First Marathon

The race itself is on Sunday, April 22 along Delaware's southern coast and I couldn't be more excited to be returning to my home state to run my first marathon. My older sister and I made the decision earlier in 2016 to run our first marathon and it was easy to choose the perfect race once she told me about Coastal Delaware. Another enticing factor when choosing the race was it's proximity to the Dogfish Head Brewery. We're actually all booked to stay at the Dogfish Head Inn for the weekend which should be the perfect way to celebrate post-run.

I've used Hal Higdon's training plans for virtually every race I've run in the past so I'm not going to change things up for the marathon. I'm going with the 18-week Novice 2 Plan which combines some pace runs but nothing too intimidating. For my first marathon, I haven't set any goals quite yet besides just to finish. Ideally, I'd like to finish under 4 hours but I'm going to hold off on setting an official goal time until a little further into training. I used the Hanson Race Equivalency Calculator to base my training goals off of past half marathon performances so we'll see how that translates into the marathon.

Overall I'm incredibly excited about the prospect of running my first marathon but am definitely intimidated by the training process. I've never run further than 13.1 miles so I know the 2nd half of training is going to be intense, especially through the winter. With training starting today, I'm already realizing how tricky it's going to be to schedule some of my long runs around holiday travel. I can only imagine how tough it's going to be to work in my 17+ mile runs later this spring.

My biggest fear approaching training is a fear of injury. Early on in training, I'm focussing on working in some strength training and yoga to hopefully help prevent any issues as my mileage starts to climb. In particular, throughout 2016, as training ramped up I began to feel a sharp pain on the insides of my lower shins, usually mitigated by a day of rest and ice. It's definitely something I'll be paying close attention to throughout training.

The other thing I need to figure out in the earlier weeks of training is my fueling strategy. I'm a big fan of the jelly belly energy beans but am not sure I'll want to keep those in my pockets for a full marathon. This is an area where I could absolutely use some advice so please share your fueling strategy in the comments below! I'm thinking about giving some kind of gels a try but I have a real issue with consistency so I'm worried they won't agree with me mid-run, but I suppose there's only one way to find out!

Apart from energy chews or gels, I also need to figure out how I'd like to carry water or Gatorade with me on my longer training runs. During half marathon training, I would usually just carry a small Gatorade bottle with me, or leave one somewhere along my route to drink midrun. I'm imagining I won't want to carry a water bottle with me on my longer training runs, and even if I did, it will probably be much more difficult to do so with mittens or gloves on. I'm starting to investigate wearable hydration options so again, any advice you have is greatly appreciated in the comments below!

As I'm sure you know, I'm a huge proponent of rewards systems so I've obviously put some thought into incorporating some specialty brews as rewards for specific benchmarks during training. I was able to get my hands on some Goose Island Bourbon County Stout which I think would be a great reward when I cross the 13.1-mile threshold, marking my longest run to date. I was also lucky enough to snag a bottle of Canadian Breakfast Stout which I think I'll save for my 20-mile run. As for finish line celebrations, I think the Dogfish Head Inn will be able to accommodate.

So, today officially marks the start of my marathon training with some light strength work (running officially begins tomorrow). This is a new distance for me and twice the length of my furthest runs so far so I'm definitely looking for any advice that you have to offer. I'll be incorporating training updates into my weekly posts, so stay tuned for those! I'll be back next week with my 2018 resolutions!

Cheers!

RunningDecember 18, 2017