Running your first marathon can be awesome…or not.  Recently Deb Ausman completed her first marathon.  Take as read as she details “What I Learned from My First Marathon Experience”!

“I’ve been a runner since I was 14 yrs old, but I’ve never wanted to run a marathon.  I always said that I love running too much to run a marathon…because I was certain that all of the training would burn the love of running out of me!

But I’ve had a lot of life changes in the last 5 yrs, including the death of my Mom in the summer of 2022.  The grief from her death had me seeking a challenge.  When Fall came along, I saw I had 3 half marathons planned from mid-October to mid-November.  With that much mileage happening, I asked Coach Michelle what it would take to build to a marathon.  What would it take to get my first marathon experience?  Since my life motto is the JFK quote, ‘We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard,’ it’s time to take on something brand-new!

Turns out I loved training (except for a few cold, wet & snowy training runs that felt a bit idiotic) and, after the marathon, I still love running.  I fully intend to do more, though I will likely look for races that don’t require me to train in the middle of winter!

Lessons I Learned From My First Marathon Experience:

• Choose your race well.  I’d heard from many friends to pick a well-supported race to avoid running by myself without people cheering me on.  I also had some other criteria I used to select my event.  I wanted a flat course at sea level in a city I knew where the weather would likely be temperate.  I selected the Houston Marathon & it turned out to be close to perfect.
• Stick to the plan.  Michelle’s training plan got me across that finish line & her suggestions & encouragement were instrumental in my success.  It was all laid out for me… I just had to execute!  A few times, I went out thinking I could push harder or do more & those times showed me that pushing past the plan wasn’t productive.  Stick to the plan!
• Test everthing!  My training runs were where I tested pacing & nutrition strategies.  I’ve had trouble during long runs & in triathlons with nausea – a sign that I wasn’t hydrating & fueling correctly.  On the long marathon training runs, I tried all sorts of different nutrition options.  I ultimately settled on seasoned, Instant Pot baby potatoes for the first 13 miles (at which point, they became too dry for my mouth to want them anymore), canned peaches in a baggie, & dried pineapple (seriously, the Albertson’s brand has a crystallized consistency that means they almost melt in your mouth; they were absolutely perfect for the entire race).  Since you may be able to tolerate different foods at different mileages, it is essential that you train & test everything.
• Start slow.  Coach Michelle preaches negative splitting, & by the end of my training I had figured out how to hold myself back & let loose in the bottom half of the run.  It was hard to hold my pace slow on race day, especially with all the people & crowds.  I made a point to be present, to high-five everyone I could, & to check my watch regularly in that first 13 miles.  I ended up pulling off a beautiful negative split & it was so gratifying to be passing people at the end while feeling strong & confident.  Incidentally, I’m a run/walk gal & I used 01min/30sec intervals for the entire race.
• Watch out for post-race depression.  I hadn’t been warned about this until it happened, but it was a doozy.  Turns out that after you do a big thing, your mind misses it!  I spent the whole week after the race feeling like what I’d done wasn’t that big of a deal (when your friends are doing ultras & Ironman races, there’s always someone who seems more badass than you) & missing the training plan that had kept me on task & distracted from my grief.  I felt better once I started running again & I will be pace group leader for Boise Galloway this spring, which has me running with a purpose again.
• Have fun!  For me, race day was a chance to visit a place where I’d spent 13 years of my life, see friends, celebrate with my kids & enjoy the crowds & company of my fellow racers on the day.  I truly enjoyed myself the entire way & had no significant soreness or fatigue following the race!

Turns out I love running enough to run a marathon!  I had such a great first marathon experience that I’ll be doing it again soon!”

If you’d like help training for your 1st marathon, click here for more info!