I just registered for a marathon next month. Help

uconnwinsnc1 wrote: »

Are you religious? If not, you will be when you're 90% through the race.

I LOLed so hard at this!!

glevinso wrote: »

Another way I have put it is this: A half marathon is not "half of a marathon". The first half of the marathon is 20 miles long. The second half is 10k long.

Love this!

If you are running 40 miles per week, and can do a 20 miler three weeks before the race, then you probably are in the physical shape to run 26.2. I worked a program where I built up to that kind of mileage, and ran a marathon two weeks ago. I finished (running the whole race) in 04:32. Just remember to start slow and avoid the temptation to run fast at the beginning, or even for the first 20 miles. When you start the last 6.2, you will need your legs to be in good condition.

On thing to keep in mind, is that 26.2 miles is a totally different distance than 20 miles, not from a purely physical standpoint (the ability of your legs and feet to handle the pounding, and your muscles to keep working. A marathon is more than just a run that happens to be 6.2 miles longer than a 20 miler. This is because of a natural human limitation of the ability to store enough energy to keep moving much farther than the 20 mile mark. When people "hit the wall" or "bonk" it is because they have depleted their glycogen stores (carbohydrate energy stores) and simply cannot power their muscles any longer. Their muscles may be capable of moving, and their legs and feet ok, but there is no sugar in the bloodstream to fuel the firing of the muscle cells.

Avoiding glycogen depletion entails (1) long training runs (2) carb loading before the race to top off the glycogen, and (3) carb consumption during the race to provide an incremental sugar supply to the bloodstream. This allows your body to burn the sugar you are consuming, and not burn all of the glycogen prior to the 20 mile mark.

Suggestions:

(1) You are already handling this by building up to the mileage you are at, and the training runs you plan to do.

(2) I would advise eating a VERY high carb diet for several days before the race. I ate about 5000-6000 calories per day in the days leading up to mine. Tons of orange juice, Gatorade, pasta, rice, cookies, graham crackers. Yummy. Some people advise only pasta, but your body doesn't care from a biological standpoint. It turns any sugar into glycogen.

(3) I would suggest taking nine or more ~100 calorie glucose gel packs with you, and start eating one every two miles at about mile 6. I would also consume sports drink at every single hydration point in the race.

If you can keep your glycogen stores from being totally wiped out at the end, then you have a good chance of finishing.

aarar wrote: »

nosajjao wrote: »

_Waffle_ wrote: »

What should I do?

Ask for your money back. It takes a special snowflake kind of person to pay and register for physical trauma they aren't even training for.

Or you know, she takes a chance and just goes for it, realizes she can do it and inspires herself to do it again and to train more next time. She'll never know if she doesn't try.

Seems like you got this done and will do fine.

If you can get a 40K in a couple of weeks before the marathon, do it.

I ran in an organized open (you run whatever distance you want) fun run race last Saturday and wanted to do a 40K because my long run up to then was 21 miles. I lined up with the marathoners and conversing during the race, the #1 question I got was that since 40K is so close to marathon distance, why not just finish the marathon. My answer was that 40K was the next step in my training for my first marathon on Black Friday. And why deprive myself of 2 achievements and just skipping to straight to the marathon distance.

nosajjao wrote: »

Ask for your money back. It takes a special snowflake kind of person to pay and register for physical trauma they aren't even training for.

OP: based on your followup about your recent long run and your weekly mileage, noasjjao's reply isn't fair, but I can see where he's coming from. If you're going to ask for this kind of advice, it's helpful to include your current fitness level (in the case of running, weekly mileage, long run distance, maybe pace too).

Good luck on the marathon!

_Waffle_ wrote: »

I'm not even doing a marathon or half marathon training plan but I was talked into doing a marathon next month. What should I do? How do I get prepared?

First of all, sir, do you even like running?

If so, you're all set. Drink lots of beer and don't forget to post photos of your sweaty self.

_Waffle_ wrote: »

20 mile run is done. 3 hours, 15 minutes. Now that was a long time to be on your feet. It's all downhill from here until race day. As long as I can maintain a 10:00 pace the last 6.2 miles I won't be too far off of 4 hours for the full thing.

You've got this! Make sure to update after the race, I want to hear how you do!

Do the run/walk pattern and you should do fine sounds like your body is used to putting in a lot of weekly miles. Have Fun

DNF

Best wishes Waffle. You can do this!!!!

You're doing 40 mile weeks with 16-18 mile long runs?

Remind me again why you are worrying?

Just don't run as fast and keep going. You're more than ready! in the 3 months post my ironman I didn't run more than 8 miles with not 1 week having a weekly total over 25 miles and I did a 6 hour endurance run with not much trouble managing a total of 30 miles in 5hr10mins.

Completing a marathon is not the massive thing everyone makes it out to be. You can walk one in a little under 7 hours. Yes getting a good time is a lot harder and running a decent marathon imo is harder than an ironman but getting round is nothing special.

You've more than got this and I expect to see a 'I smashed it' type comment from you once you've crossed that finish line

I got nothing.