For those that follow me, you will know that I ran the London Marathon on Sunday 23 April. Since the race I’ve had a lot of people ask me about how it went.

So let’s talk about how the London Marathon was for me this time…

I ran my first marathon when I was 18 years but I didn’t train properly. I couldn’t walk for four weeks afterwards so this is definitely not something I would advise. However, this is where my passion for running began. Over the course of the last 15 years or so I’ve been trying to work on getting a better marathon time. I’ve been working on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to training. I have to say it’s been a massive learning curve. I’ve learnt something new from every single race.

I’ve had failed marathons where I haven’t finished. I’ve had amazing marathons where I’ve ran fluid, strong and enjoyed every single mile. How that happens I will never know. Being a woman I know you can’t always run well or strong. I went into this race knowing that in December 2022 I had mentally committed to the marathon distance for 2023.

My main goal was to enjoy the distance knowing how awful the last marathon I ran in 2018 was. The long training runs, the dark nights, wet runs and low immune system. It’s no joke training for a Spring marathon. The winter training really isn’t for the faint hearted. There was one thing that I really honestly struggled with. And it wasn’t the training! It was the juggling act of working, being a mum and all the other things that come around life. It’s no joke. I’m so blessed to have amazing support around me to enable me to follow my work as a personal trainer and follow my passion as a runner. You only need a few fundamental people around you to make that happen.

In the first few weeks of my training plan in January I felt my training was going pretty well. I managed to do my highest amount of mileage over the month compared to the last few years of training. In February I knew the work would start, that my body would start to get tired and this really was where the grind starts. We still had the dark nights. Typically, my immune system usually drops when I decide to take on a marathon but for me within this block, I managed to stay pretty well for the first 12 weeks.

What did I do differently? I listened to my body a lot more. I fully appreciated the exhaustion that my family, work and training life would bring on me. However, I’m not very good at sticking to a plan. I buckle under pressure and that’s something I’ve learned from. So instead I took each week as it came opposed to looking at the next four weeks and putting myself under too much presume.

I also tracked my training with my cycle. After all I am a woman and you’ll know that your performance will be quite up and down. And for me I know my performance is typically very up and down when it comes to my hormones and periods. We can’t perform 100% all of the time. And there is good reason for this.

I want to emphasise the importance of how being a woman can affect your Marathon.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do to change that. Over the past 20 years of running, I have really tried to work out where I perform best, where I perform worse and what hinders me the most when it comes to my hormones and training. There were a few factors leading up the run that didn’t put me in a great headspace. I questioned whether a PB would be on the cards two weeks before the event. I came down with what I thought was Covid and it took me ten days to start to feel better and seven days prior to the marathon I still felt pretty rough.

On the Thursday before the marathon my period came on and this is something that I know doesn’t work well for me when running. There are a few factors for us ladies to take into consideration. If you’re a runner or someone that trains regularly, you cannot train 100% all of the time.

There is a good reason for this. When you are approaching your period you’ll be holding more water. Your heart rate will be higher and your joints may start to ache. If you are like me, your anxiety will also be higher which can put you in a really bad headspace before any big event. These are all factors to consider when taking on any event.

Unfortunately you can’t control when you are on your period. For me I am typically not my strongest. Taking on carbs isn’t as efficient and my exhaustion levels are a log higher. In actual fact, the last time I ran the London Marathon in 2018, the exact same thing happened. So I went into the race knowing this and my aim was to smash the previous times of 3 hrs 13 being my current best and 3 hours 16 being the last year I ran.

The race in miles

The hype around the London Marathon is pretty immense. If you’ve ever run it before you know what I mean.

Going into this race, I knew that fuelling for me in previous races had been an issue. I really wanted to get this right from mile one. I often find I do something stupid in a marathon. Whether it’s nerves or anxiety but something I’ve not normally done in training. By the way this is something you shouldn’t do!

Miles 1 to 15 – were amazing. I felt fluid and in control. Heartrate felt great and all my niggles felt great from taper. I’m not going to lie – I felt on it!

After mile 15 – I had the first extreme hit me which in all honesty has never ever hit me like that before. Not sure whether this was a salt issue or if I was severely dehydrated. I couldn’t recoup what I had lost. My left side started to cramp pretty bad and I knew that my pace was getting quite slow compared to how I started.

Running a marathon is never ever linear and what might work for me most definitely won’t work for someone else. That’s one thing I’ve learned with any marathon block of training. You have to listen to your body and understand you and your body.

At mile 20 I was really struggling. I felt like my legs were 20 stone each and my body felt absolutely exhausted so my goal for the last 10k was just to not stop and get the rundown at 18 miles. I knew if I just held on to the pace I was going at I would just about make a PB.

Every single mile in that last 10k felt like 10 miles in my head. I was not in the right place and neither was my body. The only thing that got me round was seeing my husband and family knowing they would be at the finish.

The first time ever at the end of my run, I almost collapsed. My whole body went into muscular spasm and I couldn’t stand up straight. One thing I planned to do amongst my run is take on salts, and what did I do? I forgot them, so I pulled them out of my bag after collecting it. I felt delirious but within 10 to 15 minutes of taking my salt tablets I felt absolutely fine. Frustrating but we live and learn!

I want this blog to emphasise the importance of how women cannot work consistently because of a lot of different factors. If you’re still making progress amongst all of this, give yourself a massive pat on the back because being a woman can be extremely challenging at times. I want to document as much as I can to help emphasise the importance of the physical ability of a woman and how it can be so changeable.

Natalie Bhangal is a personal trainer who has a passion for health, fitness and strength training. She trains beginners, athletes, pregnant and postnatal women, those with injuries and injury prone clients. For more information email natalie@graftfitness.co.uk