If you’re
looking for ideas on how to run your first marathon, then you’re in the right
place. There are many things to consider when preparing for your first
marathon. Hopefully, your body is now ready or almost prepared to run over 26
miles from months of training you’ve already done or about to be finished. In
this article, you’ll know how to prepare on the actual day or few days to go
before your long run to make sure everything is in place.
Familiarize the race course. Make sure that you know how to get
to the place of your race. Visit the place and familiarize where to park and
exit. If it is possible, run over the course to get the feel of it. You may run
one of your long training runs on the race course.
Visualize where to position yourself during the
race. It’s a good
idea to line up at the back because as the first time racer, you don’t want to
slow down faster runners. Take things slowly and enjoy the race. You’re likely
to take walk breaks as you did during training. Stay at the side of the road or
use the sidewalk for your walk breaks.
Rest your body days before the race. Many first time runners are afraid to
lose their conditioning if they take two days off from running leading up to
the race. Trust me, you won’t lose any conditioning from taking these rests.
Some races organize expo the day before the race and require you to pick up
your race number and computer chip in the event. You may walk around in the
expo and check out some interesting bargains but make it less than two hours.
Don’t eat much the night before. Some marathons organize dinner the
night before. You can eat and talk to some runners but make sure not to have a
carbo-loading dinner. Remember that most food items can be processed and used
at least 36 hours from eating. If you eat too much, a lot of unprocessed and
unused foods will bounce up and down in your gut during the race. It’s a good
idea to practice an eating plan the night before your long training run and do
your successful eating plan the evening before the actual race.
