Whatever distance you’ve signed up to run, or are considering, if it’s enough of a stretch from where you’re at right now, it could feel completely overwhelming, and make your knees wobble just at the very thought of it.

These are perfectly normal feelings, and I’d even suggest they’re good ones! Because they’re a sign of your courage and ambition in setting this goal, and I applaud you for that.

There might only be one race bib allocated to you for race day, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it on your own. Forming a team around you to help get to the start line and achieve your goal is one of the most important things you could do.

And I think this is where many of us can become unstuck and fall short in achieving our goals, because we don’t recognize it early enough. Or perhaps we don’t know what kind of support we might need and where best to get it.

Our bodies truly are the most incredible instruments. There is more magic and capability to them than we could ever understand or fully appreciate. But as runners, we can often default to working ‘against’ our body, not with it. And in doing so, limit our performance and compromise our body in the process – i.e. we can injure it!

This isn’t necessarily an intentional thing, it can just happen. As we strive to achieve more we feel we need to push harder. And it can become pretty tempting to keep up with a group that might be a little quick for us, or finish the session just to get it done when we should really call it quits.

When it comes to taking on any big goal – having a good plan to get there is paramount. And that’s certainly the case for a big running goal such as a marathon. There are plenty of training plans out there to choose from, or better still have one custom made to suit you and your lifestyle.

But here’s the key to any training plan… Let it guide you, not govern you.

For some people the word ‘holistic’ will be a very familiar term, and for others you may shy away cautiously wondering what ‘woowoo’ methods I’m going to suggest!

And either response is perfectly fine. Above anyone else’s advice, mine included – do what feels right for you. Because if it doesn’t feel right, it probably won’t be.

A lot can happen come race day. And the majority of it will be out of your control. It could be related to the weather, a ‘malfunction’ of some sort, and in current times the race might not even go ahead! Plenty of athletes have sadly and frustratingly trained for their big event for months, or even years and had it cancelled or rescheduled, multiple times.

And then of course there’s the simple fact that some days it all comes together, and other days - it just doesn’t. So I’d encourage you not to lose sight of all the days that lead to that one day – race day.