Cork City Marathon 2008 - Final Post - Tips & Thoughts...
Well that it, the last and final post on what was a busy week of blogging ;o)
Some final thoughts and tips...
1) What to wear...
Basically, as little as possible!! It's amazing when you look around at the start line and you see some people wearing sweatshirts, hoodies, tracksuit bottoms and so on. I saw one guy running the Marathon last year with a rain jacket! So lose the layers.
2) What to drink...
It looks likely that it will be a warm day. Use those water stations in the 2nd half of the Marathon. You are likely to be losing a huge amount of liquids through sweat. Remember, if you wait until you are thirsty before you drink, it is probably too late. Drinks small amounts often.
3) Where to run...
When they measure the course, they use the shortest possible route. i.e. from corner to corner. It's so easy just to follow everyone one and stay on the one side of the road and go around corners on the wrong side (A above). Keep thinking corner to corner (B above), keep thinking the most direct route. All of the metres added up over 26.2 miles can make the difference between getting inside your target or not.
4) Relay runners...
If you are a team of 2, consider letting the slower person go first. Otherwise, once they start, everyone around them will be going faster than them and overtaking. It's an awful lot easier to run when you are passing people rather than to have everyone passing you.
If you are a beginner, start slow. It will take about 2 miles before you get warmed up properly. It's so easy just to start too fast, for oxygen debt to kick in around the 1 mile mark and then you spend the rest of the time trying to recover. Start slow, find your pace and give it everything in the last mile.
5) Some links...
There is plenty of info up on the Cork City Marathon website.
Their Frequently Asked Questions section on the Marathon
Their FAQ section on the Relay
Their PDF document on how the Relay works

So, whether you are doing the full Marathon of 26.2 miles or part of the Relay event, good luck and enjoy your day........John Desmond