You’ve been training hard for the past four months, battling all the elements and managing various body aches and pains. You’ve swapped your social life for long runs pounding the pavement and race day is finally here!
Here are our final top tips to make sure you stay calm, focused and prepared to smash your goal for the London Marathon 2025.
Carbo-Loading: Start prepping a few days prior, do not just eat loads of pasta the night before! The goal here is to help your muscles store more glycogen to use for energy come race day. To achieve this, you can swap out your normal snacks for foods higher in carbohydrates, for example a couple of slices of toast instead of fruit.
Sports Massage: To help reduce any myofascial tightness or joint stiffness plan to have one last sports massage during your taper week. This will help get the body feeling as fresh as possible for the start line but also help receive some last bits of motivation from a healthcare professional. Note – Allow 24hrs to recover following treatment so don’t book the day before the race.
Warm Up: There will be a lot of standing around at the beginning of the race, don’t follow the crowd. Find some space to perform some dynamic drills to help keep joints moving and muscles warm, you need to raise your heart rate before starting the race.
Pace Yourself: To help avoid burnout and pulling up early, use the 10/10/10 strategy. Run the first 10 miles just behind your race pace, run the second 10 miles on race pace and run the final 10km with everything you have left. This will help stop going out too fast and getting over excited.
Refuel Plan: Know exactly what you’re going to use to help restore your energy and when you’re going to do it. This should have been determined throughout your training plan, don’t experiment or try new supplements on the day. As a rough guideline you should be aiming to take 30-60g of carbohydrates per hour and rehydrate with 300-600ml of water per hour.
Prepare For The Wall: You know this is going to be mentally tough, so get in the right mindset early. Use mental checkpoints to help during tough times, break the distance down into 1 mile segments or landmarks and feed off the crowd. Body scan head to toe focusing on your running form, breathing rhythm and arm swing to keep the legs moving.
Don’t Stop Moving: Once finished, avoid the urge to stand still. Try to keep your legs moving slowly with a gentle walk and static stretches. This will allow the heart rate to come down safely and reduce the risk of cramping and seizing up. After a few days a Sports Massage can help remove any leg soreness and help aid your recovery.
Most Important Of All: Have fun and enjoy it! It’ll be like nothing you’ve experienced before if a first-time runner, take it all in and make sure to smile when crossing the finish line for that photo! Good luck from everyone at Synergy Physio.
