My cousin in Portland emailed me this website which gives you a little insight and tips on how to prepare for race day, written by a first-timer. Helped me out since this being my first marathon, as well. Thanks Jake!From the LIFEHACKER website http://lifehacker.com/software/marathon/hack-attack-how-to-hack-a-marathon-209645.phpby Adam Pash This weekend I ran the Chicago marathon, my first marathon ever. Before I completed the 26.2 miles, I knew marathons can be a grueling test of will and a ridiculous punishment for your body. What I didn't know is that it's an experience well worth the punishment.
Prior to the race, I was sure this whole marathon thing would be a one-time thing. I'd finish the race, check "marathon" off my to-do list, and move on. After finishing the marathon, I changed my mind. I've never experienced such uplifting goodwill as that exchanged between the participants and the spectators (and it goes on for hours like this), and completing the race ranks high on my list of euphoric life events. Even though I'm excited to take a break from the strenuous, time-consuming training regimen, I'm also looking forward to completing at least one more marathon in my life (and improving my time).
Despite my great experience, I could have done a lot to make the experience better. Here's what I wish I had known before race day.
NOTE: I'm assuming at this point you've done all of the training. (And if you have, good for you! It's really the hardest part.) On the other hand, if you're looking for a good marathon training program, I'd suggest checking out
Hal Higdon's novice training program - Hal's a crazy-prolific runner and writer, and his training programs and books are like bibles to many a marathon runner. The novice program is what I trained with, and I had no complaints with Hal come race day.
I'm going to give you a brief day-by-day rundown (pun intended!) of my marathon experience, highlighting where I went right and where I went wrong, to give you an idea of what tack you might want to take the weekend of your race.
Day one: Packing and preparation It's Thursday and the race is Sunday. If you're worried about your energy for race day, start your carb loading today.
If you're traveling to your marathon, you want to make sure you've packed for every possibility. For example, I knew that it was potentially going to be damn cold in Chicago, but I still (foolishly) didn't pack enough cold weather attire. Just be sure you've packed for every eventuality.
My biggest regret on race day was that I didn't pack a pair of disposable (i.e., crappy) sweats I could throw away at the start line once the race began. Pack clothes you can throw away. It will feel good, and it's one less thing to stress about before you hit the start line.
Day two: Travel time
If you're traveling to your marathon and you have the option, go two days before the race. The last thing you want to do is spend 5 hours on a cramped plane the day before you're slated to run 26.2 miles. Leave on Friday and give yourself that extra day to prepare mentally for the race without the added stress of travel.
Also, get yourself a hotel as close to the marathon as possible - and book early, since hotels will fill up fast, and prices will rise quickly.
When you get to the hotel (and this goes for the whole weekend): Keep things low key. Don't screw around too much. Don't, for example, run around your hotel room barefoot, slip, and somehow manage to force your big toe through the bottom of your hotel door. Ripping off 3/4 of your big toenail less than 2 days before the marathon is not the road to a stress-free weekend. You will feel like an idiot (though you'll never admit culpability), and you'll worry all weekend that this will stop you from running the marathon. Also, because she's mad at you for screwing around and potentially abandoning her at the race you've been training for together for months, you'll have to pretend to your significant other for the next 2 days that your toe doesn't hurt - even though it does - a lot.
Again, eat well and eat plenty of carbs. Your body's going to burn everything you've ingested by about mile 20 of the marathon, anyway, but there's absolutely no reason this should happen any sooner.
Day three: Registration and relaxation
T-minus-one day to the marathon. Generally the most important thing you do on the Saturday before the race is pick up your race materials, like your bib number (you have no idea how thrilled I was that my bib number was the elementary school-ish #1234) and your timing chip (which attaches to your shoe and keeps track of your time throughout the race).
You'll be tempted by the gods of running commerce to walk the floor of the Expo, which is a huge floor show where you can get all sorts of free samples and marathon goodies. Ultimately it's up to you, but after about 20 minutes of walking the "Health and Fitness Expo" floor on Saturday, I decided my legs would thank me on race day if I decided instead to head back to the hotel and get some rest.
Which I did, and god am I glad. Instead of walking the Expo floor (an exercise that will just make your hypothetical toe hurt that much more, anyway), I was able to take in a nap Saturday afternoon, which was huge for me, since Saturday night promised to be relatively sleepless (a promise which was kept).
Day four: Marathons and meetings
The day of the marathon is here, and you probably need to get up pretty early. For me, an 8:00am start time meant a 5:30am wakeup call. This is what you've been training for months for - get there early, because if you don't, the other 40,000 people running the race will, and you'll be stuck trying to find a place among the masses.
Like I said earlier, disposable sweats are a must before the race. I blew it on this front, but on the plus side, if your friend's savvy sister is a marathon veteran, you may be lucky enough to get an extra garbage bag (a source of surprising warmth) and some warm cotton gloves (Thank you, Beth!).
If you're running with someone, get together a system for meeting up, because if you get separated, you'll find it impossible to pick out one dark-haired girl from the thousand others packed together in the start corral. My nervous bladder sent me to one of the army of portable toilets in formation near the start line and separated me from my girlfriend; 15 minutes later, she had been enveloped in the herd. Even with a plan for meeting back up, we found each other less than five minutes before the gun. (If you saw an embarrassed Lifehacker frantically searching the crowd and yelling, "Ellen," that was me; if you were one of the many people I bumped against while navigating the crowd, I'm sorry!)
Likewise, if you're meeting with anyone after the marathon, set up a good and specific meeting place. The race may have its own meet-up areas (for example, the Chicago marathon had set up lettered meeting areas A through Z), but these are packed, and, believe me, the last thing you want to do as soon as you finish is push through thousands of people to find the P's. Make it easy on yourself (and your friends/family) and find an inconspicuous meeting place near the finish.
Day five: Recovery and rewards
If you have any choice in the matter, do not plan on going to work the day after the marathon. (You may have noticed a lack of Adam yesterday?) Give yourself time to recover. You probably ran up to 20 miles during your training, but you'd be surprised how much the extra 6.2 miles will wear down your body (at least I was).
Take an extra day for recovery, and if you haven't already, reward yourself. After all, a good reward can be exactly what you need
to motivate yourself to run this thing in the first place.
