You need a game plan. You had a training plan to prepare you for the Austin Marathon; now you need a marathon plan for February 14th. Failure to have a good one is a precription for failure. If Austin is your first marathon, your goal should probably be the simplest: to finish. If this is the case, your strategy will boil down to one of three basic ways to run the marathon:

• Start very slowly (much slower than your marathon goal pace going south up the Congress Avenue hills). Gradually pick up the pace after about 13 miles (after most of the toughest hills) and finish at a faster pace than you started.
• Start slowly (slightly slower than your marathon goal pace), but pick up the pace to marathon goal pace after seven miles (on Lake Austin Blvd.) and try to hold that pace until the finish.
• Start at marathon goal pace and try to run the entire way at that speed.

Each strategy should have been practiced numerous times in training and you should have mentally rehearsed each plan in the months, weeks and days leading up to the marathon. It’s too late for that now, but you should still pick some marathon strategy.

The most important trait you’ll need to exercise with any of these three strategies is patience. You must exercise great patience to hold yourself back in the early, hilly miles and not get carried away by starting too fast to keep up with other runners. This is key and it’s also very difficult to do well.

There’s a steep downhill in the early miles down South 1^st Street and you’ll feel great here. Most will be tempted to run just a little faster as you head west on Cesar Chavez around Austin HS and then on a flat section along Lake Austin Blvd. But if you start even a few seconds per mile too fast in the early miles, you’ll pay for it dearly in the latter stages of the race. There is no room for error.

A good tip is to get a pace wrist band at the marathon expo on Friday or Saturday which will give you exact splits (your time at each mile marker) for your projected finish pace.

Check the clocks in the first few miles against your pace band. Are you going out too fast? Even if you feel great, you must slow down and adjust your effort and try to get back on pace within a couple of miles.

Too slow? That’s a different story. If your split times are too slow, but the effort feels hard, you are going to have to readjust your time goals. The idea is to finish, not break any records.

But if you are going too slow (slower than goal pace) yet you feel good, increase your tempo gradually. Don’t try to get back on pace within a mile. Give yourself two or three miles to get back on pace and then settle back into your marathon goal pace.

Here are some other tips for Austin Marathon first-timers:

• Run together.

 

• Join a pace group.             

 Austin will have numerous organized pace groups for every level of marathoner. (The pace group leaders will be at the race expo on Friday and Saturday, passing out pace bands.) These pace groups are coordinated by finishing times (3:30, 4:10, 4:30, etc.). The various groups start together and hopefully, hang together. The pace group leader is an experienced marathoner who knows how to run even splits for whatever the marathon goal pace is and does so from the very first mile. If you can stay with the group, you will run an even-paced marathon and meet your time goal. This is extremely beneficial. Look for pace group signs in the starting area on the Congress Avenue Bridge.

• Be alert.

           The one thing you do not want to do is trip and fall. Especially at the start on Congress you could get trampled. So be aware of the runners around you and try to avoid any inadvertent jostling or panic. Another spot where you need to stay alert is at the aid stations where runners tend to flock to the first few volunteers handing out water. It can get congested at the first few volunteers so plan to take water from one of the volunteers in the middle or end of the aid station.

• Break the race up into segments.

             A marathon is a long, long way to run. It’s a difficult distance to wrap your mind around. So segment it. Joan Samuelson used to visualize her marathons as an easy 16-mile run, followed by her favorite 10-mile training route. Or it’s a simple 20-mile long run, followed by a six-miler. Or, a series of five-mile runs, followed by a six miler. Whatever works for you

• Find a mantra.
 

            You’ll have plenty of time to think during the marathon and when the miles become more and more difficult, you don’t want to dwell on negative thoughts. Instead, come up with some easily repeatable positive affirmation such as "Endure," or "Stay relaxed", "Keep it going", or "I feel good". If you can associate positive thoughts with the effort, you will be more likely to able to keep it up.

• Keep moving.
           Even if you have to walk (which, by the way, is quite common), the idea is to keep moving forward to the finish. Try not to stop walking--even if you feel bad. Just walk it out for a few moments and then try to run again when the bad patch passes. But try to always keep moving forward to the finish.

 

Try to find other runners running the same pace you are and stick together. Talk it out, encourage each other and work together for a common goal of finishing. If it’s windy as you head north toward Northcross Mall, take turns blocking the wind for each other. In a marathon, it’s always better to run as part of a group rather than as a solo act.