Run 42 full marathons before I turn 42

I'm republishing this post which I accidentally deleted. The original post was published on the 24th of May 2014. 

Hey there! I'm Mavic. Some people also know me as Bekkie.

I've recently finished my 5th marathon and I got inspired by a lady I met during the Great Ocean Road Marathon.

Her name is Erica King, and she's the founder of Running Divas. While running the last 10 kilometers of the race, she shared her story that she had been running for 13 years and that she was trying to finish 1 full marathon each month this year for her 50th birthday. It was also then that she mentioned that she founded Running Divas in order to empower women and help them reach their running goals whatever they may be.

While still on the road, she gave me this bracelet that had an inscription on it that says "Marathon Woman. Fearless". Erica said that it came from Kathrine Switzer, the first woman ever to finish a full marathon in 1967. I didn't even know who Kathrine Switzer was that moment she told me about her, but I suddenly felt so inspired about both their stories.

I took on running 4 years ago. Why? Well, to be honest, because I was bored, and I felt that I needed to do something physically challenging to keep me busy and distracted about the very trivial things I constantly worry myself about at the time. Also, I felt I've been inactive for a long time, I just needed something to get me off the bed, the couch, or any other comfortable surface where you'd usually find me then.



I have been an athlete most of my life but all the sports I've been into have run through their course and just don't seem appealing to me anymore. I was either not very good at the sport, or it was just too high maintenance and required a lot of things from me (i.e. money, logistics, time) that I just gave up on them altogether. Now, running... I thought then, I just need to put on my rubber shoes, find a piece of road and go at it. Simple! And I've grown to love simple things. So several running clinics, racing events and adventures after, here I am, wanting to do more with running.

That brings us to now. I'm turning 34 this year and as I mentioned, I've so far ran 6 marathons and finished 5 of them (I'll tell you about that later). It will be 8 years before I turn 42.

I've set a lot of goals for myself, most of them I want to achieve before I turn 40 like, buying myself a Mini Cooper, run at the Boston Marathon and take time off from my corporate life and travel the whole world over. I still want to achieve those goals, but after hearing about Erica's and Kathrine's stories, something started eating at my gut, telling me that maybe I can also do more.

I'm not trying to start something to change how the world runs itself, I just wanted to set some structure, something I can control in the next few years. So I came up with this idea: why not finish 42 full marathons before turning 42? Aside from the literal reference to the actual distance of a full marathon (which is approximately 42.195km), the goal just sounded right and symbolic, and my gut settled down feeling somewhat relieved that I figured this out quickly.

In the next 8 years, I've 37 marathons left to finish. That means I need to finish about 4-5 marathons a year. It sounds quite hectic, but not unrealistic.

So cheer me on and follow me on my journey! I'll try to share with you details from the races I've already finished, my training plan, the races I plan (or dream of) to join, and anything else I think would tickle your fancy and keep you reading what I've to say.

See you on the road!

P.S. Special thanks to Daday Pascual, for designing my blog banner. You're the bestest ever!!!