20 Things I Learned While Training and Running my First Marathon
(with photos sprinkled in!)
1. Join a run group! While I'm not as good about going lately as I was during the summer last year, every time I go, I enjoy it. The encouragement, advice and hard workouts really help a lot.
2. Most of the time, I really don't need to have gloves, jackets or a hat. My body gets hot at about mile 2 and then I just end up carrying a lot of stuff. So I have gotten a little better about overdressing for runs. Although I do like to wear pants when it gets cold as I notice my legs stay cold for a while.
3. Get a Flu shot! Sheesh. I have never been more sick during training then this last two months. After getting an upper respiratory infection, I followed that up with the flu. Then another upper respiratory infection. While the doctor said there wasn't much I could do about the infections, I really should have gotten the flu shot. But I learned my lesson!
4. I run the majority of my runs with music. Everyone once in a while I don't because I always worry I will get dependent on my music for racing and then what if something goes wrong and I can't listen to music? For the marathon, I brought my I-POD shuffle and my cell phone. To make a long boring story short, both of the batteries were running short and I only had music for miles 1-5 and 18-26.2. Not having music on hills was hard, but saving my music for the end was the right decision. I feel better knowing that I raced 13 miles without music so I won't have to worry if that happens again.
5. I really think it would have been a good idea to race some longer distances. During training we raced two 5k's and one 10k and that's it. We had planned to run a 30k race late January, but it just didn't happen. :( Next time I will try and plan better.
6. In a weird way it was kind of freeing to not have a time goal. I haven't raced a distance that I never did before since I did my first half marathon January 2011. At the time, I wasn't sure if I could even do 13 miles ( I hadn't run more than 11 miles during my training). During the marathon, I just wanted to make sure I finished before they closed the course ( 7 hours). I thought if I shot for 6:30, that would allow me plenty of time in case I hit the wall. Which I did. My first 13.1 was 11 minutes faster than my last. So really only trying to make sure I finished freed up a lot of pressure for me. Well, until that last mile when I was afraid I wasn't going to make it lol.
7. Keep up cross-training. It really helps combat soreness. I was pretty good about this at the beginning of training with swimming. But as I got busier and my runs got longer, I took more rest days and didn't really cross-train. I think that my body benefited more from that.
8. Get a lot of rest. I am happy to say that marathon week I made getting rest a big priority. I got 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I guess you could say I am responsible! :)
(Vince and me the day before at our shake-out run on Town Lake)
9. I really need a lot of water during my long runs. A lot. A lot. A lot. I'm glad I always bring water bottles as I have noticed that not all water fountains on the trails are always on. So I guess what I am saying is be prepared!
10. Speaking of be prepared, during long runs I try to bring one more gel then I really need. This ended up coming in handy when Vince was doing a 18 mile run and lost one of his gels. Jamie to the rescue! I gave him my extra gel and everything was A-ok.
11. Also, I really began to see how much I like to mix it up when I run. Although I have been running for about 3 years, I have never run as much as I have during training. I was at the point sometimes where if I ran San Gabriel Trail (which I do love) one more time, I was going to lose it. So I do like that in general we ran back and forth between San Gabriel and Brushy Creek for our long runs. We even did two long runs at Town Lake. During training, I ran in Del Rio, San Antonio, Old Settlers, Lake Pflugerville, indoor track, out door track, and around georgetown. Also the treadmill a couple of times. Yuck on that.
12. But speaking of running around georgetown, that is something else I really liked about run group. Before run group, I never really ran in downtown or around the houses over there. I really like the change of scenery. So even in familar places I guess there's always a new area to discover.
( me and my dad after I crossed the finish line!)
13. And speaking of mixing it up, I have to mix up the gels, especially with the long runs. We usually alternate one caffeine gel with one non-caffeine gel. I say gel but about 70% of the time we end up using jelly belly sports beans cause they are a lot cheaper. At REI, if you buy 12 you get a 25% percent discount!
14. I also discovered that I really like the Honey Stinger Bars for runs that are longer than 15 miles. This is a free endorsement and I am not being paid! Although if they want to pay me in Honey Stinger Bars (or cash), I would not object.
15. However, I do not like lemon-lime gatorade. Unfortunately, a lot of long distance races seem to like using this. So for our longer runs closer to the race, we would drink that flavor to get our stomach used to how it would feel while we race. But if anyone is reading this and knows why this flavor, I am interested in knowing. I also would like to suggest the blue gatorade. That is all.
16. I waited too long to get new running shoes. This was due to procrastination, lack of planning and money. Next time, I will try to get my shoes sooner. This time, I got my shoes about 5 weeks before the race. So still a little bit of time to break them in, but my decision to run my first run in them as a 15 mile run I think, was probably not a good idea. I think that is part of the reason why my hips were hurting me.
( Right before crossing the finish line).
17. The cold weather really isn't that bad once you start running. I need to remember that because once it gets back to being hot as hades, I will regret cursing the cold.
18. The mental aspect of doing long runs during training is so important. As much as we train for long runs to prepare our body physically to be able to do a marathon, mentally I think it's important to know that you can deal with being on the road for a longgggggggggggg time.
19. I think I hit the wall around mile 18 or 20. It was really bad for about a mile or two. I was feeling sorry for myself and started to cry and was in pain and everything. But I knew that around this time this would happen as I always hear people talk about it. So I guess my point is to be prepared for the rough patches.
20. Crowd support at marathons is amazing. I think for this reason alone I would find it difficult to endure a marathon that is small. When I was feeling down or tired, those funny signs, high fives and cheers really made me feel better.
