Manchester Marathon 2013

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  • 15West - the more the merrier, especially if you're in the "tough" zone when we're tired, thanks I appreciate it!! I'll have a jelly baby please (no green ones!)

  • Thanks 15 W...supporters are very important to us runners, and it doesn't go unnoticed, believe me.

    Northern Lass.....I thought it would be pie in Wigan?!image

    it's not exactly boiling here...put it this way, haven't been out without a coat so far this year, but at least it's not freezing.

    Panda

  • Much appreciated 15W.

    With any luck i'll be at mile 21 at or before ten past twelve. You'll recognise me by my curly auburn mop. Can I reserve a red jelly baby please?

  • Thank you 15w! Good advice and thanks for the support!

    Weather looking good but it'll be strange seeing as most of our training has been done in wintery conditions!!

    My knee is still sore but hoping it'll hold out on the day- I'm just going to keep it slow and steady and enjoy the day.

    My only goal is to finish with a smile on my face!!

    Know I've already said this would be my one and only marathon but how amazing did London look?!

    Just talked the other half into doing a half marathon and the run to the beat one in London looks ace so might give that a go...

    I'm really really nervous and want Sunday to be here!!

    If I don't get chance to post again good luck to everyone and hope it's a fantastic day whatever your goals

    Becks xxx
  • Thanks Rebecca...same to youimage

  • cybarevcybarev ✭✭✭

    Thanks 15w. Support plus jelly babies, fantastic. See you Sunday.

    Rebecca, sounds like you're being very sensible about your first marathon. Hope it goes really well for you and you keep smiling for at least a week after the run!

  • Good to hear from you again 15W - your comments last year were great on forum. I for my sins m doing it again - I figured weather could not be same for 2 years running - it owes me big time after last year when I was going so well at 22 miles only for the cold to get into my muscles and cramps set in. Will look out for you at 21 miles ish and of course it would be rude of me not to take a jelly baby from your daughter.

    Good luck to everyone else for Sunday

  • As I yo-yo between excitement at the thought of running through my locality and the places I've lived, grown up and in many cases drank in for a change and apprehension at how the day will go, anyone got any advice re the mental approach or mantras to use

    Certainly got to try not to go off too fast and I like the idea of lurking between 2 pacers so you know roughly where you're at. Feeling a bit daunted at the moment and got the final 5 mile gentle run tomorrow morning before going stir crazy for a couple of rest days.Not really got much appetite this week either

    Feeling much better in terms of muscle aches and tweaks but avoiding youngest daughter and the "bug" she seems to have picked up

    Can't help feeling that familiarity with the area may work against me as I'll have a better idea of what's to come in terms of terrain and mileage, that said the signs are everywhere anyway

    Will go with RP's suggestion re music in that I'll have the iPod with me but only use it on the more difficult stretches so that I can sample the atmosphere at the start and finish for a change

     

  • I'm in no real position to help on the mental side of a marathon RR but what I do tell myself in other races and on tough training runs are three things:

     

    People have run much further and much harder than this

    This too will pass (in other words, it might hurt right now but it will not last forever.  Deal with it)

    Human beings massively underestimate the limits of their own capabilities.  The mind is easily fooled by the body.

     

    If you read the memoires and bigographies of many great runners, they all - one way or another - very often say the same thing.  That they won because of their desire, their ability to go beyond the pain, their ability to keep moving when every inch of their body tells them to stop. 

    I think that bloddy mindedness is what I need to keep developing.  If I think I have to slow down or stop I have to fight it with my mind and tell myself I can do more than I believe I can right now.  I've heard of people wanting to get the pain in races so they "know what they have to deal with" and waiting for it to arrive is the tougher, more undertain part.  Working on the mindset that lets pain in and finds ways to accomodate it has to be the difference between ordinary performance and overachievement in running.

     

  • ShazmoShazmo ✭✭✭

    Cheers 15W - I replied on the P+D forum...if only you were pacing us mere mortals...but failing that, Jelly babies at mile 21 will be nice. Will post a description nearer the time if I dont manage to upload a profile pic. I will be wearing coral/orangey-pink Asic shoes though - they're pretty bright!

  • Thanks! 

    And now here's my piece of advice: before the start, make sure your shoelaces are done up really well.

  • I'm going between really excited to really nervous in equal measures - a lot is the unknown ........ my expectations have got lower as the week has gone on - my aim was to finish sub 4.30 , now I just want to finish with my integrity intact lol!

  • ...RR the mental side is as important as the physical I always think.

    I think the best thing is to try and break the race down into manageable sections.

    Like....10k....then before too long you will have done half marathon distance...for some reason, I always think it gets easier mentally after that.  You get to about 17 and think....not long till 20, and "I have done 20 in training".....then after that you think..."Ok, only 10k left, anyone can run 10k"..by then the adrenaline will be going.

    The main thing that keeps me going is the thought of getting plenty of beer down my neck at the finish (no chance this time though!) and the amount of food I am going to consume that night!!

    You will feel so proud when you cross that line knowing what you have achieved.

    I would advise newbies (unless really fast and fit) to just try and enjoy it and not worry about time.  There is plenty of time for that in other marathons (and there WILL be others!).  Far better to take it nice and steady and enjoy it and finish strong than to set off too fast and be knackered and hit the wall and have to crawl to the end...I think if that had happened to me I wouldn't have gone on to do any more!

    I am sure we will all be fineimage

    Panda

  • cybarevcybarev ✭✭✭

    RR - as far as psychlogical stuff goes I find my mind tries to play tricks on me in marathons and i find it really important to remember all the training I've done over the previous months. I will be thinking about the times I ran through the snow and manged 20 miles in the freezing cold and came home with a numb face.

    I find 13-20 miles the worst bits mentally. Its important to count how many miles you have done, not how many to go at this point.

    Are you being sponsored? If so think of all the good you'll be doing for the cause you are supporting.

    If all else fails, remeber cybarev is behind you and the last thing in the world you want is for him to catch you up!

    Keep going you can do it.

  • 15West15West ✭✭✭

    Yep - you have to be prepared for mental battles later in the race...last sunday in London I just kept focus by repeatedly counting in my head from 1 to 8, but use whatever works for you.

  • yes, good point Cyb...just remind yourself that this is all what the training has been gearing towards....those horrible runs in the crap weather, early mornings, late night, sore muscles...it's just a few hours on one day.  easy!!

  • cybarev wrote (see)

    If all else fails, remember cybarev is behind you and the last thing in the world you want is for him to catch you up!

    Keep going you can do it.

    That made me smile, nearly as much as the advice given on the London Marathon which advises you to look around as you approach the finish line to make sure you are not photgraphed crossing the line at the same time as SpongeBob or similar

    Thanks everyone, I guess I wanted reassurance that other people have similar creeping doubts. This one is for me, selfishly, rather than a charity run and I'm proving something to myself. The RR family will be heading for the finish line rather than following around the course

    The prospect of egregious amounts of beer/wine and food on Sunday night also seems an ideal mental reward in the final stages

  • I'm looking forward to my first pint in a while after the race. Meeting a mate for lunch, then getting the train home with Mrs AG afterwards, and i'll be amazed if i don't pass out on the train.

  • I tend to split a marathon into chunks. I never start off thinking "oh no I've got 26 miles to do" I divide it up into 5 miles. When I get to 5 miles i say "Right, another five and concentrate on getting to 10" and so on. Basically I just fool myself - but it works!

  • cybarevcybarev ✭✭✭

    You lot are good with your food and beer!! Its my 20 year wedding anniversary today and to celebrate Mrs Cybarev putting up with me all this time we're going out for a meal and a couple of glases of vin rouge tonight! No seafood though!

     

  • SallymaxSallymax ✭✭✭

    Rockinrobin - I'm just the same, alternating between excitement and nervousness, then at low moments questioning what the hell I'm doing at my age "stupid old women"! Ha, ha.

    Can't think of anything else except Sunday, can't concentrate at work.

    I'm also worried about going off too fast - must not!  Main thing is to finish but ... I really do want to get as close to 4 hours as I can.

     

     

  • SallymaxSallymax ✭✭✭

    Redpanda - they just replied on Facebook.  Yep, nearest toilets to the start are at the race village...

  • Sallymax wrote (see)

    Redpanda - they just replied on Facebook.  Yep, nearest toilets to the start are at the race village...

    I think it might be too early with it being Sunday but there's a massive Tesco just been buil next to Stretford Leisure Centre and a Wetherspoons (Bishop's Blaize) just before you get to Sir Matt Busby Way. They'd be ideal as an alternative to the race village but they're probably a similar walk from Old Trafford tram station as they race village would be. If you get off at Trafford Bar, I'm not sure whether any of the shops in and around the White City retail park would be open

  • Wow - this threads moved on - leave things for a week or so and almost 20 pages worth.

    Good luck to all of you running on Sunday.

    Final training run last night was a bit of a blast for 10k - so much for not doing a speed session during a taper week but then again I have never really paid much attention to such things - just run according to how I feel on the day and of course what the body lets me do these days. Can't wait for Friday  - heading down for the weekend so will have to sample the beers while I'm there - its called carboloading and if you read that carefully you will see what I mean ... CARboLoadING

  • Thanks Sally and RR.....Good idea RR...but shops don't normally open until at least 10 on Sunday so I don't think that would work...thanks though

    x

  •  

    Sallymax wrote (see)

    Rockinrobin - I'm just the same, alternating between excitement and nervousness, then at low moments questioning what the hell I'm doing at my age "stupid old women"! Ha, ha.

    Can't think of anything else except Sunday, can't concentrate at work.

    I'm also worried about going off too fast - must not!  Main thing is to finish but ... I really do want to get as close to 4 hours as I can.

     

     

    I think we're in very similar positions, my mates are shaking their heads as they head to the Altrincham FC match and beer festival on Saturday and will be asleep in their beds as I trudge the streets of Sale and Alty the next day. Finishing the race would be more than enough reward but the lure of sub-4 hours based on my training times is not entirely out of reach

    I tend to run the 2nd half of races slower so following the 4 hour pacer might not work for me but I don't think I'd want to go out faster. May follow the pacer and see how we go and approach the 2nd phase of the race based on how I'm feeling or set an overall time for the first 6 or 7 miles and see how that pans out

    Have got work colleagues watching in Sale Moor and then no doubt there will be some familiar faces in Alty and through Timperley. The other bleak spot could be Manor Avenue before you head out to Carrington, it's a long straight road which I stopped using for training runs as it became associated with struggling

    Still debating what to wear (sad) and whethe to take extra cheap layers to discard or whether to bring Mrs RR down as butler

  • Redpanda wrote (see)

    ...RR the mental side is as important as the physical I always think.

    I think the best thing is to try and break the race down into manageable sections.

    Like....10k....then before too long you will have done half marathon distance...for some reason, I always think it gets easier mentally after that.  You get to about 17 and think....not long till 20, and "I have done 20 in training".....then after that you think..."Ok, only 10k left, anyone can run 10k"..by then the adrenaline will be going.

    The main thing that keeps me going is the thought of getting plenty of beer down my neck at the finish (no chance this time though!) and the amount of food I am going to consume that night!!

    You will feel so proud when you cross that line knowing what you have achieved.

    I would advise newbies (unless really fast and fit) to just try and enjoy it and not worry about time.  There is plenty of time for that in other marathons (and there WILL be others!).  Far better to take it nice and steady and enjoy it and finish strong than to set off too fast and be knackered and hit the wall and have to crawl to the end...I think if that had happened to me I wouldn't have gone on to do any more!

    I am sure we will all be fineimage

    Panda



    Its a bit of a bugger though when you haven't even done a 20 in training

     

  • bionic-hip? wrote (see)
    Redpanda wrote (see)

    ...RR the mental side is as important as the physical I always think.

    I think the best thing is to try and break the race down into manageable sections.

    Like....10k....then before too long you will have done half marathon distance...for some reason, I always think it gets easier mentally after that.  You get to about 17 and think....not long till 20, and "I have done 20 in training".....then after that you think..."Ok, only 10k left, anyone can run 10k"..by then the adrenaline will be going.

    The main thing that keeps me going is the thought of getting plenty of beer down my neck at the finish (no chance this time though!) and the amount of food I am going to consume that night!!

    You will feel so proud when you cross that line knowing what you have achieved.

    I would advise newbies (unless really fast and fit) to just try and enjoy it and not worry about time.  There is plenty of time for that in other marathons (and there WILL be others!).  Far better to take it nice and steady and enjoy it and finish strong than to set off too fast and be knackered and hit the wall and have to crawl to the end...I think if that had happened to me I wouldn't have gone on to do any more!

    I am sure we will all be fineimage

    Panda



    Its a bit of a bugger though when you haven't even done a 20 in training

     

    I've done 1 20 mile and a few 18s and was feeling great until Andrew Strauss started talking about his 21 and 23 mile runs prior to the London Marathon! He came home in around 3:30 so fair play to him

  • ...well...you can "adapt" that mantra, lol!

  • Panda - absolutely agree and it is the only way I keep getting round these things

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