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| Running past Arthur's Seat early in the race |
Since I set up this blog to talk about going vegan and how it has affected my build up to marathoning, it seems appropriate to start with diet. I've written a couple of times before about the various good and bad aspects of eating a plant based diet, so I'll try to avoid covering old ground here. In relation to the marathon I can say that I went in feeling strong (having just recovered from a cold), was able to stay strong throughout the race (mostly, the end part was a bit of a push) and my recovery was surprisingly quick.
I put much of this down to my diet allowing me to stay healthy, fuelling me for the day and giving my body all the goodies it needs to put me back together again after the race. While I obviously could achieve this with any moderately healthy diet, I think the no-meat approach significantly heightened the degree at which I was able to prepare, perform and recover.
Has vegan eating been the principle driver behind feeling great and performing well? Or was it just the extra exercise making the difference? Since I still feel really good even when I have taken a break from running (such as when I had my calf issue) I'm going to go with the diet being the root of all my mental and physical improvements. Of course nothing works in isolation, but I consider it a solid foundation for all my other endeavours.
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| Home stretch, sprint finish |
About the Race
Finally, just a few words about the race itself. If you are considering a marathon, I can highly recommend Edinburgh's event. It is well organised, has great scenery, is relatively flat and had good support for much of the route. I'm really glad I picked a good first marathon race, since I'm now all psyched for my next one. Bring on Wales in July!
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