5 Truths about Running your first marathon

Becoming one with the marathon:

No, this isn’t anything spiritual in fact far from it. 

Your life and every aspect becomes THE marathon. From telling everyone you know that you’re doing one, what you eat, how you train, the kit you wear and even how people talk to you. 

If you're not tired from all the training it takes you’ll be tired from how many times people will ask you if your ready for the marathon. 

Getting prepared!

Run, run and run some more BUT WAIT! It’s deeper than that. 

You can't just get out there with a belly full of pints and fish and chips. It’s worth eating right, drinking plenty, getting your pace right and having the right gear….maybe even having a little rest?

You’ll discover new ways to get prepared that you never thought of before, you can't just put on your pumps and hit the road. It's worth getting your gait checked so you don’t get your self an injury in the first week. 

Learn more about yourself by using decent Garmin to track your stats to make sure you're not over or under training. 

For example, one thing you may not have considered is 4 weeks prior to race day you’ll want to start tapering off to allow your body the rest it needs to perform at an optimum level. 

Being prepared also means, be prepared for anything! So train in every condition you can, the weather can not and will not stop you!

Listen to yourself

The human body is a great bit of kit for letting you know what you need. So don’t ignore it.

If your aching, rest. If your hungry, eat something. Thirsty? Have a drink (Non-alcoholic if possible). 

Even if this means you need to skip a week. You need to cut yourself some slack if you’re really starting to struggle. Otherwise, your running career might reach a rather abrupt ending!

Recovery is key after training so make sure you've got all the right nutrition to recover quickly. 

7 beers or 1/2 a bottle of wine might quench that thirst but you'll be feeling pretty dry the next day. 

You only get out what you put in! 

Be the master of your own mind!

Similar to anything else that's really challenging you need to put your all into it. 

You’ve managed to put months into training and after all that you’re going to be done in a few hours, so why not switch your brain to 100% for that amount of time. 

Its a long distance but the brain is an incredible organ and with the right mentality, you will fly through and be hearing the screams and cheers of encouragement at the end!

You’ll find when you're just pushing over halfway you might be feeling a little fatigued and SMACK you might even hit “the wall” might be best to pack yourself a little pick me up for this part of the race. Caffeine bullets or a gel might do the trick to get yourself a little psychological boost.

But when you're there, take a deep breath, have a look around. Where are you? You’re doing it! You’re running the marathon, all you have to do is finish. So be prepared to dig deep and think of all that's to come when you're finished. Maybe a burger, a drink, some sleep! It's all to come!

The END

In the distance the end is near. Rising up from inside you is an immense sense of pride and achievement. All of a sudden you’ll be floating along, the superhuman inside you rises up through your legs as you bound along. The cheers will only speed you up as the end nears closer and closer then.

It stops.

You’ll look about for a moment or two in a hive-minded state, feeling immense amounts of empathy for those around you. 

The medal hangs heavy around your neck as a refreshing cold beverage refreshes you just a little.

Its all over, but this may just be the start. 

You’ll look back on this day as one of the best experiences and achievements of your life and soon it’ll start again.

We recommend at this point you repeat points 1 through to 5 of this Blog!

Have you had a great marathon experience?

We’d love to hear about it in the comments below.