Air Force Marathon 2011

It's official. Hit the send button today. No backing out now! I'm already in training, up to 10 mile longs, any advice with 6 months left to go?

__________________
Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

I ran the half. Loved it! The only thing I can say is that you should bring sime cheep gloves because its going to be very cold in the morning. Its very well organized and fun! Make sure you book your room early so you have a better chance of getting something close to the race. The medals are kool and my husband spent the time I ran looking at the musium. We have memberships now.

No worries there, I live here! I ran the 10K 2 years ago and I must say, I was totally impressed by this event. Even bag/timing chip pick-up had a cool little expo to check out!

__________________
Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

Good luck! Very exciting, is this your first marathon? If so I have some advice, since I have only run one marathon I am sure others on the forum have more advice than I do but I got some very good pearls of wisdom on this forum before my first that I think every beginner should know. That said if you are already a veteran of the marathon then My advice won't help you! Either way, congratulations for signing up. I know the next six months you will think about this race daily. Isn't it funny how all consuming these things become.

Yes, this will be my first. All advice is not only welcome but encouraged! It's already become all consuming. I can only imagine a couple days before.

__________________
Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

I got a lot of tips from other runners before my marathon and the two that stick out to me as being the best were:
1. Get lots of sleep two nights before - the night before is going to be spent tossing and turning so you might as well get the sleep while you can - 2 nights before (although I am going to admit that I slept worse 2 nights before than I did the night before)
2. Never take more than 15 steps in a walk break (this advice came from our own Geely on this forum and I thank her extensively). I think if I had not followed this it would have been disaster for me. Of course you will have to walk through water stops, etc. but try not to take more than 15 steps. The longer you walk the more it hurts when you start to run again. I think that was the main reason Geely recommended this, however I also found it very useful mentally:

I think it was good for me to have that in my mind because I knew that I really wanted to run the whole thing so knowing I 'had' to limit the walking helped when I got to the point where I wanted so badly to give up. The last couple of miles are going to be hard, there is no denying it, however when you start to think "I'm just going to take a little walk break" and you stop and take 2 or 3 steps walking and your legs start to scream at you, you realize that since you aren't going to take more than 15 steps anyway, what is the point in taking those awful, painful 5 - 10 steps. might as well just keep running.

I will think of more things and post them later - I am so excited for you - you can't believe the feeling when you finish. Seriously, there is so much pride to having accomplished this~ I found myself telling random people I ran a marathon for weeks afterwards!!

Thanks, R&R! I look forward to other tips you might have.

__________________
Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

WOW.. a full marathon.. someday I will need your advice.. KEEP training man!!!! will be watching and taking notes.. lol

Need some advice from those who are more experienced with the marathon. I'm getting close to 18 weeks out and wondering if I should switch to Higdons program to lead me up to the race.

Right now:Mon.-rest
Tues.-speed work 3 usually
Wed.-stretching/abs/weights
Thurs.-tempo...i do anywhere from 3 to 6 depending on how i feel
Fri.- same as Wed.
Sat.-easy run 3-5 usually
Sun. -long run...i increase every 3 weeks...stepback 1 (i'm at 15 miles now with 5 months to go)


Hals: Mon.-rest
Tues.-3mile run
Wed.-5mile run pace
Thurs.-3mile run
Fri.-rest
Sat.-longrun (can be switched w/Sun.)
Sun. cross train
All these miles increasing as the weeks go by, the longs incresing every 3 stepback 1

Am I on the right track? Should I switch? Should I just do what's comfortable for ME, as long as I have a couple 20 milers in there? I bow to others better knowledge. Thanks in advance!

__________________
Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

I would say be careful on the flat out speed work like 200's or 400's about a month out. Maybe change it for a little longer tempo run. That's just my opinion. Why risk injury on speed work.

A lot of this mental. Will you be able to finish with those 20 mile training runs under your belt? Heck yes. Would you feel better if you had a 23 or 24 mile training run in? That's up to you. I did a 26.2 mile training run three weeks before my first marathon. It helped me mentally knowing I had done the distance. The best advice I got was about pain. The normal aches and pains of long runs will seem worse on race day. They are not. Just think to yourself "this will pass"

As long as you get those long runs in you will be fine. Do what feels right and don't try to run through minor injury, it can turn major pretty quickly.