A good friend of mine in Poland, Monika Banach, ran he first half marathon last Sunday. Here she tells us about her love of running, how she managed to fit in training into her busy schedule and what’s next for her.
Monika – wife, mother of two gorgeous children, full time worker and runner. She started running only a year and a half ago, and last week she successfully completed her first half marathon with a time of 2:21. Four days later she is back in training for her next race.
Monika’s initial reason for running was to become a healthier and fitter person, she never realised how important running would become to her. She says, “Running has many positive effects for me. It gives me energy, eliminates stress and negative emotions, it teaches me discipline and the will to fight. It also changes the way I look at the world.”
With each kilometre Monika runs, it not only makes her body stronger but also her mind, “when I think I can’t go any further I just push myself to go that one km further,” and this reflects on other areas of her life. Monika puts herself in front of more challenges and knows that she can overcome them thanks to the confidence she has gained from running.
It may all sound simple but Monika’s passion for running hasn’t come without obstacles. As a mother, wife and full time worker, her family and responsibilities are high on the priority list. Fortunately she has a loving and supportive husband who also stays active, “I go to the gym twice a week after work and so does he, we just do it on separate nights so that someone is always with the kids.”
Then there’s work. Having to commute and spend eight hours a day in the office means there’s not that much time left for training, especially when you count in family time, cooking, cleaning and all the other miscellaneous activities that pop up. Monika still manages to fit in three runs and two aerobics classes most weeks.
Training for her first marathon included two thirty minute runs, a forty minute run and a longer 1hr + run three months before the event. This prepared her mind and body for the feat of running 21.1km which she did at the Warsaw Half Marathon. “I used Adidas micoach to help me train for the half marathon. It measured my heart rate and distance which was great.”
So what’s next?
“A few 5k and 10k events, and then the Warsaw Marathon in September,” she says, “this year the finish line of the Warsaw Marathon is placed on the turf of the new National Stadium and crossing the finishing line is going to be magical. The slogan for this year’s marathon is ‘Become a National Hero’ which makes me want to run across that finish line even more.”
Monika feels she still has a long way to go but it seems that she is well on her way to making running a permanent fixture in her life. In the future she would like to get guidance from the instructors of BBL – Biegam Bo Lubie (I run because I like it), “I hope that they will give me advice on how I should run, how to improve my fitness level, what type of diet to follow, and how to prepare for my first marathon.”
“I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the run, especially with the start being on the bridge and the finish line near the National Stadium.” The Warsaw half marathon takes runners around the city, and even though there was a strong wind on the day and there were a few hills, the entire experience was very enjoyable.
