Breaking the Wall

Sasha,

Are you a HC?

Hey Sasha I wanted some advice. I am running Ogden on Saturday. My first racing marathon (racing myself of course) I am nervous and almost sick about it. I need a strategy in my head that I can try for to calm the nerves a little. Any suggestions? My average pace was 7:13 at Provo half. I wanted to try to map out what pace I wanted and where on the course. I am injured (darn shin splints) but I think I will pull through. Would you suggest wearing a wrap on my shin in the marathon? It seems to help a little. Anyways sorry for so many questions just wanted your opinions if you have any on this marathon.

Jeffrey - I am a ward missionary.

Sue - my thoughts are that you are not quite ready for a good marathon. By good I mean being able to fully utilize your current 5 K speed, so around 3:05. The challenge with marathons is that when you are not ready for a good one it is hard to tell what you are ready for. Sometimes you might be able to run only 5-10 minutes slower. Other times, the bottom is very deep. So I would approach this one as a training run, a time trial of sorts. Do not taper, just train through it. You will actually bring more glycogen to the start this way because whatever you would have stored from running less would otherwise be wasted on being pre-race nervous.

There are several things you can do in this time trial, and I think any one of them is good since we are not trying to run any particular time, just developing some marathon experience. You can try to run a quicker pace, let's say 7:20 to failure, and then just not care and jog to the finish, being satisfied that you could run 7:20s let's say to 16 miles, and call that good. Or you can try running slower, let's say pace Carolyn through the first half in about 1:45-1:47, and then try to pick it up. But do expect, in that case, that you might not necessarily find the juice to pick it up, and be ready to deal with it. Or some other alternative with some form of varied pace.

I would caution against setting any particular time goals or expectations. It is very very challenging in the second half of the marathon to maintain putting in your best effort when you have set your mind on a certain pace, and then for one reason or another that pace is not happening. And more often than not, that pace does not happen. Marathons statistically produce one miracle for K average performances and N disasters. The values of K and M depend on the preparation, and the experience, but even with the best preparation and experience they are still high. Thus, in order to be a good marathoner, step one is to learn disaster management.

Be prepared to completely bomb, be thankful when you don't. I find it helpful to say a brief prayer of thanks after every mile. Do not be afraid of blowing up. Blow up a few times, learn from it, and eventually a good marathon will come.

This is wall hanging advice! Thank you! I had to reread it today.