Top 10 Tips on Marathon Week: Running the Dublin City Marathon for the first time

I go into a little more detail on these top 10 tips on this week’s Coach Seán Fitness Podcast along with talking about the mistakes I have made and how I am preparing for this weekend’s event. Available wherever you get your podcasts or you can download through iTunes by clicking HERE and Spotify by clicking HERE.

Instead of blabbing on about the last two marathons I ran and the litany of mistakes I have made. Litany, I never say that, anyhoo. I thought I would give my top 10 tips for preparing for the big day. Besides, I think I have blogged enough on my previous experiences HERE, HERE and HERE. And since we are in the week of the 40th Anniversary of the Dublin City Marathon, I’ll keep the tips to just race week as telling you that you need a 16 week plan and only increase your running by 10% or that your long run should only be 30% of your weekly mileage volume is not going to do you much good. There will be future posts on that! 

1. Take in the Pre Race Atmosphere of the Expo

You’ve done the hard work training for the event. There’s the task at hand Sunday. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the events leading up to it. Make time to explore the expo and take the atmosphere in but don’t be tempted to try out new things of the day of the race. If you haven’t used gels before, be careful using them on race day. They can help with energy, but they are not miracle workers. And too many of them may mess with your stomach. There are gels handed out at mile 16 and 22 along with Lucozade stations as well to get the sugar levels up.

2. Wear clothes and runners you are used to running in 

Breaking in a new pair of runners on the day of a marathon is not smart nor is wearing mew clothes that may feel uncomfortable. You don’t want that for 42.2kms. And don’t wear cotton. It’s going to get heavy and uncomfortable during the race. Wear a tech tee that you have trained in recently.

3. Run on your own (or with pacers) 

Don’t run with a partner; run your race. You’ll only mess up each other’s paces because when one person feels good to push on, the other person might struggle and vice versa. If one of you needs to take a bathroom break, the other may not want to stop running and disrupt their flow. It’s a recipe for disaster, and I’m speaking from experience on that. 

3. Plan the night before 

Plan your day the night before. You need a marathon bag with stuff for after the race. Organise your race clothes and number the night before. Pack a hoodie and potentially a change of clothes, including compression clothing for the end of the race that may help with recovery. Don’t forget the Vaseline. Use it to help prevent chaffing of the nipples and inner thighs. I also find it’s great for putting on your eyebrows to prevent sweat from dripping into your eyes. The last two years have been unusually warm with no rain at all on marathon day in Dublin. Pack a dioralyte or something for added hydration at the end of the race. You’ll have some food in your race bag but don’t overly rely on it. Bring food of your own as well. Also, plan where you will meet up with friends/family after the race. You won’t be able to meet them at the finish line.

4. Keep it Simple, Stupid

Don’t do anything radical with your food days before the event. You can argue that carb loading can help, but that doesn’t mean eating plates of pasta, especially if you are not eating that much pasta in your regular diet. A gradual increase in the last 2-3 days might help. But don’t eat something you wouldn’t normally eat on the night before or the morning of the race just because someone else says it’s what you should do. Stick to what you know and what has helped you so far. For that extra 1%, it might help there’s a better chance of it doing more harm than good. 

5. Warm-Up

Warm-up before the race starts. A very light jog, get the body moving. A few squats, lunges etc. I mean a few. Not 20. And don’t start blasting out squat jumps either. I’ve done a few races where in the organised warm-up, the hype man starts yelling for squat jumps 30 seconds in and it drives me up the wall. Yep, let’s start using my glycogen stores and working the muscles hard before I’ve crossed the starting line. If you usually throw in 3-5 jumps at the very end of your warm-up, then I can see the point in it. But don’t start now otherwise. You will be much better off with 6-8 squats, a few lunges, and moving the legs than jumps. 

Speaking of warming up, wear a hoodie to the starting line. I didn’t know about this before my first marathon, but all the hoodies left to the side of the road are donated to charity. I was freezing in a t-shirt for the first year. Some people wear bin bags too at the start of the race. Just keep warm because it will feel cold at the beginning and there’s a fair bit of waiting around. Also, if it feels cold that morning, still wear a t-shirt for the race. You might be tempted to wear a long sleeve top, but you’ll get too hot as the race progresses. 

6. Set a Goal but be cautiously optimistic

Set a goal but have a backup goal in mind. Race day events can affect your timings. The weather could be horrendous, which might have a severe impact on your times. And there are those days where you’re just not feeling it and the race won’t go your way. You will have to accept that. If it’s your first marathon, focus on finishing. Pace yourself for finishing and enjoying the event. The next one can be about beating that time, and you’ll be better equipped physically and mentally for that. You will have a much better idea for how to pace yourself for the marathon too. Reading books and listening to people who have gone through it is one thing where you can pick up some advice, but nothing quite prepares you mentally for a marathon than having gone through one before.

7. Know the Route

Study the map of the race. Get a fair idea of where the hills are and mark the distances of different landmarks along the way. It can help focus your mind on what is coming up in the next few km rather than always thinking about the end of the race. 

8. Pacing

Knowing the route can also help with your pacing. You’re going to have no choice but to ease into the race with the crowds at the starting line especially with this being the biggest Dublin marathon ever. Accept it and relax. This is a good thing as your adrenaline is flowing and you’ll probably want to burst out the gate. The crowds will help slow you down, initially. Don’t worry too much about your pace for the first km or two. Just get comfortable jogging and take it all in. Besides, there are a few hills in the first 3-4 km of the Dublin Marathon, so you don’t want to expend too much energy for them. Once you get into the Park, the hills ease up until after mile marker 10 when you are leaving Chapelizod. That hill is a real heartbreaker. I went way too fast my first year, and this one marked the beginning of the end for me. I finished, but I struggled big-time because I didn’t pace myself up until this point and relied on adrenaline. I also had a partner, and our paces got messed up after this. But get through that hill, and you are on mostly flat surfaces until well past the halfway marker. Now you can start locking in your pace more and think about realistic times to aim for. If you feel good, maybe push a little more. If you are unsure, stick at your current pace. Take it all in. 

9. Positive mindset

Visualise yourself finishing the race. It will help during that final third of the race. There comes that point in the race where you might go into a dark place, mentally. You will question everything. For a lot that happens around mile 22. There’s a hill around the 22nd-mile marker when your body really starts to feel the toll on the legs. Push through it. Stay positive. You’re nearly there. Just keep going, one foot in front of the other. The crowds in the last 2-3km down the home stretch will carry you then. Once you pass Vincent’s Hospital and turn left onto Merrion Road, you are on the home straight, and the crowds get bigger and bigger. Aim to get to the home stretch if you are struggling and rely on the crowd from there. It sounds a bit mad as I’m saying this, but it really does have an effect on you on race day. Doing a race without a crowd watching and cheering you on would be twice as hard, in my mind anyway. If you’re feeling good, focus on the next person ahead of you and aim to get closer. Passing anyone out at this stage feels good for your self-confidence that you are still going strong, realising that your training and long runs have paid off. 

10. The End of The Race

Keep moving after the race. There’s a long walk around the bag drop afterwards, so you don’t have much choice. Fuel up here and get some fluids on board. Change clothes and throw on some compression gear may also help with recovery. From there, take it all in! You’ve done it, and it’s a pretty cool achievement. Also, the plans you made for later, you may want to rethink those! I’d play it by ear and see how you feel in the hours after the marathon. 

And that’s pretty much it! Best of luck to all 22,500 signed up to do this year’s Dublin Marathon. I hope the weather is as good as it has been over the past few years for the event. 

When I first signed up for the Dublin Marathon, I joked that the reason I was doing it was to say that I did it and I wouldn’t recommend you do one. I still think that for health and fitness, most of us don’t need to do more than 10km at a time. But it is a fantastic mental challenge to see how far you can push yourself. That is as long as you do enough cross-training/strength training! And because it’s the 40th Anniversary, I just couldn’t help myself from grabbing one of those extra 2,500 tickets that went on sale. On Sunday it’s definitely…

 #LetsGoGetEmAgain

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