My first marathon
I knew the only way I will run the Vienna marathon in April, is to register for it already in September, so I did. This made me get up and go jogging throughout the cold and dark winter months, mostly in the late evenings in between 9 and 10pm. I started with 2 x week, and increased to 3 x week quite soon, usually making 10k runs during the week, and on the weekends 15-20k runs. As a measurable milestone I ran the "VCM Winterlaufserie" at the Vienna Prater, which was my first competition at all, and a great preparation for the Vienna Marathon. This included two half marathons (1:49 and 1:45), as well as one 28k run. I had never run before in my life more than 15k, so this was an achievement as such. For the preparation the 28k runs was also the longest one.
On the day of the marathon, I was very excited. Especially I was curious about how my body will react in the kilometers from 30k to 42k. I decided for 3 goals beforehand: 1) across the finish line 2) in less than 4 hours and 3) have a great party in Schweizerhaus afterwards. I was glad to finish all three goals. My final time was 3:45 and for my first marathon I was very satisfied. This gave me also a boost to try out triathlon (Olympic distance) this summer, and who knows maybe Ironman one day.
by Niko Viramo, MBA
