Fast Running Blog

I would be curious to hear thoughts about how much of a warm up, if any, is suggested before a marathon. That is because I did a run at marathon pace today without any warmup, and did not completely like the way the pace felt for the first miles; once warmed up, then, the same pace felt much better. On the other hand, a warm up is going to take some energy out of the body, energy that would be better used later on.... so out of curiosity, pre-Marathon warmup yes or no, and if yes, how do you warm up?

i will sometimes do a bit of very, very light jogging (i.e. jogging back and forth to the bathrooms). i like to assess how everything feels, make sure my shoes feel right, and just get some blood flowing through the body. it's not much of a warm-up though. i use the first few miles of the race to warm up -- the race is long! i usually don't feel good right from the gun -- it takes a few miles to loosen up, relax, and settle into race pace.

everyone is different though -- i know others that feel better with 1-3 miles warm-up. if you think it would be better for you to be warmed up and in the "feeling good" state right away, then you might want to try a short warm-up. at the same time, if you've never done it before, race day is not the time to experiment.

I'll often jog from a nearby hotel (.5 miles or less) or walk/run if I'm a mile away just to get a little blood flow and calm down the adrenaline before a light stretch.  Like Allie, I alway hope to get into a groove by mile 2 or 3. 

A few minutes of jogging (like 2-3 minutes) when I first wake up to help wake up (and wake up the GI system). Then I just like to do a handful of 10-20 second strides before the race starts. Usually like Dave said, you usually end up having to make your way over to the starting line from a hotel, so that is generally an opportunity to walk/jog and loosen up.

I do 5 min when I wake up to get my GI moving.  Then do probably 5-10 very easy min at the start line, with maybe a couple strides.  Primary purpose is the eliminate bathroom stops during the race. 

I don't think an easy warm up really takes much out of you, such that it causes you to bonk later in the race (and you wouldn't bonk if you didn't warm up).  Running a bunch of ultramarathons just reinforces that- I've learned proper pace and fueling can have your body run hard for much harder than 26 miles.  So if you feel better at the start with a warm up, then do the warm up.

On a related note, starting the marathon a hair too slow is definitely better than way too fast.

Great feedback, thanks everybody. The jog from the hotel was in fact part of my doubt, like many I too usually do a light jog from the hotel to the start; so far it's always (i.e., two times) been about a mile, by design, but this time around would be a couple of miles, by necessity; the alternative is taking the metro to the start for a couple of stops. I think I am going to walk/jog the two miles, gives me time to loosen up and focus.