Is It Possible to Run a Marathon And Compete in Powerlifting?

This was the time that my dad convinced me to run a marathon with him.

He never actually told me that I was going to be running a marathon, instead, he told me to check my e-mail.

It stated: “Congratulations, you are officially entered to run the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon.”

How did this happen? 

I was living in San Diego at the time and my dad had been running the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon for the past few years (I think it may have been one of his first marathons ever??).

I watched him cross the finish line with a roaring crowd. Inspiring, to say the least.

I made a joke that maybe I would run a marathon some day. I said that without any real intentions of doing it.

Well, the joke was on me.

I was actually training for a powerlifting competition at the time, trying to work on building my strength during all of this and now I was also being thrown into a marathon. That’s 26.2 miles of running all at once.

The people around me (other than my family) were discouraging; they made sure to let me know that there was no way I was going to maintain my strength and also run the upwards of 30-40 miles per week to train for a marathon.

After 2 months of training like this, people started to see that, “okay, maybe she CAN do it,” so they changed their argument to, “well, this can only go on for so long before you reach overtraining.”

And the second that I got the most minor injury (I twisted my ankle while warming up for a run), everyone said, “That’s it. It’s game over for you; time to take a break.”

I let my ankle recover and told everyone, “No plans on stopping, but thanks though.”

3 weeks out from my marathon, I ended up hitting one of my biggest bench PR’s at the time. Not only was I not giving up on my runs; I was pushing through with my strength despite it all.

I ended up finishing in the top 20% of female finishers for my marathon that day. (And on top of that, I ran the 5k the day before.)

All of that stuff in my pocket is “Gu” packs, which is what you eat while running to keep from depleting while on the run. You’re burning thousands of calories while running, so runners sometimes store their carbohydrate goo (sounds gross, and it is) in their fannies or somewhere on them while they run in case of emergencies.

If you want to do something, go all in with it despite the talk. 

Do you know how much easier it would have been for me to just quit? Imagine the hours in the gym lifting on top of the hours outside focused on running; the time and pain I dedicated to finish was worth it at the end, but sometimes it was questionable throughout the months of training. But I never quit, and because of that, I did one of the most empowering things for myself (at that time) by pushing through, for me, what felt like hell.

I created a confidence for myself that I never believed possible. The doubt and even negativity around me only helped to build me up to be stronger.

I just did what many people called IMPOSSIBLE? Damn, I must be some kind of superhuman, thanks for that confidence booster, guys.

But seriously, thanks, because this created such a screaming confidence for me after the fact; the feeling of being truly unstoppable around people who I considered well-educated in the fitness industry.

I crossed the finish like at 11:11 am that morning (I’m all about my signs), so I took that as a reminder to continue pushing through the doubt and negativity that I may continue to receive in the future with my next big projects.

What to Take Away From This

This popped up on my feed today and so I decided to share this story.

I know many of you are facing your own inner battles with confidence and negativity, and I just wanted to remind you that people will try to tear you down if they don’t want to see you rise above them.

Stay strong, whatever it is you’re going through and let’s see you rise above it.

Keep moving forward, one step after another, until you cross that finish line.