Second marathon: tougher than the first?

dokter

Hi,

I ran my first marathon last year (DCM) and have entered again this year....
The trouble is, I'm not sure what time to aim for.....

It should be achievable to do the same time. Although sometimes I think I should try and target my training to knock 5, 6, or 7min off my time from last year.
The thing is, it could all go wrong and end up blowing up and doing a slow time. Last year it all seemed easier.....

D

geld

My second marathon was my most miserable!

Looking back I think I was a bit lazy and maybe too confident with regards my training. I didn't really learn from my first and use the knowledge I had gained.

Dokter, what you should do is go for it, have a proper plan in place and aim to knock a few minutes off last year.

Sosa

I have only done 2 and the 2nd was waaaay easier.
I blew up in the first,learned alot from that and made it right second time round.

jlang

I read before that your second marathon can be the hardest because you know how tough it is going to get, but I found my second (3:29, Vienna '09) was a good deal easier than my first (3:54, Dublin '07). I was better trained with more and better long runs, more aware of what I had to do to hit my target time and also that that was an achievable target. Also, because I was away for the weekend, I was on a bit of a feelgood trip. My third is going to be tough because some part of me will be expecting a similar improvement and I'll probably put it off for a while, at least until I'd expect to be back under the 3.5 hours.

TFBubendorfer

My second one was definitely the worst: the slowest as well as the most painful of them all.

Not sure why, I did not train much but more than for my first and I was confident I would beat my first time. It was an excellent learning experience though; it was after that second marathon that I decided if I was going to do this again, I would have to do it properly.

opus

This isn't the sort of thread I want to be reading seeing as I'm facing my 2nd marathon in Berlin in Sept Personally I'm hoping to do better as I'm following a training plan for this one which is going ok but it's only a hope I guess & all will be revealed on Sept 26th!

Must check if there's some way to hide threads like this to stop self doubt creeping in

Krusty_Clown

My second marathon was much easier, as I learned to pace myself correctly from my first marathon experience. I ran the first half 5 minutes slower, and the second half ten minutes faster.

It's all down to training, preparation, and the lessons you learned.

chinguetti

I did Cork in 08 as my first and felt i learned alot regarding training and pacing myself on the day. Was training for Edinburgh this year but pulled my calf in a freak accident when training had been going well. Recovered so now i'm aiming for Dublin.

The weather should be cooler, the course nicer and there's pacer groups too.

Of course there is the lack of fear this time as you've done it before versus the memory of the marathon to counterbalance this (I have few memories of the last 7 miles from Cork).

So i'm assuming that if you train smart and learn from your previous experience you'll do better on your second time around? Can the experienced people tell me that this is right? If i'm wrong, can you break it to me nicely. Thanks

plodder

My first 4 marathons were done using the same mediocre "plan". I improved slightly in my second, and really blew up badly in the third, basically because I was expecting too much improvement from the same small amount of training. For the same amount of training, so long as you don't expect a faster time, then there's no reason it should feel tougher.

Also, what do you mean by tougher? What if it feels worse at the end, but you ended up finishing 15 minutes faster? That's probably not a bad thing, Id guess? On the other hand, you might train a lot harder, but make the mistake of pacing too fast, and you blow up at 20 miles anyway.

At the end of the day, it's about training hard enough for what you want to achieve, and then pacing yourself realistically on the day.

SucCes09

DCM last year - blew up at the 19 mile mark
Connamara this year blew up at the 22 mile mark

Not sure if that is an improvement...:mad:

Krusty_Clown

SucCes09 wrote: »

DCM last year - blew up at the 19 mile mark
Connamara this year blew up at the 22 mile mark

Not sure if that is an improvement...:mad:

I predict 2012 is going to be a great year for you. You should also sign up for the Connemara ultra in 2016.