The 4-Step Guide to Your First Marathon
Running a marathon is an incredible achievement. One that only 0.17% of the world’s population has achieved. As you’re reading this, I assume that you’ve just signed up for a race. So, I’d like to start by congratulating you on taking this huge step!
In April 2023, I completed my first marathon. I have always been active but massively underestimated what running 26.2 miles would do to my mind and body. The purpose of this blog post is to explain everything I wish I had known before running a marathon for the first time. You don’t need to make the same mistakes as I did.
All 257 minutes of the race took me on an emotional rollercoaster. The first lap (13.1 miles) was exciting with the streets lined with supporters and on track to achieve my target time (3 hours and 3 minutes), all looked well.
However, the remainder of the race was where I faced significant challenges with cramps, nausea, fatigue, and the part of my brain telling me to quit.
Why sign up for a marathon?
On a high from finishing David Goggins’ book, ‘Never Finished’, I signed up for the race just 3 months before and thought that I had the necessary knowledge to train without researching or asking anyone how they did it. All I had to do was “STAY HARD”, right?
That was a mistake.
However, completing a marathon changed my life and it can change yours too! The experience of participating in a marathon, and the pride you will feel after doing it, is worth every minute of pain.
Picture this. Months of hard work and dedication are released when you cross the finish line, with people cheering you along every step of the way. You feel like you’re on top of the world, and that translates to every other area of your life.
You are now part of the 0.17% of the world’s population who have run a marathon.
Unfortunately, many people (including myself) don’t prepare enough to enter the marathon runners club.
If you don’t prepare enough for race day, you’ll experience some horrendous side effects throughout the marathon (I suffered so much I debated ever wanting to run again):
Cramps (everywhere)
Nausea
Blisters
Nipple chafe (for the men – yes, it is a thing)
DON’T WORRY!
I’ve experienced the pain so you don’t have to.
Follow this step-by-step guide to completing your first marathon. Curated from research and my experience.
Step 1: Follow a training programme
Probably the biggest mistake I made was thinking that I knew how to train for a marathon, even though I’d never run more than 6 miles before signing up…
I ran 112 miles from January to April to train for my first marathon, which was nowhere near enough.
Because of this, my body felt like it was shutting down at mile 18, which made the final 8 miles HELL.
This is because I only had about 10 weeks of training (aka, making it up as I went along).
I’ve learnt this harsh lesson and dedicated a combination of research and personal experience to create a free 16-week training programme for anyone who is in a similar position. I never bothered to look for a preset marathon training programme because I didn’t want to spend money on it (especially considering that I thought I knew what I was doing…).
The best way to make sure you follow through with your marathon training programme is to use a personal calendar. Schedule your training runs in a calendar like Google Calendar and you’ll know exactly what needs to be done, and when. Balancing a full-time job and training, was the best way to ensure my training fit into the rest of my life.
A good training programme will have a mix of easy aerobic, interval, and long runs.
It’s great if you want to do the same 3-mile loop every day to train for a marathon, but you’re probably not going to enjoy race day.
Varying your training runs with a mix of tempo, speed intervals, and elevation changes will help you overcome the challenges you’ll face on race day.
Step 2: Fuel for Performance
One of my favourite parts of running is thinking about what I’m going to eat afterwards - this especially helps on the longer training runs.
However, the way you fuel your body before training is key. Nutrition is the North Star. The President. The CEO of anything fitness-related.
I burnt 3,221 calories during my first marathon. Each training run will see you burn between 500 to 1,500 calories, so you need to know how to fuel and refuel to recover.
Good nutrition will carry you on race day. But poor nutrition will drag you down and lead to thoughts of quitting.
Here are some top tips for marathon race day nutrition:
Don’t eat anything you’re not used to – Rehearse your race day nutrition on a few long training runs so that you don’t find your stomach disagreeing with you 15 miles in…
EAT! – With a good mix of nerves, fear, and excitement, you probably won’t want to eat anything the morning of the race. But you need to! If you don’t it’ll be like trying to drive 200 miles in your car with no fuel.
Consume sugar and salt – Your body needs the contents of these (sodium and glucose) to keep moving without cramping or fatigue.
Step 3: Set SMART Goals
It doesn’t matter if your goal is to simply finish the marathon, setting goals is a huge help when you forget why you started.
Whenever I had a lapse in motivation throughout training, I visualised myself failing the run. The day I signed up for the race, I set myself a time goal of 3 hours and 30 minutes. I was naïve to assume that would be an achievable goal for my first marathon with just 10 weeks of sub-par training. However, it was still a goal that pulled me through to the finish line.
I was winging it, but I was on course to achieve my goal time up until the 18th mile of the race when my naivety came to fruition…
Use the SMART acronym to set yourself goals for your first marathon. That means setting goals that are:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time Bound
This is the SMARTest way to set goals in any area of your life.
Step 4: SLOW DOWN!
The biggest mistake I see people make when they start running is going too fast. A typical story might look like this:
Start running. Feel exhausted after every run because you’ve pushed too hard. Get injured. Don’t continue running after injury due to fear of exhaustion and re-injury.
Just chill out. Your ability to stay consistent in training is a far bigger factor for your success than anything else.
To put this into practice, I use my heart rate to determine my speed. The typical formula for easy aerobic training that will build endurance without exhaustion is to maintain a heart rate of 180 minus your age.
For example, I’m 24 years old at the time of writing this. So, I target an average heart rate of 156 beats per minute for regular training runs.
Summary
Running will change your life. Now you have the tools you need to complete your first marathon, nothing can stop you.
Follow a training programme
Fuel for performance
Set SMART goals
Slow down