Some little things before a marathon can turn into big problems after the start. But despite the obvious bloopers from the perspective of advanced runners, these mistakes are regularly made by newcomers entering their first race.
1. You decide, on the advice of friends or by looking at more serious marathoners, to eat something new, easily digestible, and promising a long supply of energy. Such an approach may not approve of your stomach, and you need to be friends with it, especially on race day. All experiments with nutrition are done only in the period free from starts and peak loads.
2. You bought more expensive and specialized running shoes yesterday – why not wear them? Surprisingly, running shoes are often bought specifically for a particular marathon, where they are worn a second time after trying them on in the store.
Even a pair of sneakers familiar to your feet has to spend a hundred miles of training with you in order to fit your foot. Especially when you consider that small design changes can be made from season to season to a model that has become familiar to you. In this case, it turns from perfect to total junk, provoking pain, for example, in the ankle or in the toes, which you will find out during the running-in process.
3. You forgot about the warm-up. This will somewhat discourage the body at the start, creating a small wall at the first or second kilometer, which will be quite inappropriate, given the length of the distance and the general stress of the body.
4. You start in the front row. Not where the elite run close to two o’clock, of course, but nevertheless not far from the start line. This is a big mistake, which can lead to a quick fall off the course because of a possible inability to define your limits and focus solely on how you feel, and not on the runners around you.
In general, in this case, you must be prepared for the rapid arrival of the anaerobic threshold with all the consequences, including interfering with all the other participants, running for a discharge, overall score or PR.
5. You last looked at the weather forecast a week before the running event. Even a day’s forecast can be considered very relative. And, for example, in St. Petersburg, for reliable information about the weather, you need to be on the balcony and look where the clouds are going. Although this does not guarantee that a minute later, after putting on sneakers, everything does not change dramatically.
When the weather conditions and forecast for the near future are unclear, the final options are equally likely to be hypothermia or overheating, depending on your outfit. However, and the weather forecast still need to know where to look.
