Top 10 Marathon Mistakes I made in New York

Regardless of our knowledge and experience, sometimes, we all make “huge mistakes-mistakes that are huge”. That quote comes from I am Sam, a 2001 movie, which was one of the first movies that I saw in English.

The movie was so memorable to me that during the last 17 years, I’ve been able to recite some of the lines from it.

That particular line about people making “huge mistakes-mistakes that are huge” really stuck with me. After all, even the elites and subject matter experts are prone to errors because they are people too.

Some of the mistakes that I’m about to share with you are quite surprising, given that I’ve done hundreds of races and New York was my 7th marathon.

Looking back, I want to ask myself “what was I thinking?” To be honest, I think I was way too excited to be thinking straight or perhaps I wasn’t thinking at all or maybe I just socialized with a few too many people in the first 10 miles of the race.

New York was my first marathon since Boston 2015 so maybe that’s why I was so excited.

The one thing that I am really grateful for, despite finishing a lot slower than I would have liked to finish, is that my previous injuries were not a hindering factor during the race. To date, it was my slowest marathon (3:34) but I’m still thankful that I finished within 20 minutes of my personal best (3:18 at the 2014 Victoria Marathon).

Although I had a great training block leading up to the New York Marathon, I know I have a lot of room for improvement. I also don’t believe that I ran a very smart race and you will soon see why (the splits will tell the whole story).

So, why did I not run a personal best even though my training went well?

1. Not enough training at goal race pace.

I was looking to run sub 4:30 per km during the marathon and I’ve definitely done that a number of times in training. However, I did not do as many medium-length runs at that pace as I should have done, which leads me to point #2.

Tired & Wired LOL

2. Not enough recovery and too much stress.

I will be one of the first people to admit that I put a lot of pressure on myself in everything that I do, which sometimes causes stress. That, combined with working multiple jobs (4 total), running 60-80km a week, as well as strength training leaves me with very little time to recover. Therefore, I have not kept up with the regular medium-length runs at goal race pace because I often didn’t feel recovered enough to do it. The lack of recovery was evident in my somewhat elevated heart rate at times (my normal resting heart rate is in the high 40s BPM, but for the 3 months leading up to the NYC Marathon it was in the low to mid 60s). At least I listened to my body!

I work so much and so hard because I’m hoping to do the 7 Continents Challenge and the 6 Marathon Majors (2 down!!) , as well as other HUGE goals. When I say “huge”, I mean the kind of goals that most people are afraid to set, let alone actually attempt them. I will leave that to your imagination!! 🙂

3. During the race, I ran miles 8-12 a bit too fast.

If you run too fast anytime during the first half of the marathon, you WILL pay for it big time towards the end.

Some people even mentioned that I hit the wall quite late in the race (at around miles 22 and 23). The only explanation I have for why I sped up too soon is that I was just super excited to be there.

I was passing people, cruising along, high-fiving people and saying words of encouragement to fellow runners. I didn’t even realize that I was going a bit too fast until it was way too late.

Conclusion: banking time in the first half does not work. Had I ran those 5 miles 30 seconds per mile slower, then I probably would have been able to run the last 4 miles 1 minute faster than I actually did.

Below are my splits and you can definitely see where I sped up too soon and started to slow down.

4. Drinking too much during the race.

As I ran past every aid station, I took a cup of Gatorade and water. Let’s just say it didn’t end too well after I finished (I think you get my drift). Deep down, I knew that was too much and I should have followed my intuition on that one. Ever had water and Gatorade slosh around in your stomach as you enter the final few miles of the marathon?

5. Not knowing the course.

To be honest, going into the race, I thought the course would be much easier than it actually was. I didn’t take the time to know where all the hills were and where the challenging parts would be. I barely even looked at the course map and I definitely didn’t look at the elevation profile. Next time though, I will.

6. Speeding ahead of my pace group too soon.

This goes back to point #3. Up until the 8 mile marker, I was super happy with the 3h 25min pace group (which is about 7:49 min/mile). It was a very comfortable pace. Almost too comfortable. So comfortable, that I decided to drop them too early.

My original plan was to go with them until I got to mile 20 and then re-assess how I feel. Instead, I left them behind at mile 8 only to see them catch me and pass me at mile 20. What was I thinking??? Clearly, I wasn’t.

Big crowds+ adrenaline=sensible strategy out the window.

I was actually quite surprised that I did that, given that I have experience pacing at many races, where I’ve done a phenomenal job of evenly pacing the entire distance. Conclusion: I do much better at pacing others to help them reach their goal time than I do at pacing myself in big races.

7. Doing an interval session a few days before the race.

The race was on Sunday, so I did a 4 x 1km interval session with 500m recovery on the Wednesday leading up to the race. The pace was definitely much faster than my goal race pace for this workout.

If anyone else asked me if doing an interval session the same week as their goal race was a good idea, I would say: “No, it’s a terrible idea!!”

I should have stuck to doing an easy 15-20 min jog followed by some relaxed, short strides. I’m always willing to experiment with different things on myself just so I could experience what happens, as opposed to just reading about it in books and peer-reviewed articles. However, I don’t recommend you try that.

I recommend getting as much recovery as you can within the week leading up to your goal race. Do not do any hard workouts within the week of your race so that you make it to the start line feeling completely fresh.

8. Not being fully confident in my abilities.

Honestly, I did the interval workout that I discussed in #7 because I wanted to prove something to myself. After not being able to do speedwork for the past couple of years due to injuries and/or fears of re-injury, I unfortunately let my ego take over my thought process as I entered the final week of marathon preparation.

Why do we race our interval workouts? One reason: Ego.

In the end, you have to trust yourself and your training. Be confident in your abilities when you get on the start line. Any negative thoughts you may have about past injuries, or any other issues will be evident in your performance, regardless of your fitness level. A healthy level of confidence and positive thinking will most definitely help your performance.

You made it to the start line and you deserve to be there, just like every other person who trained hard and overcame obstacles to get there.

9. Nutrition. I depleted my glycogen stores too quickly without replenishing them quickly enough, which made the last 3 miles not as fun as they should have been. Therefore, instead of enjoying crossing the finish line, I was feeling extremely hungry, my legs didn’t want to move and my stomach hurt.

In endurance events, nutrition can be the difference between a personal best and a personal worst. In my previous marathons, I don’t think I ever hit the wall that hard but I also did better with nutrition. I became too complacent with nutrition and paid the price at mile 23.

10. Too much walking around the city the day before the race. New city. Big city. Cool vibes. I was very excited to be visiting a city that I’ve been wanting to see since I was 8 years old. I also walked around at the race expo. There was a lot to see in New York and at the expo. I did well over 10,000 steps on the Saturday before the race.

As we can see, I ran my slowest ever marathon time (3:34) to date in New York because there were some things that I didn’t do properly.

However, I am grateful that I got the opportunity to see the city.

I feel fortunate to be able to travel sometimes because about 7 years ago, I couldn’t even afford to fill my gas tank let alone buy a plane ticket. Less than 3 years ago, I never thought I’d run again. So, I have a lot to be thankful for now.

If your buddies are training for a race, please feel free to share my mistakes with them. If avoiding these mistakes helps even one person run a better race and/or achieve their goal time, then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do when I wrote this post.