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digg_title = ‘The countdown to LVHM’;
digg_bodytext = ‘Its less than 72 hours from the start of the Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon, and i’m all geared up and ready to go. I’ve started carb loading, slighly, and drinking a ton of water .. I hate drinking a ton of water because all I do is use the bathroom, but thats about the only side effect. I’ve carefully planned my meals fo’;
Its less than 72 hours from the start of the Lehigh Valley Hospital Marathon, and i’m all geared up and ready to go. I’ve started carb loading, slighly, and drinking a ton of water .. I hate drinking a ton of water because all I do is use the bathroom, but thats about the only side effect. I’ve carefully planned my meals for the weekend, stocked up on bottled water for the weekend trip and we’re set to go …
So I spent some time going through the blog here looking at the after marathon posts from the previous 6 marathons, because I think there is a lot of value in what I wrote. The common themes I see in them are:
1. Keep your pace! I found that in the two marathons that I set a PR on, I kept the intended pace that I planned to run for most of the marathon (Harrisburg and Delaware) .. its understood that in miles 22-26 the pace starts to drop a little, that is expected, but the goal is to keep the pace that far (to get past ‘the wall’).
2. Proper fueling during the race. I intend to use GU gels (2 of them) at around mile 15 and mile 20, and ensure that I get water/gatorade at least every other stop. I found in a couple cases, I ran through too many water stops when I shouldn’t have.
3. Proper attitude. I don’t think this is a problem this time around. I know when I fell apart at the Ocean Drive marathon, and died during the New Jersey marathon, it was mostly about the right attitude going in. My mind was elsewhere, when it shouldn’t have been .. this time I’m focused and thinking about it, planning, and getting excited.
So they are my major points to focus on for MY marathon success .. hopefully we’ll have a good race on Sunday, despite the weather.
There are conflicting reports about the weather this weekend, local TV is saying rain into mid morning Sunday, the Weather channel says no rain on Sunday, ending overnight and Accuweather says no rain on Sunday, ending overnight … I think the consensus as it stands right now is no rain, although it will probably be wet and damp since the rain probably won’t end on Saturday until after sundown. The race on Sunday starts at 6:45, which is actually 10 minutes after the formal sunrise, so it won’t have time to dry out at all….. my hope is that there is no rain.
So i’ve got some last minute stuff to take care of today, nothing major, and then we pack up to leave tomorrow for the race …