Tips for New Marathoners

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Oscar the Grouch Feb 2021 6:59pm, 10 Feb 2021 2,620 posts	0 Oscar the Grouch Compartmental - on the pace thing, you need to run a comfortable pace, the sort where you feel good. My half is 1.35 which converts (so far for me) to 3.35 full... I run pretty much all of my long runs at 9.45-10 minutes per mile, even though goal race pace would be 8. If you can run with someone and chat all the way, that would be the pace for training at. You are training your endurance (aerobic) base. As for a tip for newbies, find a plan that you like the look of (Pfitzinger and Douglas do good ones that don't overly prescribe pace), but Hal Higdon is probably a reasonable place to start. Anyway, find a plan and follow it reasonably carefully and you will have the confidence of following the plan and the gains that the plan should have given you if it was written by anyone with half a clue!!
AdrianB1066 Feb 2021 7:02pm, 10 Feb 2021 6,846 posts	0 AdrianB1066 If you have a problem develop during the race deal with it asap whether it’s a wrinkle in your sock that’ll cause a blister or forgetting to put on sunscreen it’s better to sort it than let it develop. Oh, the most important tip I was given - Never trust a fart after Mile 20!
Velociraptor Feb 2021 7:14pm, 10 Feb 2021 51,433 posts	0 Velociraptor Yup, that's a n=1 study, compartmental, and that's not evidence (and nor is "plenty of anecdote"), which is not to say it isn't true for you, though it's likely that any benefit of stretching activities takes place at central nervous system level and has nothing to do with the length of muscles of the range of motion of joints, neither of which can be altered by tugging at them. What there is not is evidence to support a blanket recommendation for stretching for runners, and there is evidence that for long distance running inflexibility is a positive characteristic. I hope we're well past the days (which I can remember) when beginner runners were told that it was necessary to stop and do a stretching routine ten or fifteen minutes into each run before continuing.
jda Feb 2021 7:23pm, 10 Feb 2021 9,421 posts	0 jda The last few miles will ache in a way that shorter races just don’t, so don’t be too surprised when this happens. Doing long training runs helps make this somewhat tolerable but doesn’t stop it happening.
Derby Tup Feb 2021 7:27pm, 10 Feb 2021 48,943 posts	0 Derby Tup In the same way it’s not a good idea to wear new untried or different kit for your marathon don’t be tempted by unfamiliar gels, energy drinks etc on the day. If the race has stuff on offer try it beforehand
Surrey Phil Feb 2021 7:34pm, 10 Feb 2021 5,754 posts	0 Surrey Phil Don't get overexcited and be aware of your early race pace. Count the miles up to 13 and then down from 13 (anything over 20 sounds daunting). Enjoy the occasion and banter with other runners. Look forward to the big finish - it can be emotional and you may not know whether to laugh or cry!
Oscar the Grouch Feb 2021 7:37pm, 10 Feb 2021 2,622 posts	0 Oscar the Grouch I like to think of it more as 16 and 10... or as I was told before my first... 20 miles is half way (there is a bit of truth in that, but not much)
SODIron © 2012 Feb 2021 7:51pm, 10 Feb 2021 354 posts	0 SODIron © 2012 If you're at a lose end on Saturday morning at 10AM why not join in the FREE England Athletics webinar. Neil Williams will guide you through self-myofascial release (that's rolling to you and me) techniques. englandathletics-org.zoom.us Grab your roller, and join in, or observe and make notes.
Fitz Feb 2021 7:59am, 11 Feb 2021 2,371 posts	0 Fitz Compartmental - shaving 30 secs per mile is a big ask, you're looking at taking your finish time down by 13 mins. Ask yourself whether the last 6 miles last times felt like you could be doing them 30 secs per mile faster? By all means train for a better time but don't overdo it. There's plenty of lore about marathon times based on PBs at other distances (and indeed right here on Fetch you can find ways to predict your mara time from other distance times). So if you can get a good HM time during the training block, that might be a good indicator of how you should target the marathon (although personally, I never got near the mara times that my HM times would predict). My favourite marathon definition is this: a 20-mile warmup for the 10k from hell!
RunningRonnie Feb 2021 8:03am, 11 Feb 2021 1,962 posts	0 RunningRonnie Stick to your training plan.