Our second race together - we made podium in our very own category: team effort.

Reaching my objective of being able to run (or jog) a 5k without dying in the attempt in just over 3 months triggered me to want to see what else I was able to achieve, so I set myself a new objective (a 10k) and continued my training. I don´t remember how many times I went out to jog 1km, then walked a bit, jogged another 1km, walked again… until I completed 10km (plus the distance walked), but there were many training sessions like this over the summer. With every iteration, the walking part was shortened, until, finally, somewhere around early September, I was able to do 10km in one go and, together with my running angels from the 5k race, signed up for the first 10k race. Five years later, a lot of the memories of that race have faded, but one part will stick with me forever: the support by my two angels. They would have been able to go for smashing their own 10k PRs that day, but they stuck to my side to motivate me all the way to the finish line.

Very short after this race, we were back at a start line together: as a relay team doing the olympic distance at the Barcelona Triathlon in October 2016. We had planned this since the day I told them about my special birthday gift (so about 6 months before) and I had commited to the bike part (hey, I used to ride my bicycle to get everywhere in my home town Cologne - so I should be able to do the 40km, right?). What I didn´t expect was how different riding a road bike is… and that I would come to like it as much as I do today. The Barcelona Triathlon was also were we planted the first seeds of becoming the “Santi´s Angels” team, was this time, Santi also participated doing the OD on his own.

After the Barcelona Triathlon, it was clear that we had grown to be a team and we started setting joint objectives. One of them being to run the Berlin Marathon 2017 together and we registered for the raffle of entries. With the marathon as a goal for one year from then, we signed up for several different 10k races, with my objective being to go below 1h, as well as the Barcelona Half Marathon in February 2017.

I first failed at the sub-1h objective at the Jean Bouin race in November, mainly because my training was held back by what was supposedly a stress fracture but later turned out to be just a contraction of a ligament (phew!).

We became so addicted to going to races, that 2 of us even signed up for the Mataró Half Marathon just to be able to do a part of it together with the one who really was going to run it. And hours and hours of training down the road, on the very last day of the year, at the Cursa dels Nassos, I achieved my first objective as I finished at 59m and 17s - and now was ready to focus on increasing the distance.

At some point around New Year, we had learned that Berlin was not going to happen (for us). That was not going to stop us from running our marathon together, of course! Looking for alternatives, we found the one in Cologne, my home town, and the year 2017 hence became mainly a year of Half Marathons, but we also tried some first trail runs and even some obstacle runs while we were ramping up our training for the full marathon in fall. While we did most of our trainings on our own, in Summer we did have our “jour fixe” on Wednesdays, were we would meet after dark (to escape the heat) to run along the coast and then cool of in the sea and have a drink in one of the beach bars. That was great fun and consolidated us as a team and friends.

Time flies when you´re having fun and suddenly it was about time to get packed and ready to fly to Cologne. But before take-off, one week before to be exact, I suddenly came down with the worst stomach flu (or food poisoning) that I had in my life. So, suddenly, it looked like Cologne was not going to happen for me! A friend once told me that “success in marathon is making it to the start with the homework done”, so I held on to this mantra and held on to the plan to at least start and hope for the best. Thanks to the support of my family and my bestie from the high school years, the four athletes of us were able to travel with all our children and turn the event in an unforgettable memory - not only for us, but also for them. I even designed team t-shirts for our team and our supporters and we actually still use them, 5 years later.

My 18 month journey from couch to marathon taught me many lessons and came with all sorts of obstacles, not all of which I mention in this post. I got off the couch mildly obese, pre-diabetic, unable to jog around a block and 18 months later I am crossing a marathon finishline with my closest friends and family. It was a matter of setting small(er) goals and figuring out how to overcome all sorts of obstacles. My mind was set on this goal and I am very proud of achieving it. Alltogether, it was a tremendously transformative experience and I am grateful to my husband and friends for making the journey together with me. I am writing this five years down the road and only one week after the last big challenge we faced together. But that story I will write on some other day.

From couch to marathon in 18 months

Life after the marathon

Baby Steps towards the first Giant Leap