Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Whats the one thing you wish you'd known before your first marathon...
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
^ oh no! he's opened that can of worms!
<pull up a chair to watch!>
Is that a question with an answer? Is that a question?
Oh, I see, its a 'where?' question. I'll have a stab in the dark and say Madagascar!
Do I win a prize?
definition of "jog" by oxford dictionary:
run at a steady gentle pace, especially on a regular basis as a form of physical
so a slow run. still running!
I can see you're trying to clever (which you're failing miserably at btw) and wind people up about this PJL, but your original comments definitely said 'must have walked some of the way' and now you're adjusting your position to talk about 'jogging' rather than 'running'. At least have a consistent argument please.
Not sure I agree with that. London has only around 20 significant turns, and if you just do the maths you'd be hard pushed to add really any significant distance unless you were really zigzagging across the road the whole way. If you ran a marathon doing a hundred and whatever laps around a track (so ten times that many turns) and you ran every turn in lane 2, you still wouldn't run 27 miles. I think this is a bit of a myth spread by Garmin enthusiasts, and perhaps caused by the tendency of satnav signals to go haywire in Canary Wharf. Plus the course is perhaps a little long as course markers are obliged to be quite conservative.
I've seen quite a lot of people barging others out of the way in their determination to stick to the blue line and it's the single most unpleasant thing of all of the many unpleasant things about London. What's more, following the blue line often means running on a camber and I'd always avoid that when I can.
Lol, I've a friend who did London recently, in 2:42. He walked a bit.
What a loser
Why's he a loser?
He did a 2:42 marathon.
Well in marathon terms, by you reckoning, over 4hours must include walking, so how's about this?
sub 2hr 30 marathon is running
2:30 to 4 is jogging
over 4 is walking
make you feel good?
Okay, the point was to be aware of the shortest route.
I wouldnt be concerned about the 'little extra' that the course measurers have to allow, that amounts to 0.1% or approx 40m.
I recently took part in a track marathon and it was very difficult to get near lane 2 for most of it. Once you get into lane 3 you are literally talking about 27 miles. Still good fun though..
People barging each other out of the way to get to the blue line? You cant be serious?
I had that twice in last year's race and one of the guys who did it to me barged past a whole load of people in front of me too. As Devoted2Distance puts it, it's not only polite to run considerately, it's also in your interests, as it's good to use other runners later for pacing, shelter, drinks or just company. Those are all great points there.
You're right to point out the need to run efficiently though, parkrunfan; in particular, no point darting around through gaps in the crowd in the first couple of miles as you can waste a lot of effort.
i have spent from 9am reading this whol thread copy and pasted most of it to read on the way to london on the friday night
2 things:
dont wear a thong i know its obv but i literally chaged into my running gear at work monday night to do a 18mile even tho i completed it i have to say sitting down after being cheese grated isnt nice!!!!
reading the last few pages debating the run/walk/jog thing if/when i complete this years marathon i was going to tell people i have run the london marathon but if i stop to walk for a few minutes or even a mile do i then have to say i ran this years marathon but i did walk for a bit?
Immodium seconded, thirded, whatevered. Take some with you, not just before you go.
I really like the Jelly Belly runner's beans. I usually suck one for a while, rather than chomping on it. Not sure what the carbo benefit is, but its an alternative focus if you're feeling a bit jasiofjdiofjasdiojfdiosfjaos.
Also - don't be persuaded that chocolate gels taste any less horrible than other gels. If anything, they're worse, because you're expecting chocolatey goodness. I've been chomping a Mars bar on my long runs. I have it at about 14-15 miles, when I'm soo far from the end, but a long way from the start. Again, not sure that its necessary, or even helpful, carb-wise, but it does make me feel a lot better.
Lochaber will be my third (both previous were significantly over 4 hours, and ran all the way, ta v much. I guess one tip would be not to let people take away from your experience, whatever their motive for doing so might be) and I'm still nervous. I'd love to do London one day - that must be phenomenal. Its the best feeling ever having finished one of these.
Oh, and smile! Do it lots, and you might even believe it!
Oh dear, I guess the tone of voice can't be seen in a post, but I did think the winking smiley might have shown that I was kidding....
Of course he's not a loser, he's a good club runner who happens to be very supportive of other runners, even those (such as me) much slower than himself, so he manages to combine being reasonably fast with being a nice human being.
The intention was to poke fun at the notion of an arbitrary line drawn by one poster, with proper runners one one side, and people who might (or might not) have walked a bit on the other, which made me laugh.
It's all rather boring. None of us are going to win the thing after all, not even Peter John Lewis himself!
Achievements deserving of respect come in many guises. I know a lady who is the kind of runner I'd like to be one day. She took over 6 hours last time, but if I can do that when, like her, I'm in my eighties, I'll be happy!
Anyway, back to the original purpose of the thread - things I wish I'd known before my first... that it would be so much fun. It is meant to be fun after all!
I hate to break it to you, but you should stick to retailing because you're clearly not a scientist. The laws of physics are scientific facts. Whether or not a four hour marathon runner is considered running the entire distance is not.
To claim that "A persons pace for a 4 hour marathon indicates that someware during the race they have had to walk usually due to fatigue" is just nonsense. I dare say it's fair to say that it's more likely that someone finishing in 4.5 hours walked some of the way than a 3.5 hour finisher, but to claim that a 4 hour time means they couldn't possibly have run the whole way is disproven by the many who do just that, if only out of sheer bloodymindedness not to be labelled a non-runner by those displaying (non-intended, if you're to be believed) arrogance.
I'll leave you with another gem, which I think says it all:
I don't recall any obvious barging to keep on the line at a big marathon, but there's always a few who are obviously intent on keeping every step literally on the line, not an inch to either side. Given the line has to be a meter out from the curb on any turn it's technically possible to run a shorter line, and as Tmap pointed out it ignores surface variations & camber.
Anyway, things learnt on this thread: Muppley wears thongs at work
Using a pacer must be a calculated risk
Why would anyone use a pacer anyway?
Its certainly not for the drafting advantages that pacers were originally introduced for in mddle distance races.
So, as long as you can use a watch (or Garmin or some other teccie bit of kit) why would you want to trust some other random person's ability to do exactly the same thing that you can do for yourself?
Company ?
Encouragement ?
Bit of 'team spirit'
PLJ - as you quote "any of Hal Higdon" have you read this Hal Higdon guide to marathon training. It seems to contradict what you say rather a lot.
You've made me laugh anyway and its a releif to know that I don't have to train hard for a good for age place because I can walk it in order to get that. Can't wait. 
Good luck to all first timers. The only thing I wish I'd known before my first was that I would be doing it again, and again, and again....................... But then again, I'm kind of glad I enjoyed it more than I expected. The only other thing I can add is that if you are doing this for charity and decide to keep on doing marathons, don't expect to keep raising money all the time or you might lose a few friends.
Thanks for all the tips everyone. Have been enjoying the thread (except the strange turn in tone near the end!!!) and will be using some of the tips to do with the startline and drinks, eg old clothes, bring a bottle lid etc.
I'm looking forward to getting my toenails back after it's all over!!
Great debate and some good tips. To add my penny's worth there is no difference between jogging and running though in the past I have seen people use 9 min/miles as the dividing line (no idea why) which of course calculates out as a 3-56 marathon! If you don't walk then you have run a marathon, if you walk you have completed a marathon, I have done it both ways!
IMHO the cut off for serious marathon runners is 3 hours but this is a purely arbitary figure selected by me it bears no relation to anything else.
Things I wished I known
v amusing that Mr lewis is back - i was on the receiving end of some v patronising messages last year... can i re-quote another gem for everyone's amusement? (don't know how to do quotes properly...)
"One thing i wish i had done before my first attempt at the London Marathon was to have completed several long endurance runs of atleast 22-23 miles so that htting the wall wouldnot be such a problem whilst maintaining my goal pace."
and there was me thinking avoiding the wall was down to enough carbs. must be cos i am a jogger not a runner?
Huh?? Thats a true statement.
The longer runs in training adapt the body to burning a higher proportion of fat (as long as run on empty anyway). Therefore you burn less glycogen running at target pace than you would without them.
The reason for the 22+ miles is that the % benefit is huge at any point past 20 miles as you are very much in depletion territory then. Most beginner plans dont recommed 22+ because the recovery period for osmeone taking 4+ hours would ruin most of the next week of training. As with all training there are compromises and thats quite a big one that beginners have to make unless they are coming up from a track background or are naturally speedy.