It’s pretty hard to sustain enthusiasm for running a marathon over a long period of training.
Your build up to the race day might take 6-12 months and you will doubtless have setbacks along the way.
One way of giving yourself something exciting to aim for is to use a shorter race or two as an interim target.
A marathon dress rehearsal
You can use shorter races like
- 5k
- 10k; or
- half marathons
to spice up your training.
As well as a motivational lift, the races will probably be really good fun.
And if you’re not an experienced marathon runner, experiencing all the excitement and complications of a race day is a great way to learn what’s involved in taking part in a marathon with hundreds or thousands of runners.
If you’re training for the full marathon distance, you can find a list of UK half marathons here.
