You dirty minded perverts 

Okay, so my first marathon is less than 3 weeks away (the Monumental) and I am just curious about everyone's experiences with their first marathon training, most of all their taper experience. Looking back on your first marathon, do you think that your taper helped you or hurt you, do you think you could have done things smarter or less, or more?

I want to hear it all - The Good, The Bad and yes, THE UGLY 

Also, does anybody else make a list of everything they need when going out of town for a race, normally something like 13.1 or longer? I have already made my list for what will need to be in the Tahoe on the day we leave, most importantly everything that Dorian will need to make sure he is happy and taken care of. I also have a race week game plan - does that make me weird?

Don't get asthma.  My first sucked big time and I walked straight through the last 10 miles.  The whole 10 miles.  I was even pulled aside by the Emergency Personnel to check for heat exhaustion (for 30 minutes).  If it was not an out and back I would have quit.

Okay D and catwhoorg, those two things aren't exactly in my control lol.

I didn't even give running a marathon a thought until about 6 weeks before the race. I didn't finally commit to running it until two weeks before when I mailed in my entry form. My training up to that point, and I'd been running less than two years, had been focused on racing distances from 880 yd to 5 miles. (That shows how long ago it was). Even so I'd been averaging 50-55 mpw for at least a year and 40+ mpw for at least 18 months, but a lot of my training was intervals, e.g. 12 x 440 yd at mile race pace with a 440 yd jog recovery. My long run was 15 miles or less. As a sop to the possibility of running a marathon I tested the waters by running a 30K race 5 weeks before. That went fairly well, so I gave in to peer pressure and included a slow, leisurely 18 miles training run a couple weeks later, then finished my hard training by racing 12 miles 2 weeks before the marathon. I really didn't taper much until the last 3-4 days when I took it easy. The week before the race my mileage was about half of normal not counting the race itself.

I heeded friends' advice about starting slow, slow enough that I felt like I was jogging. I had only approximate times at odd, traditional distances to check on pace, though I don't really remember doing that. This was pre-digital clocks and there were no mile markers. All I had to go on was the approximate distance between towns along the route. I didn't feel confident of how well I was doing until a spectator told me that I'd crested Heartbreak Hill and it was all downhill from there. It isn't quite all downhill, but close enough. I finished strong with mixed feelings because my watch said I'd run 3:01, which was very good back then for a first marathon, but a little disappointed to be so close to sub-3:00 because I felt I had a more to give. It wasn't until 3 weeks later that I got official results on a postcard in the mail saying I'd run 2:59:50 gun time. No such thing as chip time back then, but I estimated I lost about a minute at the start.

I suspect I did just about everything wrong that you can do for a first marathon, but it all came out right.  Of course, this was 33 years ago and a lot of the knowledge we have now simply wasn't available then.

Here's a chart of my training:

As to taper - the week before marathon (week of 11/30 thru Dec 6) included a half marathon on the 6th.  That half, and the full one week later stand as my PR's for both those distances.  I've duplicated the half once after that, but the closest I came to the full was about 3 minutes slower.  (3:01:31 vs. 3:05)

Definitely not a plan for anyone to follow.

I don't know if the taper helped or hurt me. Looking back I really wasn't even running enough to need to taper, especially not the 3 week taper that Higdon had scheduled. I never felt bouncy or fresh on race day. It actually just felt like another long run.  I think a shorter taper would have been better.

It was a warm day (80) and I adjusted my goal from 4:20 to 4:30 to compensate.  I was afraid of bonking and expecting it to get really hard but it never really did.  It was disappointingly a lot like the long runs I had done.  I stayed behind the 4:30 pace group for most of it.  My bf and I ran together until I lost him around mile 22.  It was just so crowded (The Chicago marathon) and people kept stopping and walking right in front of me. I thought the crowds would energize me but I found them annoying.  I passed the 4:30 group somewhere after mile 22 and the last 10k was my fastest. But I didn't really care about my time that much.  I was happy just to run the distance.

I remember passing a ton of people who had bonked due to the heat - so I was glad I adjusted my goal but I think I let people scare me out of trying to run what I thought I could run.  I originally thought I would just do one and be done but then I finished feeling like I could and should do better.

I remember my first time like it was just last week!

Do not go out too fast.  Do adjust for temperature conditions.

You, no-underwear runners, simply have no decorum.