As for those nerves? They're great for running, says Jenny Hadfield, a Chicago-based marathoner and coach who will be speaking in Calgary to talk about her own struggles with running and offer a few tips to get marathoners through their race.
"I'm always concerned when I talk to a first-timer who isn't nervous because that means they don't understand the magnitude of what they are about to do. Nerves are good. You can harness that nervous energy to help get you to the end."
Hadfield understands the struggle to get to the end of a race. Even more, she's knows first-hand what many people go through when they start running.
Twenty years ago, as a slightly chubby 20-something fresh out of college, she couldn't run down the street.
"I'd get to the end of the block, start crying and turn around, come home and throw my shoes in the closet," says Hadfield, now a lean 44-yearold who has completed more than 30 marathons, two ultramarathons and many multi-day endurance races. She's written several running books, including Running For Mortals.
She grew up a sporty-butoverweight kid who liked basketball but dreaded running.
After graduating from college, Hadfield got an internship with a corporate fitness centre in Milwaukee, Wis. She walked in for her first day, "scared to death," and, to her horror, all the employees were runners.
"They immediately started talking about this five-kilometre race we would do at the end of my time there."
"I looked at them and said, 'Look, I'll do anything, I'll file, I'll clean your apartments, I'll scrub the bathroom floors with a toothbrush, but I can't run.'"
They insisted she could. And so, they started training with her -first, walking 15 minutes at lunchtime, then 30 minutes and eventually switching to a walk-run combo. By the end of the summer, Hadfield could run, slowly, for 30 minutes.
She finished the race almost last. "I was beaten by a 72 year old -they announced it on the PA system."
But Hadfield was hooked. She built up her distance, running in 10-mile races, half-marathons and, eventually, a marathon.
With her husband, a fellow runner she met at a running clinic, Hadfield has written training manuals on marathon running and developed online training tools.
She focuses on people who are not natural-born runners. She's familiar with the pain, fear and embarrassment of being unable to run.
"My voice comes from a chubby young girl who hated to run."
New runners should work on improving their walking speed and distance, and then move to a run-walk combination, she says. She advises people start easy and stop before they get uncomfortable.
"I started by walking and I loved it so I kept at it. But if you go out and push too hard on the first day, you won't want to go out again tomorrow."
As well, people need to set realistic goals for their body. "You've got to train with the body that you have, on the day that you have and on the conditions that are present."
On race day, most first-timers go out too fast at the start and end up crawling to the finish line, she says. Keep in mind that "your pace is the No. 1 thing within your control."
She recommends splitting the race into thirds, represented by the colours green, orange and red. Think of the first third as green -it's light, easy, fresh. "If you hear your breathing, you're going too fast."
At the second stage of the race or the orange stage, slightly ramp up your effort until you can almost hear your breathing.
The last third of the marathon or red zone -where the dreaded "wall" usually happens -is the hardest part of the race. "It's going to be harder, your legs are going to be stiffer but that's the point where, if you've conserved your energy in the first two-thirds, you can go fishing.
"You're literally taking out your imaginary fishing rod and casting your hook into the runner in front of you, you're reeling her in and casting it out again."
Going 'fishing' is a way for a runner to keep the mind mentally engaged rather than getting caught up in the pain of the last miles, she says.
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