Thing is, I'd say 90% of people i told i was doing this laughed in my face. I actually went to the front of my church to announce it as a way of getting sponsors, and everyone started laughing. It seemed no one would take ms seriously, and each one in turn would tell me how I'd never make it, and how I'd seriously hurt myself. Even my dad didn't take me seriously, he text me the day before with the basic message of "I hope they have night lights, because you'll still be going by night fall", and my best mate sponsored me a lot more money than most because he was sure i would't finish it. I mean, they may have seen it as the fact I'd never really done anything like this before, but still, it annoyed the heck of out me. Having hardly anyone believe in you can really get you down. Aside from my mom and a few others, no one gave me any credit.
So, the best way to use your annoyance? Transfer it into motivation! I didn't get a lot of training done, but I tried as much as i could to try and do "something" to get ready. I only had 3 weeks to get into it, and my first run went awful (I could't run past 2 miles, and felt pains in my chest). But i still kept at it, to the point where i could run 6.5 miles in an hour a few days before the half marathon.
And then, to the shock of nearly everyone, i finished the damn thing! And in just over 2 hours! (2 hours, 7 seconds to be exact!). And even more shocking, i NEVER stopped to walk! I kept up a pace of 9 minutes a mile and even beat two of my other flatmates!
Maybe your reading this and thinking "who gives a shit" or "whatever, I'e done better than that". But to me, its an achievement hardly anyone thought possible, and its really hammered home how much were capable of if we really try. I feel pretty awesome about it, and those phone calls to certain people afterwards to tell them was the icing on the cake.
So yeah, that's my story. Apologies if I've bored ya all to death,. just kinda wanted to share.
