Are You Marathon Ready?
I have ran nine full marathons and one ultramarathon. How did I know I was ready to run a marathon? The truthful answer is I didn’t. My journey into marathoning began like many others with an entry into a lottery. Back in 2013/2014, I made a deal with the universe that said, “If you think I’m ready to run a marathon and then I’ll get in via lottery entry.” At that point in my life, I had several half marathons under my belt and the question I received quite frequently was “When are you going to run a marathon?” I remember my answer being along the lines of “I don’t even like to drive 26.2 miles, why would I want to run that?” In 2014 we moved to Chicago and I reasoned that that would be a perfect time, if there ever was one, to run a marathon. I was in a new city, starting a new chapter, and was feeling open to the possibilities. Imagine my surprise when I received the email stating that my lottery entry was accepted into the 2014 Chicago Marathon. I spent my first summer in Chicago training for a full marathon; this is also the summer that I credit with my falling in love with running.
My first marathon was an incredible experience with so much joy at having done something very hard. There was also a bit of shock at having ran in a time faster than I thought possible for myself. After this race, I was hooked on marathoning and spent the next few years running several marathons. Then in 2017 I had the worst marathon experience, again happening at the Chicago Marathon.
Marathoning can be full of the highest highs and the lowest lows. A lot can happen over 26.2 miles and a lot happens in the training cycle for that 26.2 miles.
I’m currently at a point in life where I’m good with the 26.2-mile distance. It’s not because I can’t physically do it (I know I can), it’s because I don’t want to put myself through training and running a full marathon.
I won’t label myself as an expert on whether a person is ready to run a full marathon or not, but I will offer up the following suggestions based on my years of experience as a runner who trained for and ran multiple marathons.
If you’re curious if you are ready to run a marathon, here are my top three considerations that should factor into your decision-making process:
1. What’s the state of your support system?
Running can be an individual sport, even when you run and train with others. The first thing to consider when wondering if you are ready to run a marathon, is your support system. Who will be supporting you as you tackle the goal of training for and running a marathon? Who are the people that will make running possible, like parents or spouses that help with childcare? Who are the people that will be cheering you on along the way? Who can serve as your accountability buddy(ies) helping you stay committed and dedicated when things feel tough, or the expected fatigue of the training process tries to overwhelm?
Is your support system made up of different perspective people and outside perspective people? The different perspective people are other runners who are going after different goals that can be guides and reference points for you. These are people that serve as important sources of inspiration and motivation throughout the phases of marathon training. The outside perspective people are people those not involved in the sport that can ground you in the reality that you are doing something so hard that few others chose to do the same. These are the people that may not understand your goal, but they can understand the goal’s importance to you and will support you because they love and care about you.
2. What are you willing to sacrifice?
The next big consideration when deciding on your future as a marathoner is thinking about what you are willing to sacrifice and where you are willing to make sacrifices during training, racing, and post-marathoning/recovery life. This is a big one that probably gets overlooked time and time again because, when it comes to marathoning, the focus is more on miles and getting physical ready to run a marathon and less on the emotional, mental, and social groundwork that supports training.
Do you know what you might have to sacrifice to make training for a marathon possible? Are you ready to make sacrifices to achieve the goal of running a marathon? Are you ready to make the lifestyle changes that ensure success as you train for a marathon? An example includes going to bed early so that you get enough sleep to offset how early you are waking up to run. Another example includes ditching Friday plans so that you can be rested and as ready as possible for the Saturday long run.
Training for and running a marathon involves a lot of social and emotional sacrifices, not only on your part but also from those who support you. While I have made sacrifices when I’ve trained for my marathons, my family has made some pretty great sacrifices too. I can recall moments of being too tired to keep up with my kids, going to bed earlier than my kids, and missed nights out with my husband and friends. In the end, the marathon was worth it, but I severely underestimated how training for a marathon was going to impact my life and the lives of those closest to me.
3. How do you feel about rest and recovery?
A marathon demands that you readjust your relationship to rest and recovery. To be your best runner self, you need to put as much effort into resting and recovery as you do into training. If you don’t rest and recover well, it will catch up to you in the form of an injury or in prolonged feelings of fatigue.
Begin by thinking about your current relationship to rest and recovery. Do you understand the importance of rest and recovery and its role in making you a better and stronger runner? Are you able to prioritize rest and recovery as an important element of your training? Practically speaking, do you have the time for increased miles, rest, and recovery? Are you ready and willing to let go of other movement modalities to free up time for the increased mileage demands and recovery needs?
When training for a marathon, resting and recovery become things you consider leading up to your runs and after your runs. It’s about more than getting enough sleep; it’s about hydrating enough and fueling your body in a way that supports and promotes recovery and the adaptations to training. Bottom line is that rest and recovery are the practices that fill the space between the runs; are you able to see training for and running a marathon as more than the physical act of running itself?
A marathon transforms you from top to bottom and from the inside out. There is no perfect time to do a marathon, there’s just the best time for you. My hope is that this post helps you realize that running a marathon is more than just building miles and confidence week after week; it’s about supporting your wholeness as a person who happens to be a runner.
