Garmin KC Marathon Races (October 21, 2023)

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by DanT

That's definitely true. Not only the energy from the other runners and the crowd, but even just having the water and aid stations helps a lot. Plus, you usually taper a week or two before a race, so your legs are fresh. For a 5k or 10k, you might not taper a full week, but taking it easy a few days before is a good idea.

One thing that would surprise people that have never trained for a half-marathon or marathon is that the longest run in typical training plans is not the actual race distance. For example, for a marathon, the training plan might max out with a 20-mile run a few weeks before the marathon. For a half-marathon, you might max out at 10 miles during training.

The idea is that if you can do 20-miles on tired legs, you'll be able to do 26.2 on race day. In fact, whether you even need to do a 20-miler during training is debated. I think it's probably good for most first-timers to have done a 20-miler, but primarily for psychological reasons. Once you realize you can do 26.2 on race day, you don't necessarily need to go that far during your longest runs in training.

When you run a marathon how fast is your avg mile? What percent of the time are you actually running or are you actually running the entire time? I cant even imagine what someones legs would feel like the next day or after the race if they ran the whole thing. Reminds me of the How I met Your Mother episode when Barney runs the NY Marathon and has no problems but later he cant even use his legs to get off the subway and gets robbed.

Originally Posted by phisherman

Just slow down and enjoy your runs, man.

Too competitive. I can't imagine doing something and just zoning out and not trying to get better everyday.