Good day Nostr peeps!

The below article was written by me a decade and change ago. It's also the same playbook I am using for #MarathonTraining2023.

However, I thought it might serve useful to some leading up to the #BostonMarathon this weekend and the #LondonMarathon the following weekend.

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26.2 Miles of Thought

By Running Man

It’s often said the most challenging part of completing a marathon is overcoming the mental battle that accompanies you for those twenty six miles. So, what do you think about during the race? How do you prepare for this mental battle? What thoughts do you avoid? How do you get into that space mentally which will position you for a win?

As an analyst by profession and an ISTP by temperament, I decided the best way to train and prepare for this was to break the race into five rounds. The steps required to physically prepare for a marathon are no secret. There are dozens of free programs online that you can recruit to your cause or you can combine multiple programs to customize a plan that best suits your level and specific needs, as I did.

Having ran several half marathons at this point with a personal record of 1:52, my focus was not so much on speed, but rather, how to keep moving, non-stop for the four plus hours it would take me to cross the finish line.

Before I get into the granular details of marathon run thoughts, it’ relevant to understand some parts of my training which slightly differed from most plans you’ll come across. My primary concerns in preparing to cross the finish line, was not whether I could cross it. But rather, can I run for four hours non-stop. At the age of 36 this was something my body had never endured and was a big concern. My plan needed to help me answer this question with confidence by race day, which was three months away.

My training plan at a high level was focused on systemically increasing my long runs every weekend. Over the next three months, I would need to get my run time up from two and a half hours to four and half hours. For the duration of my training, the weekday runs followed a typical marathon training plan. During the weekends however, I paid no attention to pace, mileage covered or elevation. My only focus was to run for a longer period than the prior weekend. As a result of this shift in focus, I developed ways to occupy my mind for these long runs, while also learning a lot about myself, which would become helpful in subsequent races.

26.2 Miles of Thought

Round One…Ding, Ding, Ding!

The first three miles suck! Always. For the first three miles, my only expectation is to get through it (the next 30 minutes). When I start a run, it takes my body time to realize what’s going on and adapt. As such, my heart rate, tempo, breathing, the (cold) weather, all these things clash which makes for a very uncomfortable event. I consider this the adaptation period. There is no music or thought to counter this blow. I merely accept it as 30 minutes of unpleasantness. The adaptation period will vary between runners. For some it may be a couple minutes while for others like me its closer to 30 minutes. I suspect for the average distance runner it’s probably closer to the 3-5 minute range. Part of the thing that was doing me a disservice in this regard was the fact that I had been a smoker for almost half of my life. I mostly smoked cigars but occasionally cigarettes to. I suspect because of this, it takes my body longer for those earlier described pieces to sync-up and begin working together. I’ve never been able to win this round of the battle. I merely accept and endure it, after all it’s only thirty minutes.

Round Two…Ding, Ding, Ding!

Miles Three through thirteen are the easiest ten miles of the marathon. My body’s adapted, I have a fresh playlist to entertain me and if you’re within close proximity during the run, you might even hear me singing along out loud. This round of the race is almost always a mental cake walk. My only concern is not going too fast and keeping hydrated.

Round Three…Ding, Ding, Ding!

Miles thirteen through nineteen are the quiet miles. In my mind, this is where the marathon starts. The half marathon runners have cleared the course for the grown-ups. Using the Nike+ app on an earlier generation iPhone (3) that I was using at the time, the batteries usually died soon after mile thirteen. So goes the iPhone, also goes the music and the sexy mile marker announcements from Nike+ app. During this part of the race, I think about how much I’ve accomplished to get to this point. “It’s all downhill from here baby”, so I’d like to think, but I know better, the real battle is yet to come. I’ve got fifteen miles of conquered asphalt behind me and eleven miles ahead of me. Momentum is on my side, you couldn’t stop me if you tried. It’s during this part of the race, I think about all the materials I’ve read in preparation for this day, famous runner quotes, looking for cheering friends and family on the sidelines, checking out the artfully crafted posters, taking in the live music and the scenery. This is about an hour of absorbing the environment, connecting with my surroundings. The body is on auto pilot.

Round Four…Ding, Ding, Ding!

Miles nineteen through twenty four are the most difficult miles. It’s quiet and coincidentally it’s usually the most disserted part of the course, at least for the few marathons I’ve done. If you weren’t feeling any pain in round three you’re most certainly feeling it now. I am most in tune with my body in this round. I can hear and feel my heart beat, feel my feet hit the ground with every step. I can feel the freshly inhaled and oxygenated air make its way into my lungs. Every part of my body is telling me to stop, but I know if I do, it’s going to hurt even more to get going again. So, I keep stepping, one foot in front of the next. I am in the zone and void of any thought that does not involve enforcing my will to keep stepping. It all comes down to this, one foot in front of the next, that’s my focus for the next hour. You train for months to prepare for this specific round. The cheering spectators on the sideline are now a blur, my ears are deaf to any live music that may be playing, I don’t even notice the other runners around me. I’ve read this in many articles and blogs, but nothing I’ve read could have prepared me for how much this round was going to actually challenge me. But this is round four and what’s kept me going in my round four trainings were the thought of a shower and sleep as soon as I get home. To get home I have to get through this. “Don’t try to sprint it, just consider each step to be one bringing me closer to my shower and bed” I would tell myself with a laborious smile. Once I get to mile marker twenty four, I’ll be less than 19 minutes from home, the finish line. Ah, there’s mile marker twenty four.

And Round Five…DING, DING, DING!

Miles twenty four to the finish line is a mental downhill coast. At this point the pain has numbed all senses and the sweat has dried into caked white patches of salt on my face and the rest of my body. There is no longer any extra effort or focus required in taking the steps. My body’s systems are conditioned to the motion. I am magnetically drawn towards the finish line. During my training run, the last two miles were an uphill leg to my house. There was no way around this the two times I did it. So this actual dash to the finish line by comparison, is nothing I can’t handle.

And here comes the finish line.

My Marathon Stats

First Marathon - B&A Trail Marathon

Date 3/1/2009

Chip time 4:24:38

My fastest Marathon – Sun Trust National Marathon

Date 3/26/2011

Chip time 4:04:00