10 tips for everyone who has gone to a marathon or half marathon distance

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

From the editor. Yes, we love running. We know for sure that thousands of people started running just because they read us. Our authors do not just write articles, they really believe in the ideas that we bring to you here. We run ourselves, we learn to count quickly

Imagine: a sunny, cool summer morning, a crowd of people dressed in sports uniforms and humming in every way. This day is the day of your first marathon. So what mistakes can you make on this day?

1. Shoes. Sneakers should never be new. If you bought it recently, be sure to run in them, and for long distances. If the marathon is on asphalt, long workouts should be done periodically on hard surfaces. Otherwise, the legs, broken into blood, can noticeably lubricate the feeling of joy from victory.

2. Toilet paper or wet wipes. Not all toilet stalls may have this necessary item. When there are literally a few minutes left before the start and all things have been handed over to the storage room, an attack of "bear disease" and the lack of hygiene items in the public toilet can spoil your impression of the start.

3. Pins. Take a couple of spare safety pins from home. When the number is attached, they fall to the ground, are lost or break. Trust me, the organizers REALLY have NO more pins! Or buy a special belt for attaching your number. It will be useful to you more than once.

4. Number. If it was not originally laminated, do it the day before the start. You can just glue it over with tape. In the rain or because of the water that you will pour over, the room gets wet and you may need to fix it again more than once, losing time and energy. And if your hands are frozen, it is almost impossible to do this.

5. Plasters on calluses. If the day of the marathon has come, and you still have an unhealed callus, which you even feel a little bit while running, be sure to cover it with a plaster. Better on a fabric backing, breathable. Take a few in your pocket.

6. Nipple patch for men. Many say that without it, they are erased into the blood at the end of the distance.

7. Vaseline. The favorite ointment of all runners. Rub wherever it rubs. Basically, this is the crotch, inner thighs, armpits and the place where the hands touch the T-shirt. Remember now you are a running machine, and every machine needs lubrication.

8. Girls, do not apply cosmetics, especially on the eyes and eyelashes! Nobody will notice your super-voluminous eyelashes anyway! But eye irritation from sweat mixed with makeup and black circles under the eyes from mascara are guaranteed to you (after all, at the finish line they take pictures very close).

9. Use only tried and tested gels and other foods. One girl said that without looking, she took the gel from a runner neighbor, squeezed it out, and only then realized that it was a tomato-flavored gel that she simply could not stand. Yes, the end of the distance, she could not get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste.

10. Run at your own pace. Do not succumb to the general euphoria to rush forward. In the first marathon, the result of ± 10-15 minutes is not so important. Remember: competently calculated forces at a distance will allow you to finish in the mood of a winner, and not a “driven horse”, which, with bulging eyes and hanging out its tongue, thinks of one thing: “Someone, please, shoot me!” or "I will never run in my life again, not even for a bus!" This will determine whether the first marathon will be the last or is it just the beginning of conquering new heights!

As you know, any safety technique is written in blood. In the case of our instruction, we can safely say that with blood and sweat of the first marathon runners, whom the author (by the way, the first marathon runner himself) interviewed during the First Moscow Marathon held this year on September 15. I hope these tips will help you avoid their mistakes and soon, crossing the finish line for the first time, you will cry with happiness, not with pain and fatigue!