6 mistakes first-time marathon runners make
Running the Boston Marathon for the first time? Read this first.
If you’ve run a marathon before, you know it’s the seemingly little things — like caffeine intake and water breaks — that impact your time and mind-set on race day. And if you haven’t run one before, you should know that preparing for those things is almost as important as building up your endurance.
Dan Fitzgerald, a Boston Marathon trainer, co-founder of Heartbreak Hill Running Company, and founder of the Heartbreakers running club, has, by his count, trained about 4,000 runners for the Boston Marathon over the past decade and ran the race himself in 2014. He’s all too familiar with the errors first-time marathoners make.
On race day this year, Fitzgerald will be stationed at mile 20 cheering on his runners. Before that, he and those runners will have discussed the following six mistakes that first-time marathoners make.
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Mistake No. 1: Holding off on picking up your bib at the expo
Boston Marathon runners must pick up their bibs at the Boston Marathon Expo from April 12-14 at the John B. Hynes Convention Center. Don’t procrastinate, because you’ll wind up losing part of your weekend waiting in line, Fitzgerald said.
“The lines get thick,” he said. “So you don’t want to wait. As soon as the expo opens, I would get there. The early bird has more freedom and more rest in the legs.”
Mistake No. 2: Spreading yourself too thin the weekend prior
Boston is brimming with activities over marathon weekend, Fitzgerald said, but resist the urge to pack your schedule with events.
“There’s so many things to do around running,” he said. “This is the weekend when there is more programming in the city for running than any other time, by a lot.”
However, you should plan to attend only the events you care most about so that you can be “protective of your time and energy,” Fitzgerald said.
Mistake No. 3: Trying new foods or drinks
By race day, you should have your pre-race meal planned and your hydration strategy in place, Fitzgerald said. Stick to them.
Don’t, for example, decide you’re going to try a new caffeine-loaded supplement. And don’t accept any food or drinks from well-meaning spectators during the race. You could risk upsetting your stomach, according to Fitzgerald.
“You want to race how you train,” he said. “If you spend 16 to 20 weeks in preparation for something, you’ve given yourself the benefit of a certain outcome. You want to execute on exactly all the principles on which you trained.”
Mistake No. 4: Forgetting to pinch the water cup
“Learning to run and drink out of just a regular old paper cup, it’s a learned skill,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald teaches his runners to pinch the cup to make a spout before drinking, so the water goes into the runner’s mouth instead of sloshing all over.
“You put half the cup in your mouth and tilt your head to the side and you’ll get as much water as you want and you won’t spill a drop,” he said.
Some runners may choose to slow down or walk through water stops, Fitzgerald explained.
“But if you’re trying to maximize your time, you never stop running, and that’s the way that you would utilize the cups,” he said.
Mistake No. 5: Beginning the race too fast
“There’s a lot of energy at the Boston Marathon start,” Fitzgerald said. “All of the hype, all of the lore, all of the 30,000 other runners. So you want to remind yourself to stay contained.”
If the first third of the race feels easy and like you’re holding back, you’re doing it right, according to Fitzgerald.
“If you are feeing so good that you think you should run faster, that’s a huge no-no,” he said. “You feel good, but you’re trying to bank that good feeling because when you get past 20 miles, you’re going to be tired and you’re going to need that energy.”
Don’t worry what other racers are doing, Fitzgerald said.
“It’s your race,” he said. “You’ve done your training. What other people do really has no bearing whatsoever on what you’re doing. You have to run within yourself.”
Mistake No. 6: Not remembering to take it all in
There’s no question that the Boston Marathon is a big event and you’ve trained hard for it. But don’t forget to find joy in it as well, Fitzgerald said.
“There’s a lot of execution and strategy and work,” he said. “But you should also have fun. It’s a special day.”
