Marathon's feedback and working again

Here it is, after so much training, the feedback of my Paris Marathon. This post will mostly discuss running and not really hacking, so feel free to leave if you're not interested.

The initial goal

It's been a while since I'm training for it, as I already did the previous edition of this Marathon but I was injured, so it was a pain and I mostly walk during it. So this year was my revenge.

I had a better feeling, I was more prepared, and pretty confident, to be honest. I knew that it would be hard, for sure, but not as hard as the previous one.

During the last week, I had a little injury in my right ankle, but nothing serious.

My initial goal was to do it in 3h40, which means a pace of 5'14" by kilometer ( 7.2 mph ). I knew it was possible with my training.

The Marathon

That was very stressful; mostly one of my biggest goals of the year, and it was now. At the starting line, so many people were there. We were like 60k people doing it, which is crazy. So many people like pain.

The start was pretty straightforward, and my pace was perfect until km 27. That was very nice, so many people all around.

My friends were there to support me, and that was a huge plus.

At km 27, I started to get some pain in my ankle. Then, at km 30, I got my back fully blocked, which was a pain.

And finally, I got a lot of cramps in my legs.

But that's Marathon, it's logical to be such a pain. I reduced my pace and started to be in my head, thinking about all of it. It was hard, very hard. And so many people all around helped each other by giving words and supporting us. And just for that, that was amazing.

And that's why I started doing marathons, to train myself in the pain. I know that it can sound fully stupid, but by getting used to it, you get trained for anything else. I wanted to challenge my head to never give up anything and to fight. And it's sooo fucking hard at this moment, when you whole body tell you to just stop and go to your bed. You just want to stop it, and you still have like 5 km to run, the hardest part.

A lot of people say that a Marathon is 30km with legs, 10 with head, and 2 with heart, and I do agree. This day, I trained my mind by doing hard things. And I know that it will help me in the future.

So the last kilometers, I was in my head, fully empty, just going forward, even if my legs had cramps. I also wanted to run faster at the end, but my body refused.

In the end, I finished in 3h53, which was not my initial goal, but to be honest, I'm so proud of it. I did not reduce my pace that much, even if I thought I was very slow. And I finished it in a decent time. Of course, I would be happier if I managed to do it in less time, but I totally don't care, and I have so much time to improve myself in the future.

So, I can finally say that I'm a full marathoner now.

And now what?

My last month was mostly me stressing about it and doing nothing except looking at series and films. I'm happy that it's done and that I can come back to doing stuff.

I will for sure continue running a lot, doing other races, and improving myself. But I now need to come back to working as well, as I also have goals in my job.

I'm hunting again, and it's hard to find the momentum, but I know for sure that it will come back. I'm looking at new ways to hunt and do fun stuff. And I will get you covered.

Now, time to go back to hacking stuff ;)