The Nasal Way

Running a marathon whilst only nose breathing...

Ever gone for a walk only breathing through your nose?

How about a run?

How about a marathon?

Well that’s what my girlfriend did last Sunday.

The streets of Firenze charmed us all weekend and I was elated to catch her at 7 checkpoints, handing her snacks and water.

And tissues to clear those hard working nasal passageways!

Even more impressive than simply getting through the 42k non-stop was that she breathed only through her nose. In and out. The whole way.

Stating the obvious here, but breathing through your nose when you are running is difficult. We’ve learned to use our ‘overflow mechanism’ via our mouth as a habitual way of pushing harder.

She trained for this extraordinary challenge by only nose breathing on all her training runs.

The magical thing about only breathing through your nose when exercising is that it automatically slows you down. You can’t push harder than your body can manage. You increase your lung capacity very gradually. You build your strength steadily and organically.

You are completely in tune with exactly what your body needs.

When she completed the run she was ecstatic, bouncing up and down with her medal in hand.

She didn’t hit the dreaded WALL that runners fear. It would have been impossible to have done so, because her nose kept the drum beat, attuned to the whole of her organism.

She also was remarkably consistent in her ‘splits’. Every 5k of the run is broken down into splits and she kept in a tight range for each one.

She didn’t need the latest Garmin for this. She didn’t have to follow a pacer.

She followed her nose.

At times she admitted she had to quell her ego, noticing the speedier runners as they panted past her. And remind herself that success is a subjectively defined concept.

Why is a slower marathon less impressive? I asked myself as I was selfishly basking in the glory of her achievement.

My partner is currently training as a breathwork facilitator and experimenting with using the breath in these fascinating and expansive ways.

How to exercise, focus, sleep, calm down or activate the nervous system. It’s all possible with the simple and forgotten tool of the breath.

Brings me an exhale thinking about it. What magic our bodies are, and the best thing? They’re with us all the time.

I’d hung up my marathon trainers but over a celebratory breakfast the day after her nasal-marathon success… I felt inspired to try it myself.

I was worried about trying for another marathon because of the pressure of the inevitable question, “so what time did you do?”

What if time wasn’t my measurement?

Slow and steady might actually win the race.