Half a Marcothon

And with that, my Marcothon days are over. Yes, I have failed in my attempt to run every day throughout December. But at least my attempt means that I ran more days in December than I ordinarily would have.

In the end, I managed 15 days. That’s 15 days of running in a row. This isn’t a bad stretch, considering I was quite ill last month and that I am, regardless of illness, only a mere mortal being.

A couple of days ago, I began to feel a bit “cold-like” but hoped that I would be able to keep the cold from taking hold. But then I went to a friend’s 50th birthday celebration (shh… it was a surprise!). And on the next morning, my cold had really started to progress, coupled with a sore head from too many glasses of celebratory prosecco. Still, I thought that I would manage to get a run in before the day was out.

But as the day progressed, I began to feel worse and worse (more “cold” than “prosecco”, but the prosecco really didn’t help!). So I told myself that I would allow a wee cheat and that I would do two runs the following day (one in the morning, one in the evening).

However, when the following day came around, I realised that (even with the prosecco hangover gone) my body was in no condition to run. I needed to think about the bigger picture and I realised that I would be unable to continue running until the cold was gone (or mostly gone).

And with that, I knew I was out of the running. (Pun intended.)

Yes, I could have pushed myself. But a silly little common cold in November sent me to hospital without adding loads of physical exertion to the mix. And with my chronic illnesses, I just didn’t want to risk it. Not when I was already starting to feel ill.

I think that I would have fared much better had I stuck with my own “run every day” rules instead of the time and distance rules set by the Marcothon challenge. With my own rules, it would have been as simple as running – a mile or a marathon. That flexibility might have allowed me to get out on that first day, even just for a five-minute run to stretch my legs. That flexibility might also have meant that I wouldn’t have been pushing myself in the first few weeks and that maybe I wouldn’t have gotten hit by the cold. (But who knows!)

And so, I managed a half a Marcothon. Maybe next December I’ll manage a full one. And maybe I’ll manage a run-every-day month sometime in 2019. But if I decide to attempt that, it will be on my terms with my rules. Yes, I think that would be more sensible!

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