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What advice I can share
from my experience
Since November 1st, 2015 – The New York City Marathon – I have run 24 marathons, in three continents and four countries. It has been a fantastic journey, and in every race, in every city, in every event, there is always something to learn.
Once you set your mind to run a marathon, you have to be mindful of the location. Where are you running? Home? Same country, same continent? The time zones are something to be very aware of. If the time zone difference is not significant, your performance will be pretty much the same. However, if the time zone of your destination has a difference of five or more hours, you will need more rest the two days before the race. Many research studies have proven that your body will take 5 to 7 days to fully to the new time zone (this also applies to altitude). Sometimes we don’t have that amount of time, because of different variables; like time constraints, travel limitations, and the people would travel with. Your family and friends need to be aware of your walking limitations. In my case, my family and I always go out and walk around the city just to relax and find a nice restaurant to have lunch or dinner (carbs) and to have fun.
The most important part of running a marathon is the training. In my next blog, I will explain how it can be divided into four main categories. For now, let’s just describe them briefly:
- Starting your training
- Two weeks before the race
- One week before the race
- Race day
Each one is focused on a particular goal for the body and mind, and they are sequential in a way that facilitates the incremental workloads required to have a good marathon. Through this journey patience, resilience (both mental and physical), and discipline are needed.
At the beginning of the training plan, the first four weeks are the base to build the rest of the program. These weeks do not represent a heavy load and are just to start working on both strength and stretching.
The following weeks will have to low load or recovery weeks, and then physical training and power training. This means increasing your endurance and stamina and allowing to body to recover using an active recovery training.
Two weeks before your marathon, I recommend you have from 250 grs. to 300 grs. of carbohydrates every day. This means one small bowl of rice or pasta. There are many sources of carbs, but these two and potatoes are my favorite choice. Also try to have every other day one banana, it will help you to manage the lactic acid later in the race.
One week before your marathon, increase the carbohydrate ingest from 300 grs. to 400 grs. of carbohydrates. As you can see, their security is not to have one big pasta dinner the night before, rather than build your fuel reserves throughout the last two weeks of your training.
Chaffing, it is not a problem, until it is! Sometimes beginners are not aware of it (I confess I was NOT aware of it, so “been there, done that”…) is the use of anti-chaffing balm! The first marathons, I only went with cotton underwear, rather than the running lycras or shorts, but I ended up chaffed, from mildly to badly. After using anti-chaffing balm, I did not get hurt most of the times, and when I did, it was not really that bad.
On the race, be very mindful about ingesting energy gels. I prefer GU Gels, but there are many other brands with different flavors and characteristics. Choose your favorite on the stick to it. Do not try a new product or flavor on the race day. Have one every 45 minutes, starting 5 min before your race. The same way you should not run with a brand-new pair of sneakers.
Throughout the course, make sure you stop by every water station drinking water for the first half of the marathon, and then drinking Gatorade (or its equivalent, the one offered the race) and water for the second half. A lot of people just keep running through the water stations. I prefer to take the cup and then walk while I drink it, toss the cup in the trash bin, and resume my running. I always catch up those runners who didn’t stop running, so you really do not lose a lot of time, but you’re giving yourself a chance to recover for three or five seconds every mile.
For the last 10K, I always think: “it’s just 10K, I run this any day… I can do it”. For the last 5K, I repeat the same mantra: “it’s just 5K, I run this any day… I can do it”. And depending on my times, I also tell myself: “you just have to keep going for 20-something more minutes… and you’re done!”
The last mile, I speed up a little. As any marathoner, I just want this to be over… so I keep running, I smile, and I don’t think about the finish line, I just listen to my body, focus on my pace, focus on my effort, and listen to the music. The Nike app, NRC, allows you to set a “power song”, there will be play I just touching the screen of your phone, and it might help get a better rhythm.
What’s your cross the finish line, make sure you get your metal, keep walking, have one or two bananas, one or two bottles of water. And eat and drink all of these before you get out of the finish zone.
After the race, if you can’t go back to the hotel, or home, take a shower. A nice hot shower and finish it with a cold last splash. Then either you are at home or in a hotel, just go out and celebrate. Go to a steakhouse and get a heavy load of protein. This will help your body restore all the muscle damage that the marathon caused. A nice big dessert it’s also a great idea.
Then keep walking, go out for a walk. Depending on how you feel, I recommend the walk something between 5 to 10 kilometers. Go back to the hotel or home, and rest. The following day you we have a lot of lactic acid built and your legs and other parts of your body. In order to reduce the pain you need to flush it, and for this you need active recovery. So jump on a stationary bike, no resistance, medium speed and pedal for 20 to 30 minutes. Or go out and walk for 30 minutes.
Not every race he’s meant to be your PR, so just go out, enjoy it, make sure you smile all the way from the start to the finish line, cheer up other runners, wave and smile to the spectators, and give your best! What are your achieve a PR or not, you gave your best, so there is nothing to regret.
In my next blogs, I will go through the training phases in more detail, I will share how I qualified for Boston training on a treadmill and I will review some shoes and products… but for now just go out, and enjoy it! Please share your comments in the space below.
