Hi,
In a couple of weeks I'll be running my 4th Marathon. This one will be my first one abroad (Hannover, Germany) and, what worries me most, my first morning one. My first two were at night (8 PM), the third in the afternoon ( 2 PM) and this one will start at 9 AM, and I'm not that sure about how should I plan the day. So, hope you can give me some advise about:
- At what time should I get up (the start of the marathon is just 200 m from my hotel)
- What should/shouldn't I take for breakfast
- ... any other useful advise you can think of
Thanks in advance
Targets 1) No injuries 2) Keep having fun 3) Some kind of PR
Queen of 3rd Place
Hm, yeah, little story: I ran Disney, and had to get up at midnight my time (Left Coast) to get on the bus, then the start was at 3 am my time. The early bus trip turned out to have a silver lining. By the time start time rolled around, I'd been up for a few hours, had taken a light breakfast (bagel, juice, banana, coffee), and felt perfectly normal. So I think the key is giving your body time to wake up, process some food, and hopefully take care of bathroom needs.
A lot of folks don't sleep all that well before a race anyway, so that's no big deal.
I should add that otherwise I hate hate HATE morning running. I'll run at 8 at night in the summer when it's pushing triple digits rather than get up early when it's 70F but my old bones are all sorts of stiff.
Just my 2c.
Ex runner
an amazing likeness
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Got up at 5:30 AM (3h30' prior to the race) and ......
I finished in 3h 18' 11" FANTASTIC !!! (at least for me, of course)
What I did right this time:
-Did no as much taper as on earlier marathons
- I stopped at the waterstations, so I drank, no shower
-JUST drank water, so my guts stayed calm
- I followed the 3h15' pacemaker at least until km 35
- When running out of batteries, slowed down, kept thinking positive and holding a decent pace
- Instead of killing myself on the final straight line in order to finish 5 seconds faster, just relaxed, opened my arms, smiled, and enjoyed the moment
.. at least in my case, crossing the finish line of a Marathon is as close to (instant) perfect happiness as I have ever experienced
Regards
Rafa