Hi all,

First post on here. Hope all are well. I'm doing the Edinburgh a week sunday and it is my first attempt at a marathon. I have been training for around 6 months, although i have had weeks where i have only been for 1 run. Some weeks i do 4 or 5 runs, but i do physical job where i'm active all day and a lot of evenings i'm out quoting for jobs so sometimes i might get home at 6, then out quoting until 8 then by the time i have had something to eat it's 9 o clock. I do 10 miles fairly easy and most of my runs involve some hills / inclines - i live in Derbyshire and there are lots of hills! I have always playe football so my base fitness is fairly good. I did my longest run last saturday, 18 miles. It was boiling aswell and i ran out of water after 10 miles - schoolboy error! After i stopped i felt sick, i know it was because of the heat / lack of water. This was the only 2hour plus run i have done, do you think i will be able to complete it on the big day?

I know of a guy in America who trains runners from being beginners to being able to complete marathons (with the emphasis on complete, rather than race); and I think that the longest run which his runners do in their build-up is something like 18-20 miles. So it can be done. This guy has an interesting web site you might want to check out...
www.joehenderson.com

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GONE RUNNING

I have no advice for you, all I'l say is good luck.

Cheers, i'm looking forward to it though

Hi Brunsy,
Edinburgh will be my first Marathon as well and I look to complete it in 4 hours 30min, if it takes longer then it takes longer
My longest run so far has been 18miles and this is me on target to complete the marathon. Ive been training since January and been following a training plan quite strict.

I reckon as long as you have water and maybe some energy bars you will be fine, just take your time and aim to complete the marathon and don't worry about the time.

Im going for the experience and the atmosphere. Plus I can say to my friends, Ive ran a marathon

O.

Good luck, Burnsy and Owain!

Burnsy, it sounds like your preparation is actually pretty decent for a first marathon. I always say it's important to do a few long runs, 18 miles is perfect

For race day, if it's hot, make sure you visit the water stations and aim to drink at least 1 litre of water through the course of the race (preferably more) As Owain said, a couple of energy gels or chocolate bars mid-way through will likely help as well. And try not to start too fast! This is what everyone does in a marathon race. Start >SLOW<, try to keep your pace steady, remember that the last 6 miles are the hard part, and look forward to overtaking some of the people who started too fast later on

Have fun!

Good luck to you both.

Owain.
Forget the 4 1/2 hour target (Sounds too ambitious to me.But then what do I know,I`ve never run a marathon.... )

Enjoy it, and concentrate on finishing.

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Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Good luck to both of you. And good for you, Burnsy, for sticking with your schedule despite a busy and long work day - I finished work at 2am this morning, up with kids at seven and out running later this morning before work, so I know all about that. I can't offer any advice really but I would want it to be enjoyable more than anything else. Best wishes

You can definitely do it. I managed my first marathon after a longest run of 14 miles. But as a lot of the replies have already pointed out - GO SLOWLY - even if you feel like everyone is overtaking you, just let them. The last 6 miles or so took me to levels of discomfort that I've never experienced before - but the sense of achievement on reaching the finish line was huge (even though it took me nearly 5 hours).

I think the best piece of advice I got was to treat your first marathon as a training run for your next one.

Good luck Burnsey

And to you Owain - hope all goes well on the day

Thanks everyone. I think if I get in, in 4:30 I would be very happy, but if I just finish it I will be even happier

"Treat your first marathon as a training run for our next one" Ha Ha Ha.....who says Im doing another one after this lol.

O.

Me. I guarantee it.

Thanks everyone,

i'll take your advice. I always start fairly quick, i find it easier to run faster and struggle to run 'slow'. I think it is because i have quite heavy bottom half (footballers legs) and when i run slowly, i feel like i'm carrying the weight, rather when i'm going a bit faster i sort of bounce and the pace carries me through. The only problem is that i will obviously tire quicker. I'm going to have to try have a happy medium. I did 12 miles in 1.29 and 18 in 2.50, so not bad. Just hope i can carry it on - think the adreniline and crowd will carry me through. I don't really have a target, other than completion, but i'm very competitive so i know that i will try to push my self for an unrelaistic time so i can brag about it. It will probably bite me on the backside, but hey ho!

Good luck to you owain, might see you there. I'll let you know how i get on!

Do you recommend nre trainers for the marathon? Also are you ok with an i-pod?

I recommend using the trainers you have been using. DO NOT go out and buy new trainers just for the marathon. You will end up with blisters!

I might use my ipod while doing the full marathon but recently I have been running without music and seem to be getting on better. I will see how I feel on the day

Just got my final training plan in via email this morning and next week is much slower and less distance, the nerves have started to kick in now......we are about to run a marathon!!!!

Good luck and hope you manage a good time / complete the course....I will be in the RNLI lifeboats tent at the end since they are the charity I am running for.

O.

Hello Everyone.

I DID IT, and a pretty good time if i do say so myself. Haven't got the official time but i clocked it at 3hours 55ish! (my stopwatch reset after 18 miles!). My mum took a photo of me at 9.02am before i started running and i got another picture at 1.03 with my medal in hand. I didn't start till at least 9.05 and finished just before 1.00pm so it was definitely sub 4-hours! So pleased and the relief crossing the finish line was unbelievable, one of the best moments of my life. Thanks to everyone who offered advice on here, it was all really valuable.

Felt 'in the zone' up until the 21mile mark, and was heading for a better time than i got, then i really slowed up for a couple of miles at 22-24. Then after this as i didn't have the time i just thought iv'e got this far and if i didn't get sub 4-hours i would never forgive myself, so i picked up the pace and sprinted for the last 0.2 miles over the finish line.

I made a bit of a mistake at the start. When i first signed up, i put an estimated finish of 5hours. All my runs have been on schedule for a lot better finish than that but when i got there i stayed in the 2nd to last starting pen. i knew if i was going to finish, that it would be quicker than 5 hours but didn't want to put any pressure on myself by moving up the starting pens. So i started fairly slowly with all about 8000 in front of me and slowly made my way up the course. I think that this probably helped me as if i would have started further up i would have been tempted to go faster at the start, so maybe not a mistake, but who knows.

The only problem now is i think i have caught the bug and the first thing i did when i got home was look at future marathons!!! The crowd (100,000) were amazing and really spurred you on all the way round. I have raised £1600 for my charity aswell so this has to be one of my proudest moments .

Fantastic stuff Burnsy, well done!