Runner Jane Sousa plans to be in much better shape this fall than she was during her first marathon: ‘I struggled, but I finished.’
One thought ran through Jane Sousa's mind as she finished her first marathon: "I said I would never run that again in my life."
It seemed as if anything that could have gone wrong during the 2005 race, did. She had the wrong batteries for her MP3 player. Her fanny pack bounced so much it bruised her entire torso. And she tore a ligament in her knee, a result of the fact that, as she says, she probably didn't train enough. "I struggled," she says. "But I finished."
Looking back, Ms. Sousa, a 32-year-old lab technician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, says she was woefully unprepared to run 42.2 km. She had signed up for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon after completing two 10K runs in the space of a couple of months. "Because my second time was better than the first, I thought, 'Oh, I can do a full marathon.' "
For runners, whether they have just one 5K race under their belt or have been running recreationally for years, a marathon is like Mount Everest. It is the peak that most, at some point or another, feel compelled to summit. But experts say that many who register for the races do so without knowing what's ahead, a move that could result in injury or giving up on ever doing a marathon again.
Yet as daunting as it may be, with the right preparation, reaching the finish line is possible.
"There's people that decide to do a marathon who underestimate how difficult it really is. They think, 'I can walk/run a 10K. I can walk/run a marathon. I'll go do a marathon,'" says Cheryl Lowery, event director of the Calgary Marathon.
Padme Raina signed up for the ING Ottawa Marathon this year after learning that the half-marathon she intended to run was full.
"I figured that I could do it. Walk it, crawl it, somehow get across the finish line," she says. Thanks to help from a colleague who was taking a personal training course, Ms. Raina made up a training schedule that she strictly followed. "I always wanted to do a marathon. It was on my bucket list."
Having a training program isn't essential to finishing a marathon, but it is strongly advised.
"It's a whole lot easier to do your first marathon if you've utilized a proper training program," Ms. Lowery says. "If you've done some kind of proper training it's going to make your experience a whole lot more pleasant."
Runners who don't follow a training program can be much more likely to succumb to injuries, says Chris Woollam, medical director of the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon and the Mississauga Marathon.
"That's where we start to see injuries, from feet right up to backs, from people who are either trying to train too quickly, they escalate too quickly, or they don't do enough and they have the injury during or just after the marathon," he says.
Dr. Woollam says it is best to train for at least three or four months before entering a marathon.
Amanda McNulty started running five years ago. The 41-year-old did her first marathon last October. "I did feel as prepared as I could have been," says Ms. McNulty, president of the Autism Ontario Simcoe County Chapter. "It was so painful but it was just so amazing at the end to know I had put in all this time and worked so hard."
That's the kind of satisfaction all first-time marathoners are chasing. It's open to anyone.
"Anybody who really wants to run a marathon absolutely can. They just need the proper guidance," Ms. Lowery says.
Without the right preparation, some people might find their first marathon such a gruelling experience they never do a second.
"Some people only ever do one, and that's great. But you don't want it to be because you set yourself up for such a horrible experience that you never want to do it again," Ms. Lowery says.
Ultimately, however, the most important factor is being fully committed to finishing.
"You have to want it. If you haven't psyched yourself up mentally that this is something you really want to do, no training program is going to get you there," Ms. Lowery says.
And while many runners might push themselves too hard in order to log a fast time, those who are entering their first marathon should simply focus on finishing well, rather than finishing quickly, Dr. Woollam says.
Ms. Sousa, who'll be doing her third marathon in September, has certainly taken that advice to heart.
"I tell all my friends, anybody can run a marathon. It just depends on how well you want to do," she says.
To register for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon go to www.STWM.ca.
Dave McGinn