How to run your first marathon and not screw it up: personal experience

Background

They say that only 1% of the world's population can run a marathon. But it was not at all the desire to enter the mysterious circle of sports masons that led me to him. The marathon became the other side of my self-destruction. I will tell you about why, why and how I ran the marathon in Paris on April 8, 2018. I often rummaged in search of answers to questions and realized that there was not so much information about aspects of amateur marathon training, so I decided to share my experience.

A year ago, I tried in vain to quit smoking. I pressed my cigarette on the trash can near the office, swore to myself that it was the last, and then everything repeated. Some people are still unable to imagine me without a cigarette. Self-deception about a monstrous disease in which a cigarette would kill me did not come. I realized that I needed to create an eerie situation in which smoking would actually endanger life. Not through the mythical years, all those fake gargoyles on the packs, but right here and now.

Last spring, I just often and selflessly ran. Smoked after that with double pleasure. But the long distance, as far as I understood, was no longer compatible with smoking. Dangerous. Impossible.

So I signed up for the half marathon and quit smoking.

After him, I ran a couple more in the summer and in the fall I went to the mountains, where there is already so little oxygen. And after the mountains, my friend and I drove from lunch and talked about what we want from life right now. She wanted to go to Paris, but I wanted new tests so that I could drive myself into a corner again and not end up with rose wine and a cigarette at a street table on Rubinstein, which I had already begun secretly thinking.

And somehow we remembered that there was a marathon in Paris in the spring, and immediately bought slots. Was this decision too spontaneous, was it creepy for me? Undoubtedly. And the most terrifying thing was not the fear of running for many hours or superloading, but the fear of giving up training, the fear that there would be a convincing enough excuse to go astray, and then despise oneself in the depths of his soul for the rest of his life. Goosebumps were walking through my body. And then we started preparing.

Preparation

Workout

Although I had already run 21 kilometers several times, it was clear that for a distance twice as long, you need to find a coach who will draw up a plan and know what to do. A classmate advised Yegor Chernov. Our training time fell on the months from October to April, so weekly interval training took place in the building of the cycle track on Krestovsky Island.

To be honest, at first I thought that it would be enough to come to training several times. The coach will give advice on technique, write a plan until the marathon itself, and the rest can be done on your own. In fact, there are a lot of nuances in the preparation. Together with the coach, we trained every week for six months.

Of course, you can also prepare yourself. For example, using Runkeeper or another application. I think there is nothing wrong with that. However, the ability to consult with the coach at any time and the presence of a controlling factor, when after each workout you need to report to an authoritative person, quite strongly influenced the success of the entire event.

Preparing for a marathon is long and monotonous.

Now I know all the distances by kilometers in the Admiralteisky District and on the Neva, I know by sight all the stone lions and caryatids, the footage of bridges, how many New Found Glory songs are needed to run from home to the embankment of the Neva.

Once a week we went to the track for 2-3 hours: the program included intervals, running exercises, statics. For the rest of the days, the trainer made a running training plan. Five days a week. On average, 50-70 kilometers weekly. On Saturday or Sunday - a long workout of 15-30 kilometers.

For communication, we created a chat, where it was necessary to throw reports and discuss pressing problems. Now, wherever I went, whatever chores my day was, I had to find time to run. If I knew that the evening after work was busy, I had to go in the morning. Occasionally there were night runs and numerous travel runs. This is, by the way, a cool way to explore a new city or coastline. I ran in Spain, Copenhagen, Bali, Moscow, Krasnaya Polyana and Karelia.

Equipment

The coach immediately said that running is safest in the park, on the track or in the arena. It was inconceivable: if you imagine 500 looped circles in the square near the theater on the Fontanka, knee joints no longer seem to be something necessary in the household. If you do run on asphalt, then the only way to keep your feet safe is to buy running shoes with huge soles.

I had to go to the store for real running maniacs, run idiotically on the track under the supervision of the seller, and as a result buy the weird-looking Hoka One One with a giant white sole. They look like marshmallows tied to their legs. The sneakers were excellent. I have run over a thousand kilometers in them, my joints are in perfect order, and the shoes still look almost like new. The sneaker has withstood ice, tropical showers, slush and scorching sun. I definitely recommend it.

I can add a running belt bag to other useful attributes. I bought it by accident with money won in a slot machine in Finland. And it was the best buy of the year. The purse holds a phone, gels, plaster and keys. And she also does not dangle on her body while running.

I also bought leggings to keep my calves safe during long workouts and warm H&M Sport jogging pants. My husband gave me a watch with a heart rate monitor Suunto, which helps to track the pace, counting kilometers and a bunch of other indicators.

The need to train in winter made the kit a little more complicated.

To sweat outside at –10 ° C, the body must be dressed in several layers of clothing. I was saved by thermal underwear, some ultralight mountain gear, a Red Fox windbreaker and rashguards that boxers train in. This is a thin and light long-sleeved sweatshirt similar to a surfer's lycra that wicks sweat and keeps you warm. Instead of thermal underwear, I sometimes wore woolen tights under my pants. Of course, a hat, a warm scarf and gloves are required.

During training, I listened to music, lectures and audiobooks, chatted with my friend when we ran together, talked on the phone, composed stories in my head, pondered my life.

Nutrition

I used to think that running was an excellent way to lose weight. It really was so when he was not such an ordinary thing for the body. During the preparation, I did not lose a single kilogram. Certainly, if I adhered to a healthy diet all the time or followed all the instructions from the book “Competitive Weight. How to get dry for peak performance”and other wise recommendations, then I would dry out. But the ugly running brother, whose name “you can eat, I ran,” and my love of junk food did their dirty work, as a result of which my friend, photographing us in the mirror, signed “runners on the ground”.

During preparation, I got acquainted with gels and the need to eat on the run.

At first I thought it was some kind of bravado, and not a real physical need. But when the real long workouts began, I knew what happens if, after two hours of running, you don't eat something on time. You will run, but then you will suffer from nausea, headache and loss of energy.

I learned to take gels and protein bars with me, and on weekends my husband saved me: sometimes he brought me bananas and cola for the 25th kilometer somewhere on Krestovsky Island. It was also obligatory to take vitamins and "Panangin" during the entire preparation.

A week before the marathon, the coach offered us a fancy meal plan. Carbohydrate deload, where you eat purely protein for three days and exercise to spend all the glycogen, and then consume carbs for three days and provide a glycogen overload. This helps to avoid meeting the marathon "wall" when the forces leave after 30 kilometers.

I can say that the scheme works. None of us had any hints of a "wall", although at a distance we saw people with blue lips who were taken away by an ambulance.

Difficulties

Around the end of January, the most difficult period came. And it wasn't about injury, illness, or overuse. While the load was increasing, it was exciting to test yourself for strength, to take off your sneakers every time a slightly changed person who had just learned something new about himself.

The most unpleasant and difficult period was when the training got sick. It got bored. And suddenly it’s a pity for the time.

Saturdays turned into a begocentric day: breakfast, long jogging, hot showers, lunch. After work, you cannot go where you want, but you have to trudge to change clothes, and then run for an hour along the embankment, where you know every granite slab. And it will drag on for an unimaginably long time. Or go to the track and run 68 identical laps there. This boredom gave rise to anger and a desire to quit.

Audiobooks saved me here. Once I turned on Pelevin's audiobook "Pineapple Water for a Beautiful Lady" and an hour and a half later I regretted that it was time to go home.

To distract and add intellectual activity to physical activity - this is my recipe for the blues of monotony.

And the top of the most unpleasant moments fell not during the marathon, but during training. Here it is:

Long workout after arriving from Bali from +30 to –10 ° C and 22 kilometers without food. Wild cold, temperature after.
Training at 4-5 am, when there was no other time.
Training a week after 30 kilometers, when the body did not have time to recover, and the body was as if filled with lead.
Eight kilometers after three days on a protein diet four days before the marathon, when even a word spoken out loud seemed like a waste of energy.
Interval workout after the flu.

But after all this, I realized that I was capable of more than I had imagined before. And this is an incredibly valuable discovery.

Marathon

We flew to Paris on the eve of the marathon. For the race, we bought and printed the same black uniform with the inscription Turn your pain into power. Passed registration, received numbers with chips and starter packs, cool running backpacks. We had a hearty supper, and in the morning we met on the Champs Elysees.

55,000 people took part in the Paris Marathon this year. Of these, 290 are Russians, 5,000 are women. The husbands took me and my friend to the start area and went for a walk. We waited for them at the 30th kilometer, where they were supposed to give us additional gels. You can't carry more than three on yourself, but you need to eat every 5 kilometers, starting from the 15th.

At the start, music was playing, people were warming up, singing.

The striking atmosphere of the gigantic international sports festival amazed us on the spot. Such events are worth living for.

Finally, the countdown and start. We ran.

The first ten kilometers went through the center: Champs Elysees, Louvre, Place de la Bastille, crazy aesthetics and courage. We were greeted by the townspeople, fans, firefighters, musicians. Then a huge park began, and then the sun began to bake, the temperature that day rose to +20 ° C. We ran under the streams of water that stood all the way to cool the runners, and poured from bottles and cans.

We kept track of the pace all the time: in a stream of people and in unfamiliar terrain, you can easily run faster than usual, then you will not have enough strength at the end. Many familiar marathon runners warned about this. I constantly looked at the clock, we periodically deliberately slowed down.

From the 15th kilometer, as the trainer advised, they began to eat gels, then oranges and bananas, which were given by volunteers on the way. Then the gels ran out, but at the 29th kilometer, friends and husbands were waiting for us, watching the movement in real time in a special application. The guys passed new gels and ran a little with us.

By this time, I was already starting to get tired and took out the headphones. Music added enthusiasm and strength. People around began to take a step. It was really hard after about 32 kilometers and up to 39 kilometers. Time began to drag on as hellishly slowly, the muscles of the thighs began to ache. I poured water on them, and also my head and back, ate candy, it became easier.

Great encouragement from the fans, funny posters (for example, "See Paris and sweat!"), Crazy costumes of other runners, watching what was happening around.

My friend and I talked almost all the time. And then the feeling of approaching the finish line overshadowed any muscle nagging. Finally, the guys jumped over the fence and ran the last meters with screams of delight. The gigantic inscription You did it!, medal and pure joy! Some kind of salutary devastation.

We ate oranges and went on foot to look for a cafe to drink juice. It was then that the effective work that the coach did with us became visible. Unlike many people who literally lay flat on the asphalt, sat hugging their knees, or slept right behind the finish line, after the race we went to shower on our own two feet, and in the evening and the next day we walked calmly. A little sideways going down the stairs, but still with my feet. This is my first marathon.

After the marathon, I realized that the last six months I have spent the way I want to spend the rest of my life: learning patience in work and becoming an amateur in more and more incredible areas.