Completed my first marathon!
Completed my first marathon yesterday after starting running in January.
Background: 35yr old male. I’ve played sports my whole life (football, boxing, mountain climbing) and had a good fitness base to begin with. Decided to try something new and prepared for a marathon.
Training: I completed 3 races before the marathon. I completed a 10k (with tonsillitis!) and 2 half marathons. Where I live is very hilly so did my best to tackle at least 1 hill each run. I became a dad for the second time, a month into starting and this made recovery sleep and windows to run much more difficult. I managed to complete just over 300k in training and made sure to add stretching before and after each run. In an ideal world I would have completed much more training runs but with work and kids, this proved to be the biggest challenge. Can’t stress how important the race events before the marathon were. It allowed me to understand timing, organisation, nerves and getting used to crowds. Races were: wolves 10k, Birmingham half, Black Country half.
Injury: I was lucky to get through training with only occasional knee pain. I think stretching properly, watching videos online about correcting my running form really helped with this. Saying that, week prior to the marathon I had a really tight and painful calf.
Marathon: did everything right to begin with, kept a slow reserved pace, took my gels every 6/7k, drank electrolytes/water at water stations. I had porridge and honey for breakfast and a pastry in good time before racing. Was lucky with cloud coverage for the first 10k and then the sun came out and things became much more difficult. Carried on steady and got to 31k and it was like a switch went and my calf, hips and knees became very sore. The course was very hilly throughout! I had to mix up walking and running for the last 15k or so which completely wrecked my hopes of a 4.30 finish. Regardless of how much I had been told at how difficult the race can be towards the end, I wasn’t prepared for the struggle! I managed to limp home to a 5hr finish. I’m both proud and disappointed at how it all went.
I’ve been lurking in this sub since Jan and have found it super helpful reading experiences and advice.
Good luck to those who are preparing for their first marathon!