williams "Get Lucky". One of my favourite songs of the minute, not really feeling  Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines I just don't get why everyone likes it! On the day I told Paddy to meet me at 4pm at Stephen's Green so imagine his suprise when I rang him at 3.13 saying I finished the Mini Marathon. Man I still can't believe myself that I finished it in that time like 1hr 13mins, it's such an amazing feeling. For me the last 1 km was the hardest just because I was genuinely exhausted. Once I stopped jogging to walk for a bit the heat definitely gets to you. The support from onlookers along the way is insane, it's true what they say the crowd really does keep you going. In the last km I heard someone mention the finish line was just around the corner and it gave me the push I needed to keep jogging. A lady from St Luke's Hospital was at the finish line and she asked could she take my picture. I didn't see the picture she took but I'm guessing it will feature in one of the charity's upcoming newsletters. Once I finished the Marathon I was handed this medal which I'm definitely going to be keeping up, for me this was one of my biggest achievement this year after losing all the weight. I really do believe that it's super important to keep setting yourself personal goals that lead to one big goal at the end. After the Marathon Paddy and I headed to get some food, we went to Yum Thai Noodle Bar which is seriously delicious. I love their pad thai noodles which were a great post jogging treat.

The most important thing for me was raising money for my charity, St Luke's Hospital. In total I raised €230.50, €92.50 of which came from all the lovely bloggers that attended the What Bloggers Did Next meetup. When Katie handed me back the sponsorship form I was in serious shock! You guys are such an amazing generous bunch, you definitely made me emotional on the day with all your wonderful words of support. I also have to thank the wonderful Katie Healy who organised the meetup, it really was fabulous and there was such an amazing turn out on the day too. There's talk that a Halloween Meetup is in the works so definitely head over to Katie's Twitter page if you want to be kept up to date on all proceedings.

Having finished the Mini Marathon and College I don't really know what to be doing with myself now. You'd think that a nice relaxing break was in order but to be honest I get bored so easily. I'm already looking into taking part in the 5km Rainbow Run in Dun Laoighre, it sounds like so much fun and I'm so excited for it. The tickets are €25 with a portion going to LARCC Cancer Support Centre which again is such an amazing cause. You can check out the official website here and hopefully I'll see some of you bloggers there on the day. I think I'm a bit far off taking part in a full Marathon, 26 miles seems like a hell of alot to me! Who knows maybe in a year I'll do it, one things for sure I'll start training early.

I hope you enjoyed this post on my Mini Marathon experience, I did a couple of update post leading up to it which you can check out here. You can see what where my beauty essentials on the day and just updates on what I generally got up to! Hope these posts helped if you're taking part in a Mini Marathon or considering taking part next year.

Laura<3