I’m not going to pretend like since I ran my first half marathon I’m an expert on running or on races, but I will say I learned a lot throughout the process and since I know a lot of my friends and clients are also runners, I thought it would be fun to share some of what I learned from my first race! At the very least I’ll have this post to look back on as I embark on training for the big kahuna…that’s right, I decided yesterday I’m going to start training for the full! If you had asked me a week ago if I thought I was up for training for a full marathon I would have laughed…and laughed some more. But a week of healing has given me a little bit of time to get restless and I want to be able to say I ran A MARATHON. Who knows if I can do it! I used to not be able to run a mile without stopping and I ran 13.1 without stopping except to use the port o potty once. So I guess I can surprise myself:)

Here are a few of my tips for first time racers!

Make your playlist ahead of time. When I’m running for no real reason, I usually listen to Pandora (the Wobble station. Hollaback!) But I wanted more control over my race playlist so I created one in Spotify (you can listen to it here if you’re interested) and then signed up for the free trial of premium so I could stream on race day. I even arranged mine strategically so that there were slower songs at the beginning that would encourage me to pace myself and not get too crazy near the start. I also put faster, more encouraging songs toward the end when I knew I would need a little lift. If you don’t want all of Facebook to see what you’re running to you can switch it over to Private Session and it hides it!

Eat bland foods the night before the race. To put it nicely (nicer than I did the morning of the race) I had moderate indigestion when I woke up on race day. I blame the potato products and all of the Olive Garden I ate the night before. I was carb loading like it was my JOB. Next time though I would eat something easier on my stomach like buttered noodles or white rice with butter and salt.

Ask friends and family to come support you! I didn’t think of this til a few days before the race, but having John and our friends show up to support me really meant a lot to me and gave me a boost midway during the race! Moral support is so much more important than you think it would be!

Speaking of moral support, think about forgoing headphones or at least just keeping one out. When it got closer to the end of the race and I started to feel a slump I took my left headphone out so I could hear the on lookers cheering and encouraging me. That seriously meant so much and hearing someone say “you can do it!” kept me going! Even the signs made for other people were encouraging to me! I saw one cool one that had a “what does the fox say” reference. It was pretty sweet.

Stop at every water station. I literally stopped and chugged a cup of water or gatorade every single time it was offered to me. Your body goes through so much water and you need to replenish it! Don’t give yourself any reason to not do your best! I started hydrating a ton a few days before the race, which also helped!

Try to run with a pace group. I trained for the half marathon alone, but on race day I chose to start with a pace group that was slightly faster than my average run had been back during my training runs. I ended up passing that group and finishing a good ten minutes before they did! I still suggest starting with the pace group even if you might end up blowing past them…you will need to remember to keep a slow, but steady pace to begin with, and that’s harder than you’d think when your adrenaline is pumping toward the start of the race.

Put your phone on do not disturb. I run with my phone rather than my ipod for a few reasons…one, I like to stream music and I can’t with my ipod. Two, I like to use running apps like Map My Run because they give me updates on my pace and how far I’ve traveled every five minutes. And three, since I run alone 99.9 percent of the time, I feel like it’s safer that way in case I get hurt or something happens I have my phone, which also has GPS enabled. I can call someone to pick me up if my knee completely blows out or I twist my ankle. Early on in my training I learned to put my iPhone on Do Not Disturb during runs because the ding ding every time I got a text or notification was SO annoying and I felt compelled to check it, and my focus ended up being blown. I have mine set to where only calls from my “favorites” come through and if anyone calls me more than once in a row, it goes through. This way if there is some kind of emergency I’ll get it, but I don’t have to worry about a text that says something like “Hey did you see The Voice last night???”

Have some kind of mantra in your head to focus on when you get tired. When I came upon hills in the race, I would look down and think “glutes, hammies, glutes, hammies” to the beat of the music and focus on using the strength of my butt and thighs to get me up the hill. I know this makes me sound like I’m really weird, but it was actually really helpful to have something to think about and focus on other than “Man, this sucks, why did I sign up for this???”. On my training runs a lot of times I would pass the time and distract myself by doing other weird things like counting all the lines in the sidewalks, or keeping count of all the fast food places I passed on my route. Sometimes I would even think things like “You got this girl!!” and then mentally wonder since when do I call people “girl”? It was entertaining! And when I had a really difficult run I would give myself a landmark ten feet away and just concentrate on that til I passed it…then I’d pick another one…and another one. So much of running is the mental games we play with ourselves!

If you are a slower runner like me, don’t line up towards the front of the starting line. Apparently veteran/fast runners really hate that. I read that ahead of time and made sure to line up with my pace group!

Don’t host a workshop the day after the race. Okay, this one is more of a “do as I say, not as I do” thing, but I think for the most part, the timing wasn’t my best idea. I was in SO MUCH pain almost the entire workshop and some of the girls were sweet enough to carry things for me, help me out, but I didn’t feel like I wanted to be a burden on them. I definitely think it’s smart to be conscious of what you have going on in the days before and after a half. I definitely would NEVER run a half or a big race like this the day before or after a wedding.

Wear a heart rate monitor! If you don’t have one of these already, you should totally get one! I used to think HRM were for super ripped, super fitness obsessed people like my husband, but they are great for just about anyone…especially more casual exercisers like myself. Mine tracks my calories, shows the date and time, how long I’ve been working out, and also my heart rate (of course). I found this really important while on the race because part of pacing myself was also making sure my heart rate didn’t go too high. I knew if my heart rate went above a certain level, I was exerting myself too much and I needed to chillax. My heart rate is actually almost always at least 20-30 points past my “target” range though, but I’ve gotten to know this over time. I would suggest training with a HRM and seeing how it works out for you so on race day you’re all set.

Enjoy yourself! As challenging as the race was, it was also so much fun! There was such a great energy in the air and I had all of my favorite music on my phone. The weather was gorgeous, and I enjoyed myself through most of the race (til I started to feel pain in my legs!). I think races are so addictive and I haven’t figured out exactly why yet, but I know there has to be something about them that I’m addicted to, or else I would have NEVER in a million years thought “Oh yeah, let’s double what we ran last week. For fun.”.

I hope at least one of these tips is helpful for someone out there running their first major race! If you have any questions about ANYTHING feel free to shoot me an email or post in the comments!