Following my 16km success, I was tasked with running 18km – something I did, to my surprise, quite comfortably. I did have to change my plan when it came to pace, however. When you first join the Runna app, you’re given an estimated finish time – mine sat around the 2 hours 16 minute mark. By following the training plan (including the paces set out for you during these runs), the idea is that you’ll be able to meet or exceed this come race day.

However, I regularly found the pace the app wanted me to maintain too intense. Instead of working towards Runna’s expected time goal, I decided that crossing the line would be reward enough, and that change in attitude afforded me more wiggle room for enjoying – rather than punishing – myself during training.

My plan tasked me to run 18km twice – with a deload week in between to provide a breather. The second 18km felt a little harder than the first, mainly because I started to get race day fear. To combat the mind noodles, I pushed myself to run 1km further – coming in at just over 19km in total. If you ever find yourself doubting your ability to do something, I’d recommend giving this technique a go: by showing myself that I could run an extra 1km, I had a ready-made example of me overcoming self-imposed barriers.

From there, all that was left was to taper my distance and get ready for race day. I felt confident, but with three weeks still to go until the day itself, I started to worry my body would forget how to run such a big distance. It’s a common worry known among long-distance runners as ‘maranoia’. I found that you don’t have to run the whole 26.2 miles to experience it; training hard for any distance can result in panic near to the day.

“A year ago, I struggled to run 10k. Now, I’ve completed my first half marathon – here’s how I did it”