A Guide to Marathon Week
Intro
Marathon week is the last banana skin before ultimate victory. Navigate this week well and you’re onto your date with marathon destiny.
Training
Stick to your training program. If you stick to any training plan your capacity to run a marathon will be built up. I recommend a minimum of 16 weeks conditioning before running a marathon. Race week is not the time to ditch a plan. The more consistent and structured training you do the more your capacity will increase. As the race draws close tiredness will kick in. You need to battle that until you reach taper week which is also marathon week. Now you curtail some training and your system will reload to 100% capacity. Your new 100% is marathon ready so if you’re starting feel superhuman that is somewhat true. If you get tapering right you’ll be bouncing off the wall come marathon day. Fair warning, tapering has various techniques including not doing it at all. I think at various points in my marathon journey I have known tapering to be a spectrum. Some people need to gradually unload training volume for two weeks. Others like me need to cut the long run by 50% and do a shake out run the day before race day but otherwise train as usual. Pick the taper that works for you and don’t be afraid to change your taper as you do each marathon. Yes I have assumed you’ll cross the marathon finish line and then you will need to do it all again. In case someone hasn’t told you being a marathoner is for life even if you finish a marathon only once you’re still a marathoner and will remain so for eternity.
Vaseline
Whatever anti chafe lubrication you buy double the amount of it. Have more than you’ll need for a month on hand. Assume you’ll need to help a few friends out but don’tl et yourself be short of it. I keep a jar in the car on race week. If I somehow miss it on my checklist I know it’s not far to go and retrieve it. Don’t solve this problem overwhelm it.
Clothes
The clothes you wear in the race should be the clothes you’ve trained in specifically the attire you’ve worn on your long run I recommend at least a month of good solid wear. I say this because this is the only way to know exactly where the clothes will rub against your skin. You can mitigate chaffing with extra lubrication but you need to refine this in advance. At some point a marathon will get uncomfortable but you want that point to be as close to the finish line as possible and preferably have nothing to do with your clothes. Other points to consider if you wear the clothes in over a month the likelihood of you experiencing a variety of weather conditions in those clothes is quite high (especially if you’re living in Ireland). That will give a perspective of how they effect your running. Planning to switch between sets of gear depending on the weather is normal. You may have noticed a number of marathoners suddenly donning bin bags and peaked caps on rainy days. Equally on warm days the baselayer may get abandoned and the sun glasses may come out.
Another item worth practicing with is the running belt or whichever piece of gear you are going to use to carry gels water or sports drink. Use this plenty of times on long runs. Figure out what works best for you eg gels to the left water right. This will need to be automatic on race day. If you’re hanging for a gel after 20 miles you’ll thank yourself for not having to fish around your running belt trying to remember where things are. On marathon week stick to what you know even if the expo is pushing a fancy new belt on you. By all means buy it but put it in your next race plan.
Nails
Clip your nails about 5 days before race day that is fingers and toenails to give them a chance to regrow and avoid discomfort on race day. This commonly referred as Toenails Tuesday given the number of marathons that place on Sunday
Hydration
The majority of your hydration is done the week before the race. On the day hydrating is a delicate balance. Over doing it out of sheer nervousness is not uncommon. On marathon week optimise your hydration over 7 days. You should be close to drinking 2 - 3 litres of fluid a day.
Nutrition
Gels stick to ones you have trained with. If you can’t take them and there are some brands most people can’t touch without having an emergency bathroom break then adopt alternatives lucozade sport, jellies and fruit. One personal comment I will make is in the Dublin Marathon 2024 (a PB for me) I grabbed some jellies at about 38.5 km in and suddenly realised I was so drained of energy I couldn’t chew properly. I panicked slowly sucked the jelly until it came apart and swallowed it. Again stick to what you know on marathon week. If you want to buy something new at the expo work away just put it into your future marathon training.
Sunscreen
Please adopt the local public health advice. I have been in races where I’ve seen marathoners carry on with visible sunburn. I always make the same point on preparation any chance you take make sure you can carry it going wrong in a marathon and be prepared to carry the downside for 26.2 miles. I haven’t met many marathoners who opt for more pain. They know there will be enough to go around on race day. If in Ireland apply sunscreen from March to October.
Mentality
You have three ways to approach a race
Race for a place
You’re aiming to be in a certain place bracket
Top ten
Top hundred
Top half of your age category
Team place
Race for time
Personal Best
Course Record
Target time
Target pace
Fastest segment
Remember pacers can run to finish up to 1 minute before their time eg flat but faster than target pace but with a cushion against finishing late. They are human as well if they start to have a few rough miles they may need that time to play with before getting themselves back on track. A negative split eg slower at the start and faster at the end is very hard to pull off and needs practice but it’s worth noting pacers do this so if you feel the pacer isn’t flying out of the traps at the start be patient because when those pacers speed up you will know all about it and need the saved energy. Only a few pacers pace a race like I do and finish exactly one second before they are due in. You need to have a lot of courage to pull this off. I have it because I practice that way frequently setting my garmin to a target pace allowing a deviation of less than five seconds. It’s frustrating but it works for me.
Race to Finish
Like Ronseal what it says on the tin.
If it’s warm this is your default option. Take your time and enjoy the day forget everything about times or places.
I remember the Cork half marathon in 2013 being a scorcher (28 degrees celsius)and finishing in 98 mins placed 116. The carrigrohane straight (strip of road about two miles long towards the end of the race) may as well have been a battlefield half the race was either on the ground in bad shape or walking. The following year the weather was close to the optimum race conditions (10-15 degrees celsius 40-60% humidity) and I was back in the same race except this time I finished in 94 mins and moved up exactly one place to 115.
Pick your battle on race day but please pick the battle you can win over 26.2 miles. If all else fails finish. The most recent example in my life of finish was the Dublin Marathon 2023. The day was a washout. I knew a PB was off the table as we lined up. I could hear the other racer’s chattering the same thing ‘just make the finish line’, ‘stay in the pocket we might race later’ and ‘win the battle forget how long it takes’. The next year was the exact opposite with the weather at optimal racing conditions I lined up with the Raheny AC crew the whole lot of us were racing from the starting gun.
Checklist
I have had this race checklist in the notepad of my iPhone for years. I hope it helps you finish a marathon.
| Item | Y/N |
|---|---|
| Shoes | |
| Socks | |
| Shorts | |
| Top | |
| Number | |
| Watch | |
| Running Belt | |
| Gels | |
| Vaseline | |
| Sunglasses | |
| Sunscreen | |
| Bin Bag | |
| Peaked Cap | |
| Throw away top |