How I first ran a marathon at 45

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you haven't played sports before or even thought about a marathon, it's never too late to start training - it's proven from personal experience.

“The next article I will write about the marathon. Or I won't. This is the last phrase from my fourth post on amateur running after 40, written two years ago.

And if you read these lines at the beginning, then I ran a marathon.

Here are these four articles that walk you from the non-run office worker to the half marathon:

At 45, I ran the Moscow Marathon, two minutes faster than the oldest runner, who turned 81. Still - I was preparing according to plan!

A small digression: I am writing for those who have not been involved in sports until the age of 40 and who are tired of the motionless life. I chose running, someone will choose swimming or aikido - my idea is that there is no need to chase after the result: by doing it carefully, you can "run" to excellent performance without injuries.

About 135,000 people have viewed my articles on Lifehacker (for which many thanks to the resource). If at least 0.1% of readers put on sneakers once and jog in the park, I will assume that the goal has been achieved.

Now to the point: about how I prepared for the marathon, and a couple of surprises that almost ruined it for me.

Preparation

Strictly speaking, I ran the Moscow Marathon at 46, on September 23, the day after my birthday. But the preparation took the 45th year of my life, so I think I ran at 45.

Since September 2, 2016, when I wrote about overcoming the half marathon, I ran two more: in August 2017 in Moscow, in very hot weather, and in May 2018 in the same place.

I decided to run the marathon in early spring, when after a good winter season I kept in shape. There was a lot of snow in the park near the house, and not ice, as usual, so I often ran for fun. It was basically a basic 120 bpm run - long and enjoyable.

But in preparation for the spring race, one mistake in training almost cost me a half marathon in a month and a marathon in six months.

Injury

You cannot be wrong on the last long distance of the week before the half marathon.:) Usually I run 2 km warm-up and then the main workout. But this time, after a warm-up, I ran 18 km (which is a lot for an amateur of my level) and it turned out to be a half marathon 10 days before the main one. And all would be fine, enough time to recover, but at that training session I tried to run around the dog on a leash. As a result of a sharp maneuver, a slight stretch, which almost completely turned off my left leg at the finish of the main race. In general, I flew on "one wing", improving my result from 02:13:28 to 02:06:57.

The result of heroism (I just had to stop and walk to the finish line) were two months, when I didn't just run, I didn't walk right away.

But the body accepted the task, recovered, and I began to prepare for the race in September, realizing that I would definitely not run the half marathon in August out of caution.

I would like to separately note that this injury is not from running and excessive exertion, but from my own inattention.

Plan

It so happened that I run without a coach. I know this is not entirely correct, especially when preparing for a marathon. However, I do not set myself a goal for speed, I run correctly and study the issue thoroughly, so for now.

Nevertheless, a plan was needed, and I dug through many resources with training regimes and explored options for distance, heart rate and time. As a result, I settled on the plan of preparation for the marathon in 16 weeks from the magazine "Marathon".

The plan builds workouts by time and includes 4-5 sessions per week, including conditioning and stretching. I combined this plan with long distance workouts to make sure to get to the longest distance of 28 km.

I started training from the 6th week of the plan, as I had treated my leg before, but this did not prevent me from adding the appropriate loads.

Workout

At that time, I didn't have to go to the office every day, so the training regimen was quite comfortable.

I ran in the park on the asphalt - the nearest stadium was closed due to some summer championship. In one place there is an excellent ascent of 80 meters with an incline of 30-40 degrees, on which the ascents were trained perfectly - this helped me a lot later. The circle in the park is 2 km, so I had to find a 7 km route for long runs and for a change.

The trainings took place as planned, exactly on schedule - it is very convenient, you don't have to think about what to do in training this time. I suspect that the coach is even more interesting.

The last long distance was three weeks before the race - not in time, as in the plan, but in distance. I run slowly, so the time in this case would be the wrong guideline. I ran 8 km in 3 hours 46 minutes on the pulse from 110 at the beginning to 150–160 at the end.

Specially bought a strap with a bottle holder and drank isotonic, as well as decaffeinated gels. The run went without any problems, which was a very positive moment for me - it was the longest distance I ran at that time.

Two little surprises

But at home the news was waiting for me - an inspection of the sneakers showed that if they survived to the marathon, they would die on it. The question arose: take a chance and not change sneakers, which are comfortable, like in slippers, or take a chance too, but buy new ones and “run in” them in three weeks?

I chose the latter, since theoretically it is possible to move around with calluses (having supplies of plaster and scotch tape), but I definitely cannot walk barefoot. I chose Nimbus - they came very close to my leg, and, as it turned out, I was right in shape. But tell me, how did you come up with the idea to make an insole out of felt, similar to sandpaper? At the very first workout, I almost erased my foot. I had to change the insoles to normal, "slippery" ones.

The second surprise has to do with the fact that the battery in my Garmins has died, and they certainly would not have survived five hours. Having ordered it in advance on AliExpress, I calmly waited for its arrival for a month. But a week before the race, she never came, and I didn't want to wait until the last one. I had to buy Fenix 3, fortunately, due to the old age of the model, they were no longer so expensive. There were many questions to them, but more on that later.

Race

The most unpleasant thing after the start is that everyone is overtaking you. That is, everything is real, I specifically looked.:)

It's good that I was ready for this, otherwise it really infuriates and can break all plans (remember that I am an amateur and do not have many years of competitive experience).

The eve of the race was also held according to all the rules: 2 km jogging in the morning, carbohydrates and a healthy daytime sleep. Many thanks to my wife and daughter for their full and unconditional support! Because of the weather, we decided not to go with the whole family, and this turned out to be the right decision: I felt calmer, and the Moscow Marathon app allowed me to track how I was going the distance.

I had a plan, and I stuck to it: to run the entire route at 7:30 for 1 km, no forward and backward splits - it was not mature enough. This is the most comfortable pace for me, as it turned out during long workouts, in which I ran not according to time and not according to pulse, but according to cadence. It so happened that 156 steps per minute is the most pleasant count for me, I just fall into meditation.

Honestly, right before the start I had a slight panic and my heart rate rose to 150 - nerves and a fear that my legs would clog, and this has happened to me. But no, everything was fine, the pulse dropped two kilometers later, and there were another 40 ahead.

I ran without water, but with my own gels - just carbohydrate up to 35 km, and then with caffeine.

It was easy to run. At 15 km I got into a conversation with a girl and did not notice how I ran to the mark 25. Then came many of the mentioned Moscow "tractors" (long, not steep ascents), but I did not even notice them. The girl lagged behind, for many these climbs also became an obstacle.

I ran to the 35th kilometer, clearly realizing that the marathon was a success. Although I read that the real marathon starts after 35-37 km, and was a little afraid that now, as I hit the "wall", I would stumble, and I would not see a decent finish. But no, everything was calm.

As I was rightly noted later in our conversation, the "wall" is for those who run, and do not trudge from 7:30 per km. Perhaps, but at the first marathon I didn't want to face it. The minimum task was to finish, the maximum task was to finish without going one step. I have completed the maximum task.

Miscellaneous

Two of the most valuable tips that I found on the Internet:

1. Corns are where there is moisture, so you need to rub yourself with a regular antiperspirant everywhere (it worked).
2. You don't have to wait until you feel thirsty or hungry. I drank water at all BOs and consumed isogels exactly as planned: half a 100 gram sachet per 5 km. Isotonic, respectively, did not use.

Garmin Fenix 3 disappointed me: they added an extra 2 km. Comparing the track with the Polar track, I noticed that Garmin “walked” along the neighboring streets, the Moskva River and rooftops. And this is all with the included increased measurement accuracy.

Garmin Fenix Route 3

Polar Tracker Route

Outcomes

Yes, you can run a marathon just by running for several years and gradually increasing the distance without being an athlete in your youth. Yes, you need to specially prepare for a marathon, but if you cope with a half marathon, then half a year is quite enough time for the first, easy 42 km walk-walk. Yes, it’s very nice when you tell someone that you have run a marathon, and in response you hear “Wow”. And yes, after the marathon, there is also a goal.;)

All health, light legs, correct technique and new goals!