A Marathon Guide for 26.2 Hopefuls – The Details You Don’t Usually Read About

Most marathon guides that I’ve read in magazines or online seem to provide the same thing. Don’t get me wrong, many of them are good articles. They usually provide a week-by-week breakdown of incremental mileage goals with ramp up to race time. Sometimes they even include stretching and/or rehab routines to make sure you stay healthy. All of that is necessary to know if you want to run a marathon, but what happened to the articles that give you the nitty gritty details of what REALLY happens during marathon training. Instead, let’s look at the stuff that you need to know when training for a marathon but usually don’t see on paper.

Physical Aches and Pains

Running Aches and Pains

Chafing – When you go on really long runs, especially when it’s your first time, certain parts of your body will experience friction due to certain repetitive movements. Some runners get chafing on their inner thighs because they have a narrow stride or well-developed hamstrings. Although this can be uncomfortable some runners have it a bit worse. For example, on several occasions I’ve seen men cross the finish line with two faint streams of blood running down their chest. The excessive rubbing of their shirt across their chest leads to nipple chafing that sometimes results in a tough to witness mess.

Fortunately there are a couple of preventative measures you can take. Firstly, you can buy nip tips, which are basically tiny band aids with built in padding meant for your nipples. When you put them on it may look like it’s cold outside but at least you won’t be bleeding from the nipples! You can also rub on a generous lather of runner’s glide which is a skin lubricant with a thick, sticky residue meant specifically for regions of your body that may chafe. Rub it on your thighs, under your arm pits, in between your toes and, well, wherever else you think things might rub.

Cramps – dehydration and the exhaustion of immediate energy stores will eventually lead to cramping on a long run. This is something you must be prepared for. Many runners, especially first time marathon runners, while cramp up in the final miles of the race. Despite this you must push on and finish. I can only caution that this extreme fatigue and muscle degeneration is something that you have likely never felt before. It must not stop you though as you push through barriers and endure to reach the finish line.

Diet and Nutrition

I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about eating lots of complex carbohydrates (carb loading) before a race. You’ve probably also read plenty of articles talking about proper hydration and consumption of electrolytes. Yes, all of that applies and is extremely important. But what else should you watch out for?

Runner’s diarrhea – it doesn’t take much thought to know where this is going. Some runners experience an upset stomach from the repeat bouncing during a long run. Unfortunately your body doesn’t care if you’re in the middle of a race. If you have to go you have to go. So what are your solutions?

Make sure you figure out what your stomach can handle during a race by testing foods out during training. Try complex carbohydrates, different electrolyte drinks, gel energy packs, etc and see what happens during a long run. Make sure you also wake up a few hours before race day to give your body enough time to try and pass last night’s meal. Showing up early to the race will also give you enough time to warm up and make a pit stop at one of the port-a-potties prior to start time. By the time your food passes you will have absorbed all of the nutrient value you can from it so you’ll be better off with it gone.

Training

Marathon Training

There will be times where the running is fun, and quite frankly pretty easy. The majority of the time though it won’t be. You’re knees will usually start tightening up and aching at or around mile 10. Sometimes the arches of your feet swell and ache to the point of severe discomfort. Tight IT Bands can lead to intensely sharp pain in the knees or even contribute to a lesser come though equally debilitating condition known as snapping hip syndrome.

Every Saturday or Sunday morning you should plan on waking up at 5am or 6am to get training in early in the day to simulate race time conditions. This means that you will have to opt out of Friday night happy hour or Saturday night parties with friends, specifically to keep alcohol out of your system. Training will be tough. As you break through previous barriers in mileage you’ll experience fatigue and mental collapse that you have likely never felt before. This is the reality of the situation when you decide to train for a marathon and that’s why it’s being written.

To conclude this post I want to reiterate that this article is about the reality of marathon training, and was written to be terse and forthcoming so that you can mentally and physically prepare for the runs ahead. I completely endorse any runner who wants to check out articles that provide sample marathon training guides with mile goals for daily and weekly runs. In the same breath though I encourage you to read about the difficulties you’ll face and look at distance running from a realist perspective. It will hurt. At times you’ll want to quit. The early mornings and variant weather won’t always appeal to you. But the triumph you’ll experience at the finish line are worth it. Know what struggles you have ahead of you and take them head on!