Once the first mile is out of the way, the best strategy during the next few miles is to settle into a good rhythm. Try to run fast but relaxed. Establishing a relaxed running style early in the race will go a long way toward helping you avoid tightening up so that you can maintain your goal pace to the finish. Go through a mental checklist periodically to make sure your shoulders are relaxed, your body is upright, and so on to help you maintain good running style throughout the race.
Take a carbohydrate drink at the first aid station. It’s important to drink right from the start rather than wait until you think you need carbohydrate or fluid. Your thirst mechanism isn’t particularly closely matched to your hydration level, so waiting until you feel thirsty to drink is a mistake. Similarly, if you wait until you feel tired and light-headed to take in carbohydrate, it will be too little too late. The longer you can postpone dehydration and carbohydrate depletion, the longer you will be able to maintain your goal pace. Taking in carbohydrate and fluid early will help postpone or prevent dehydration or carbohydrate depletion later. As we discussed in chapter 2, a few seconds lost at each aid station can translate into several minutes gained toward the end of the marathon.
Mentally, the first half of the marathon is the time to cruise. Try to save your mental and emotional energy for the second half of the race. All other factors being equal, if there is a group of runners in the lead pack at halfway, the winner will be the one who has cruised along at the back of the pack saving his or her energy for the demands of the second half of the race. Regardless of your ultimate finishing place in the marathon, you should realize that the second half is much harder than the first half; just try to get the first half out of the way at the correct pace without using any more mental energy than necessary.
It’s important to drink right from the start rather than waiting until you feel thirsty. Taking in fluid and carbohydrate early will help postpone or prevent dehydration and carbohydrate depletion later.
Most of the time, you should finish the marathon even if you’re not running as well as you had hoped. The marathon is a test of endurance. If you casually drop out of a marathon once, it will be all too easy to drop out again. Of course, in certain situations, struggling to finish a marathon may compromise your health or your future marathon success. Here are some legitimate reasons to drop out of a marathon:
• If you’re limping, then your running mechanics are thrown off. You’ll merely aggravate your injury by continuing.
• If you have a specific pain, and that pain is increasing progressively during the race, then you’re doing yourself harm and should stop.
• If you’re light-headed and unable to concentrate, you should stop.
• If you’re overcome by muscle cramps, a torn muscle, heat exhaustion, or the like, then stop.
On to 20 Miles (32 km)
From the halfway mark to 20 miles (32 km) is the no-man’s-land of the marathon. You’re already fairly tired and still have a long way to go. This is where the mental discipline of training will help you maintain a strong effort and a positive attitude. It’s easy to let your pace slip 5 seconds per mile (per 1.6 km), and then 10 seconds per mile or more, during this stretch. By using all the available feedback on your pace – whether in the form of mile or kilometer splits – you’ll know exactly how you’re progressing, and you should be able to concentrate and maintain your goal pace during these miles.
Slowing during this portion of the marathon is often more a matter of not concentrating than of not being able to physically maintain the pace. Focusing on your splits gives you an immediate goal to concentrate on. The ability to do a bit of adding in your head while running is a helpful skill. If you’re supposed to be running 5:40 per mile, and there are markers every mile during the marathon, then just add 6:00 to your previous mile split and subtract 20 seconds to calculate what your next split should be. If you’re 5 seconds too slow, don’t try to make up the lost 5 seconds during the next mile; add 5:40 again as your target to get yourself back on track. By focusing on these incremental goals along the way, you’ll prevent a large drift in your pace and should be able to stay very close to your goal.
It’s not unusual to have a few miles when you just don’t feel good. These bad patches are a test of mental resolve. Often these stretches will last a while and then mysteriously go away. For example, you might feel tight and uncomfortable from miles 15 to 17 but then get back in the groove again and feel good to the finish. The key is to have the confidence that you’ll eventually overcome this bad patch.
In my marathon career, I started 18 marathons and finished 16, including 8 victories. Of the two dropouts, one was because of injury and the other was because of stupidity. Both occurred in 1986.
The dropout because of stupidity was the Boston Marathon. This was the first professional Boston Marathon, with lots of media excitement and financial incentives. I ignored my usual race plan of running even splits and got carried away early. During the first 10 miles, Greg Meyer and I exchanged the lead several times. Whenever Greg would take the lead, I would try to take it back.
This was overly aggressive racing for so early in the marathon. Meanwhile, Rob de Castella, who won that day, sat in behind us, probably laughing to himself at the lack of patience of the two Americans. By 12 miles, my breathing wasn’t in its usual rhythm, my legs were already pretty beat up, and my intestines were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. During the next mile, I fell off the lead bunch and started to tighten up. Knowing that I had gone too hard too early, I stopped just past the halfway mark and quietly cursed myself. It was a lesson well learned and a mistake I never made again. Note that stupidity doesn’t fall under the list of legitimate reasons to drop out of a marathon.
The only positive aspect of dropping out so early was that I recovered fully in about a week. A few weeks later, I used my fitness and frustration to set a personal best of 28:41 for 10,000 meters on the track, and in July I redeemed myself over 26.2 miles by winning the San Francisco Marathon in 2:13:29.
My other dropout was in the 1986 Twin Cities Marathon, which was also the trial race for the next year’s world championships. I went into the race with a tight hamstring from stretching too hard after a track workout several weeks earlier. It felt okay early in the race but gradually tightened up in the drizzly 40-degree weather. At 20 miles, I was at the back of the lead pack when the hamstring tightened completely. I couldn’t run another step. After walking for about a mile, I gratefully accepted a ride to the finish. That dropout was easier mentally because the decision was out of my hands.
Having had a frustrating year in the marathon, I was determined to get a decent race under my belt as quickly as possible. My physical therapist said that the hamstring wasn’t too badly damaged and that I should run easily for about 10 days. With regular massage, it loosened up, and I decided to run the New York City Marathon, which was 3 weeks after Twin Cities. I ran conservatively and gradually moved from 30th place at halfway to finish 9th in 2:14:09. It had been a year of lessons learned.