I’ll kick off by pointing out that I'm no pro runner, and certainly don’t profess to be an expert on running....!!
Having said that, I recently completed my first marathon and finished in the top 20% overall and in my age group! Not a bad start for a 44 year old!
I had 2 goals for my first marathon.
Finish under 4 hours and 30 minutes
Enjoy it!
I managed to crack both of these - so it's fair to say I thoroughly enjoyed my post-race recovery beers!
In the days after the marathon I thought about what I'd done in my training, race preparation and the marathon itself that had helped me to achieve my goals.
The result?
10 top tips that can be applied to any distance of race, from a 5k to marathon!
They are general tips that can be useful for an I hope they are useful for you guys!!
My 10 tips for conquering and enjoying your first marathon are to:
Follow the 80/20 training principle
Train hard. Race easy.
Practice running at your goal race pace
Build lower body + core strength training
Set yourself a specific goal
Plan your race pacing strategy
Learn about the nutrition on the course
Rest well before the race
Eat the right foods on race day
Smile!
Let’s take a look at these in more detail!
1. FOLLOW THE 80/20 TRAINING PRINCIPLE
Perhaps the biggest change I made over the last year is my philosophy on training, after reading the book “80/20 Running” by Matt Fitzgerald.
This principle maps out a training plan where around 80% of your runs are done at an easy, “conversational” pace and 20% at a higher intensity.
It doesn’t have to be exact, but is a pretty good rule of thumb to follow.
In fact, I didn't really have a well out training schedule - but I did try to make sure that most of my runs were done at an easy, conversational pace with 1 speed session every week or 2 weeks. These speed sessions were either a tempo style run or an interval workout, such as 1k repeats.
Most of my runs were around 10k and I’d do maybe 3-4 of these each week.
And I would do one long run each week, with the length of those gradually increasing by around 2k (or 10-15 minutes) each week. The longest run I did was 31k about 4 weeks before the marathon.
So a typical schedule of 5 runs each week would look like this:
3 easy runs at conversational pace between 10-15k
1 speed session such as tempo run, intervals or a Fartlek run
1 long run
Doing this helped to vary my training paces and keep training interesting, as well as improving different areas of my overall fitness.
2. TRAIN HARD. RACE EASY.
This isn’t probably a tip that you’ll find in many books and it just kind of happened for me due to my schedule and where I live.
All of my long runs were done in the Bangkok morning sun with the temperature in the 30s, whereas my marathon started at 2am.
The cooler nighttime conditions definitely made the race seem easier.
I wouldn’t say the conditions were cool for the race, but it was far easier running at 3am than in the sun at 10am!
I guess a similar concept could be where the pros go to train at altitude - I chose to train in the scorching heat!!
3. SET YOURSELF A SPECIFIC GOAL(S)
My goal was clear. Finish in less than 4 hours and 30 minutes.
I set this goal by taking my half marathon time of 1:52, doubling it and then adding 30 minutes for the slower pace I would be running over the longer distance.
I then added 15 minute buffer for things like slowing down at aid stations, possible toilet breaks and running up the big hill that was lurking at the end of the course!
Setting this goal helped with 3 things:
keep me motivated during my training
know which paces I should train at
plan my race pace strategy
I would write my sub 4:30 goal at the end of my updates on social media, more to help cement this goal in my own mind than for any other reason!
Kind of like some Tony Robbins NLP stuff!
4. TRAIN AT YOUR GOAL RACE PACE
In the last 6-7 weeks before the race, I included blocks of goal race pace into my training runs.
The objective of doing this was to get myself physically and mentally aware of what that pace felt like, so I wouldn't have to keep a close eye on my Garmin during the race.
Here's a couple of my simple workouts to include race pace training:
On a long run of say 20k I would alternate between doing 5k at an easy pace and then 5k race pace. Try to do 3 x 5k at race pace for a quality workout.
On shorter runs of 10-12k I would aim for 2 x 20 minutes at race pace (or slightly quicker).
As well as knowing physically what this pace felt like, it also boosted my mental confidence as I was able to complete these blocks without too much trouble.
5. PLAN YOUR RACE PACING STRATEGY
I would say this is the part of the race that I am most happy with.
There are 3 different pacing strategies we can use in our training and races.
Negative Split | Run the second half of the race FASTER than the first half |
Even split | Keep an even pace throughout the race |
Positive Split | Run the second half of the race SLOWER than the first half |
As I mentioned above, from the start of my training I had a clear goal of finishing in under 4 hours and 30 minutes. This meant I would need to do 6:23/km.
I was going to aim for a slight negative split.
My race strategy was to start off slightly slower than 6:23, at around 6:30 per km - which I was pretty successful with, and then speed up throughout the race.
You can see from above that I started off around 6:30-6:40 and gradually got quicker. I had enough gas left in the tank for a super strong finish!
Nice negative split - I ran the first half of the race in 2:16 and the second half in 2:10!
This type of strategy is called a negative split, where the second half of your race is quicker than the first half.
Most elite runners will aim for this or an even split. What you want to try and avoid is a positive split as this means you’ll be slowing down which probably means you’re gonna be suffering as well!!
Sticking to this pacing strategy does require a fair bit of self-discipline.
You know at the beginning when the gun goes off and everyone is cheering it’s super hard to stay focused and not get caught up in the atmosphere.
People will run past you, so you have to let go of your ego and run your own race. The chances are that most of the people passing you will be setting off too quick and you’ll be passing them later on!
So my key takeaway here is to set yourself an achievable goal, do plenty of training at that pace and be disciplined during the race pace.
6. BUILD LOWER BODY + CORE STRENGTH
One thing I learnt during my training and especially on my long runs, that it wasn't my fitness that was going to slow me down, but more likely to be muscle fatigue.
Marathon running uses our aerobic fitness, so providing you stick to your pacing strategy it's not running out of breath that’s going to slow you down but the muscles in your legs starting to burn and ache.
Having stronger quads, calves, hamstrings and glutes will delay the onset of muscle fatigue allowing you to keep running at your goal pace for longer.
I would do my strength training either as a separate workout, or tag some strength training exercises onto the end of 1 easy run per week.
The 5 key marathon lower body + strength training exercises I did were:
Lunges
Squats
Calf raises
Kettlebell swings
Planks
To be honest, I’m not a great fan of strength training and I find it a bit boring, but I knew it was going to be important so I made sure to do it at least once a week
7. PLAN & PRACTICE YOUR RACE NUTRITION
This is a super important factor that will affect your marathon performance and enjoyment of the race.
You really want to avoid "hitting the wall" or "bonking". So taking on enough fuel throughout the race is key to seeing you cross the finish line strong and happy.
Prior to the race I learned that there would be aid stations every 2km, and the event organizers let us know what would be available at each aid station, for example water, electrolyte drinks, energy gels, fruit and snacks.
This really helped me to plan what I was going to have at each aid station and how much water I would need to take on.
I took 4 energy gels with me for the race which I planned to take one every hour on the hour.
A couple of important tips about taking energy gels during a marathon:
Use your energy gels during your training to make sure they are ok for you and don’t give you stomach problems.
Drink some water after taking the gel to help absorb it. I don’t know the science behind it, but it’s suggested that just taking the gel with no water and cause stomach problems or lessen the effect of the gel.
Finally, there is a limit on how many carbohydrates the body can process in an hour, so if you’re taking energy gels it’s best to cut down on sports drinks.
I stopped at nearly every aid station to grab some water. A useful tip if you’re drinking from a cup is to pinch the top to create a kind of funnel, otherwise you’re likely to get more water on your face than in your mouth!!
8. REST WELL BEFORE THE RACE
You may have heard about “tapering” before.
Essentially this means resting well before the race and letting your body fully recover from all the training you;ve been doing.
With the concept of tapering, you don’t completely stop training, but simply cut down on the overall volume in the 3 weeks prior to the race, and in the final week I did a couple of super easy 5k runs and no speed intervals.
It;s suggested that your body takes 4-6 weeks to adapt to training, so the other key thing to know is that you’re not likely to be able to add any fitness gains in those final couple of weeks that will improve your performance.
However, what you can do is hinder your race performance by continuing to train at high volume with some high intensity runs.
My longest run of 31k was completed 4 weeks before the race, and in the final 3 weeks I mostly did 10k efforts.
I collected my bib and race pack on the Friday which also really helped, as on the Saturday I was able to take things really easy and relax well.
9, EAT THE RIGHT FOODS ON RACE DAY
With the race starting at 0215, I had to really consider what I was eating and when.
It’s important to take on a good amount of carbs, but you don’t want to eat too much and feel bloated at the start of the race.
I had breakfast around 8am. Unfortunately the breakfast provided in the hotel wasn’t very good on this day so i only had 2 small bowls of rice soup. Still, at least it contained some carbs.
Then around 11am I had a large bowl of chicken and pasta which I had made at home and brought with me.
Next up was another plate of spaghetti and fish at around 3pm, and then finally another bowl of spaghetti and salmon around 6pm.
I went to bed at 8pm and set my alarm for 11pm!
Raceday Food!
8am - 2 bowls of boiled rice soup
11am - Large bowl of pasta with chicken in cheese sauce
3pm - Spaghetti + Salted Fish
6pm - Spaghetti + Salmon
10. SMILE
I'm a big believer in that your facial expressions can control your emotions.
For example, grimacing with pain at the back end of a intense intervals session can actually make you feel more tired...
On the flip side, smiling with happiness can somewhat help to relieve the pain
And of course we wanna get some good pictures from the race photographer that we can show off to our friends!!
So there we go guys, my 10 tips for running your first marathon!
Hope you find them useful and if you have any comments or questions just drop us a message!
And to finish off, here is my official race result and split times :))
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