Share your marathon tips and experiences!

Best advice I was given? Start slow and then slow down!

Mentally, I count the miles up to 13 and then down to the end.

Best snack I was given was a long ice pop on a very hot London marathon.

You've had great advice, try and enjoy it!

Agree, weather is difficult to legislate for.

There's a half marathon in early May I've stopped running now because it always falls on the first really warm day of the year and I go the whole way round hating every minute and resenting the ££ it cost me.

By June I've generally acclimatised a bit - so I'll reckon you'll be OK OP, use your long runs to get used to warm temps, try and do them so you're getting some midday warmth. Embrace the strugglebus! It all helps on the day.

You are much less likely to get injured in a training block if you have done strength under your belt

This is true. A good few weeks of strength training before starting a 20 week marathon training block in the new year would be ideal. Nice that you have time for a 20-week block instead of a traditional 16 as well; gives you more time to get the long runs in.

The thing I would be most worried about in your shoes, OP, is the potential of it being hot on race day and also in May when you'll be hitting your longest runs. Some people are fine in the heat, of course, but others (like me) tend to struggle.

If your marathon is in June, I would spend the winter getting strong with a few strength and conditioning sessions per week, plus a handful of runs to keep you ticking over (depending on what your mileage is like at the moment). You are much less likely to get injured in a training block if you have done strength under your belt.

I haven't run a marathin before, so I'm here in the comments to learn from others' experiences.

I'm a real fooder (artificial sweetners= laxitive to me) so I mainly have nakd bars. A change of taste is good, and I like switching to kendal mint cake for the freshness of the mint after a couple of hours.

One of the best things I have ever eaten was my bag of salt & vinegar crisps at mile 14 of my marathon. Sounds bonkers, but the starch and salt was exactly what my body wanted and it was a great boost.

Trail events often have aid stations with food. Run Through have things like fruit, brownies and salted corn at some of their events 😋

I struggled with gels but found the chia gels by mountain fuel worked - I think they are basically chia and fruit puree so none of the artificial sweetners etc. Also dried apricots - a couple every 40 minutes or so helps. My favourite marathon snack was mini cheddars - DD had a bag for me at mile 21 of my first marathon and it was such a boost. Some people swear by baby food and I can see that it would be easier to digest.

Oh I tucked into a full breakfast at 7am halfway round a 100k but I wouldn't do it in a marathon 😅

We were given sandwiches at a checkpoint. The soup was welcomed too!

I did once try pretzels and nearly bought them back up!

Happy with Tailwind. But do get to a stage where I want proper food.

You'd be amazed at what some ultra runners manage to eat while running!

Lol at trying to eat wine gums while running...my God 😂

My first marathon was fuelled by 5 jelly babies, I had them in my pocket and ate 1 every 5 miles. I can just about deal with jelly babies or haribos, when running (although gels are easier) but once I asked DH to buy jelly babies, and he couldn't see them so got wine gums. That was a bad idea they took absolutely ages to chew!

get on well with Torq gels (their flavours are more interesting than some other brands)

Rhubarb and custard is my current favourite! (You can get flavourless ones as well. I'm not sure how I feel about that)

Real food is a nightmare during normal running. I was training by HR a few years ago and ran along the canal for 6 miles, including up a long flight of locks (over 2 miles). At the top I stopped and had a cereal bar.
Coming back, where it should have been easy to keep my HR at the same level or lower (because it was downhill most of the way), I just couldn't keep it down. It was a good 10bpm higher. I couldn't believe the amount of effort which was clearly being put into digesting food.

I get on well with Torq gels (their flavours are more interesting than some other brands), but also Velo Forte chews. And Kendal Mint cake got me through my last marathon. It feels quite refreshing too, which is a bonus.

Real food takes longer to digest & diverts blood flow from your muscles into your digestive system. Which might be fine depending on the pace you want to run, but if you're aiming for race pace that might cause digestive issues by itself

Absolutely this. On a fell race when I'm not going as quickly, I can take real food on, but on a road marathon there is no way. Real food isn't digested at all and I either crash or throw up immediately. But this is the stuff you can only learn through trial and error!

You often have to train your stomach to cope with gels once you're getting into marathon distance. So take them on board a bit at a time, don't just squeeze them into your mouth as quickly as possible. If you start feeling your stomach rebel stop. Next time you go out for a run, approaching the danger point slow down so have one or two an hour instead of 3 etc see if you can finish the run without any issues even if you're a bit underfuelled. Next run try a bit more etc.

Real food takes longer to digest & diverts blood flow from your muscles into your digestive system. Which might be fine depending on the pace you want to run, but if you're aiming for race pace that might cause digestive issues by itself.

It's all a balance and needs time to work out, it's a slow process unfortunately! And there's always imodium.

Definitely did for me. It helped me stay injury free.
First marathon, I was the same as you, started with good intentions, then it dropped off my radar and just didn’t bother. I got injured during the race. Legs were willing but my hips and glutes were on fire.

Second marathon, I joined a gym and was religious about the weights class and yoga. I wouldn’t say the race was easy, but it definitely helped.

There’s tons of runners workouts on YT, it doesn’t need to be anything more than 20/30 minutes. I joined the gym because I knew I wouldn’t be consistent at home.

If when I do another, I would do the same, but add some low impact cardio into the mix.

does the strength training make that big a difference

Yes. It does. I avoided it for years, mainly due to lack of time, but fitting in yoga and strength sessions has made a massive difference for me in terms of injury reduction.
My times haven't got much quicker (I do a 1:35 ish half and a 3:30 marathon, for context) but major injuries that knock me out for weeks don't happen like they used to. Fingers crossed.

Buy a heart rate monitor and train mostly (80% of total run time) in zone 2.
It will feel super slow, but the base will build and as it does, you will naturally get faster. You'll also feel less fatigued so will be able to run more often.

@Redcrayons does the strength training make that big a difference? I am training for a half not a full but although I'm getting my runs in I do really struggle to motivate myself with strength training so it's been, shall we say, a bit haphazard so far.

It can be a good idea to trial food/drink/gels on your shorter midweek runs before you actively need them on longer runs. It is not pleasant to have another 9 miles or so to go while bringing up jelly babies.

To add, don’t neglect your strength training. I didn’t do it consistently with my first and paid the price on race day.
If it’s a trail there’s likely to be some hills, so add a hill training to your week.

Don’t panic when it’s time to taper. Feels counter intuitive to reduce training so much, but it’s worth it.

The training is the hardest, it’s relentless. Your whole life is about running and you will have a meltdown at some point.
If you can incorporate races into your training it will seem easier. For a Saturday long run I would squeeze park run into the middle or make it my last 3 miles.

Have you got anyone to train with?