At the beginning of 2017 I started out on a quest to answer a question. I had just finished reading Running for my life by Dragos Roua (@dragosroua) and I was struck by a question.

![Wellington Marathon]( http://www.wellingtonmarathon.co.nz/files/6614/7883/0542/web_banner1.jpg)
[image source]( http://www.wellingtonmarathon.co.nz/)

Do I have a marathon in me?

Could I actually complete a marathon, without crawling over the line long after everyone has gone home and gotten on with their lives?

So I began running, and it hurt, a lot. But as part of that I started looking for solutions to problems I had endured for 20 or more years with my knees. I found the solutions, and they were easy to implement. And now my knee problems are consigned to history. If only I had known how to solve this 20 years ago. So, from my perspective, even if I don’t have a marathon in me, I am so much better off because I have made the pain in my knees go away.

Each moth I increased the distance. In January my base run was 10km. In February it went up to 15km. In March I was running 20km 2 to 3 times a week, with a 30km long run in the weekend.

Now it is April and you know what that means – another increase in distance. This time we are up to 40km for the weekend long run. (A full marathon is 42km). 

So this morning I got up, dropped my wife into town to do her stuff and then got myself sorted. I was out the door at 10:15am ready to answer the question.

For the first 10km things were fine. I could feel that my hamstrings were a bit tight, but I hoped they would loosen up as I went along. 

No such luck.

The second 10km was still ok. I was making acceptable time and my legs were not hurting too much. I knew that the pain was just from right muscles, and that the solution was to do a bunch of stretching. So onwards I went.

By the time I had completed 30km I was in agony. My legs were really sore and would hardly bend. I walked a whole kilometre to try and sort them out and give myself a bit of a rest. This was my first attempt at this distance – walking is totally allowed.

The rest of the last 10km was a mixture of walking and running – little old man shuffle, and swearing.

I knew many things in that last 10km.

I knew that I wouldn’t be doing much in the way of running for the next week.

I knew I would be doing a bunch of stretching over the next week, and beyond.

But most of all, I knew I would finish. It wouldn’t be a good time and it would be ugly, but I *would* finish.

I walked up the last hill before the short flat bit of road to my house and looked at my watch. Mr. Garmin poked out his tongue and said, “Run ya mug.” So I ran. I pushed as hard as I could to make it home before the clock ticked over another milestone.

I made it, just, into my driveway and hit the Stop button before Mr. Garmin could spoil my day.

I had done it. I had answered the question. There are still a couple of kilometres to go to complete a full marathon, but having come this far, I know I can push my body two more kilometres to make it happen.

I know I have a marathon in me. And on June 15th I will demonstrate that loud and clear in the Wellington Marathon. I know I will finish, I just don’t know how fast I can do it.

That’s a new question to be answered.

Here are my stats from Mr. Garmin. These are not impressive, I know. It is a very slow time. But this was about completing, pushing myself through the pain I knew I would feel to just keep moving until it was done.

- Distance: 39.47km
- Time 5:29
- Average pace: 8:18 min/km
- Level of agony: 8

A big thanks goes out to @dragosroua for inspiring me to do this. My body and mind are so much better off for it.

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