Leo Spall reveals the wide range of responses he got when he asked thousands of experienced marathoners to recount their rookie racing errors.
To save first-time marathoners from scrolling to the bottom of this piece for the promised last-minute advice, I’m going to give you the main tip up front: stay calm.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Except in the final days of tapering before a marathon and on the big day it’s anything but.
A good support team will make it easier: friends, family, coaches, other runners or anyone who you will take advice from, can get you to trust in your training and prevent anxiety-induced thinking and decisions.
Cramming doesn’t work for the marathon like it can for exams so get your support people to help you banish the maranoia and establish a positive mindset that will allow you to benefit from pre-race nerves and enjoy the day.
It’s not a foolproof plan, I’ll grant you, but if you are almost at race day you don’t want to be changing much at all. Just try to stay in the moment and you might avoid some of the things my friends in the World Marathon Majors Challenge Facebook group experienced.
I asked them to recall their rookie mistakes and for the advice they would give their former selves now. Most of the mistake responses fell into these eight categories:
1. Race-day nutrition
2. Going out too fast
3. Poor training
4. Carb-loading
Picking too tough a course
6. Over- or under- dressing
7. Device-carrying issues
8. Chafing
Other less numerous responses related to too ambitions pace goals, running injured, going too fast because of crowd-support highs, calls of nature, weaving around on the course and late kit changes.
With the exceptions of injury, poor training and the course profile, all the other mistakes listed could have been planned away by first-timers in the final days of their training.
Ideally, this would have been done a lot earlier, of course, but thinking about pacing, kit, chafing protection, and fuelling before, during and after the race is important.
"Carb loaded like crazy day before and hit every toilet [on the] way round."
Nikki Ritchie
The most common mistake shown by the survey - getting race-day nutrition wrong - has been made by runners at all levels, with marathoners not practising or executing a good fuel and hydration strategy, misjudging conditions or failing to plan at all.
Lots of rookie marathoners take on insufficient or excess fuel and it can be a tricky balancing act to get your nutrition right.
Christina Campins-Schneider, from Indiana, had nutrition issues in her first 26.2 mile race. “‘Hitting the wall’ is real! Chicago 2014. Mile 17!” she said. “The 3:35 pace group passed me like I was standing still. Felt like I was in a long tunnel and couldn’t catch them.
“I ate way too many gels and water. Sloshing belly was awful. Managed a 3:44:26 but don’t remember much after 17!”
Christy Buhr, from Phoenix, Arizona, also got her nutrition wrong: “Under fuelled! ‘I am feeling really good,’ so I didn't fuel as much as I should've. That went bad real fast,” she said.
"I ran London 6 weeks after a calf strain, didn’t run until the marathon itself and unsurprisingly, the calf ‘popped’ at mile 4...took me just under 7 hours. Different level of stupidity."
Joe Brennan, London
Another responder, Pamela Jalandoni, had kit problems and while hers weren’t the result of race expo purchases, such buys have jeopardised many a marathon plan.
“I did not train as much as I should have and I wore shoes that were not suitable for long runs,” she said. “I felt all sorts of pain in my legs and back during and after.
“I now make sure I train for any run I sign up for. I also get to know my shoes better during training to see if we're a good fit for each other.”
Don’t let any of this put you off though. Few runners can claim to have run a perfect race so don’t be too tough on yourself if you haven’t got everything under control yet.
You need to be fit and healthy, of course, but otherwise the key is trying to have fun and enjoy the day – and there are many ways to do that.
Rachel O'Grady’s response to my Facebook enquiry will hopefully help you keep the faith. Here’s her list of rookie mistakes: “Running every single training mile at the same pace. Not using fuel or water properly in training.
“Nearly drowning myself and making myself sick on the day taking loads [of fuel/water] on board ‘as everyone else was’. Going out like I was being chased by the law and hitting the wall quite spectacularly around mile 19."
And despite all that, she added: “Still to this day though, one of the best, if not THE best day, EVER.”
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