With Marathon season underway, and one of the biggest about to take place in London this weekend we thought we would bring you our best in house advice from Saucony HQ for the big day. So during our lunch break in the office we talked of previous outings and our own experience of 26.2 miles….
Jonathan Quint : NYC Marathon : 2hrs 44mins
- Don’t try anything new on the day. Eat your usual breakfast; wear your usual kit, shoes and everything else. Don’t try the energy drink on the course if you’ve never used it before. Your training was all about getting everything ready for race day, not just your running.
- Take your time to enjoy it a little. Soak up the atmosphere, be grateful for the crowd support, check out the views. You’re out there for a long time. A marathon IS a test of endurance, but it’s something you’ve planned and worked for, so take some of the benefit rather than concentrating everything on your performance. The relaxation will help you.
Simon Jones : 2 x London & 1 x NYC Marathon : 2hrs 33mins
- Most runners put a lot of pressure on themselves on race day with a very fine line between success and failure. This is usually assuming all factors are perfect but you can’t control the weather or even how you may feel on any given day. You have to adapt and ‘race’ the day so you may miss the target time you set back at Christmas but you may be carrying a niggle or battling strong winds, in which case it is a great effort to only be 5 minutes off what you set early in your training.
- Listen to your legs. Your body will always give you signs during the run and deep down you hear them, you just choose to block them out. At the marathon it is hard to keep ignoring them…. ultimately your body will start to shut you down if you don’t listen, and then you will not only miss your goal, but have a very difficult and un-enjoyable last 10km.
Bruno Paul : 5 Marathons including Paris & NYC Marathon : 3hrs 52mins
- There are so many. For me the breakfast timing is key, it’s not so much about the exact nutrition but I need to eat 3 hours before…. And no Orange Juice.
- Get to the start area early. In NYC this is something you can’t avoid but you don’t want to be rushing and forgetting to put on Vaseline on areas that may rub.
Ross Maddams : Paris Marathon : 4hrs 41mins
- Having recently run the Paris Marathon for my debut at this distance my No1 tip is to make sure you go to the toilet pre-race, for me this included an early start with a coffee and a wonder around my hotel to get the body moving before breakfast. Hopefully the nerves also helped!
- This may be a personal preference but I had a few injury issues in the build-up this spring, so a foam roller was part of my morning routine pre-race. This may be something you would want to practice with before race day but this was key to get his legs through 26.2 long miles.
*Jonathan Quint, 2016 NYC Marathon
Good luck and whatever happens, good or bad, enjoy whatever treat you have planned after the race.
Team Saucony