26.2 lessons learned from running 26.2 miles
Today I completed my first ever marathon which was such an incredible experience! I’ve been sporadically to regularly training since August with plans of completing the Vermont City Marathon on Oct. 24th. Well, that marathon got turned into a half so I signed up for the next closest (in time and distance away) which turned out to be the Green Mountain Marathon that happened this morning 10.17.21.
This semester/year/life has been crazy so I was unsure if I’d be able to even do this, so I signed up 5 days before the race and prayed that I remained injury free. My main goals were to finish the full marathon without getting injured and my internal goal was do complete it in under four hours.
Spoiler alert: I did with a final time of 3 hrs 48 minutes with an average pace of 8:40~minute/miles. Not bad for my first long one.
On the race we weren’t supposed to have headphones in due to traffic so I had all of that lovely time with just me and my thoughts. I cheered and was cheered on by other runners, the amazing volunteer staff at the race, and my awesome friends who came out to be my support/hype crew! A very nice man named Justin from Jersey and I accidentally paced each other from mile 1 to 22, but even though we only talked for less than an hour the whole time we were running in solidarity the whole time.
Since I had a lot of time to admire the scenic Vermont landscape, contemplate why I was doing this, and compare how badly my body was hurting to the time I attempted to hike manhump (less surprisingly), I thought I‘d share 26~ tips plus random thoughts that helped me prepare and get through this race.
HYDRATE OR DIE-DRATE
Electrolytes save your legs (seriously, drink them)
Apparently the level of tenseness in my calf muscles is a great cue for how dehydrated I am
Pavement sucks
You need energy!! Fuel up along the way!
The Carmel macchiato GU energy gels are the best
Cheer each other on! Everyone’s trying there best and any encouragement really helps!
Friends and family are the best support squad
You’re stronger than you think
Just keep putting one foot in front of the other
Keep moving forward no matter how slowly
Vermont is gorgeous
Dogs are great
The weather can really make or break a day and thankfully today was great
Get rest the night before! (Even though I was so anxious I kept waking up from stress dreams I still tried)
Taper week exists for a reason
Start off slower than you think you need to, this race isn’t about speed
Doing a sprint finish at a marathon is ridiculous and your legs will hate you if you try
Hot showers = bring me back to life
strettchhhhhh
Post race food is the best
Naps are totally valid
Its nice to have goals but its also nice to have freedom
I’m looking forward to mixing things up and doing more cross training and working out without a set schedule for a while
Adapt overcome and persevere
Would I do this again? Hmmm … probably yes but I don’t need to anytime soon.
26.2 If you want to do a marathon, do it! Definitely worth doing at least once in your life.
Happy running, walking, whatever movement brings you joy this fall :)
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