With Brighton and London marathons now complete those involved can go back to normal life that isn’t consumed with worry about how many miles they have managed to fit in this week or whether they need to carb load, foam roll, do some hill training or generally be a slightly crazed obsessed running human!

I’m painting a warped picture of course there is the monumental sense of accomplishment, pride in oneself and general admiration from everyone you know at having achieved the toughest running challenges known to (wo)man.

So you should you sign up next year?

Here are some things to consider:

• You will need to prioritise – that’s a definite. The training sessions are time consuming and believe me its hard to keep a full time job and family running smoothly without dropping a ball to get some of your longer weekly runs in.
• You will need support – Your family will feel the hit as you depart for hours on end. You should ensure everyone is 100% behind you. You will need them to kick you out of the door on many occasions throughout the winter when it is dark and wet outside.
• You should plan your training out very carefully – don’t rush the preparation, do include strength training, sprint work and mobility/flexibility work. If you are unsure how to do this all our Brighton personal trainers will be very happy to help you
• Its a good idea to work out how you are going to motivate yourself. The Brighton marathon is in the spring, so you will be building up miles in the winter and it wont be appealing every session, who do you want to run for, show devotion to or honour. Maybe it should be enough that you want this for you. Certainly for some people this is true
• You will be digging very very deep mentally, the runs are long and the devil on your shoulder will be wanting you to stop at every mile. How are you going to shut him up and plough through the mental barrier? There are some great mind control tricks that we Brighton personal trainers can show you, but different things work for different people so you will need to try a few before you work it all out.
• And talking of your mind. You will need to still it. This is a long and steady feat and you will need to harness all your mind control possible

Whilst this all sounds very challenging and time consuming and a bit serious! i would hate to put you off. Running a marathon is one of the greatest achievements you will (if you follow the advice here) accomplish in your life. Decades after you have run your race, even if only the one, you will recall sections of it with such clarity it will surprise you, and you will feel chuffed and proud and amazed with yourself all over again.