5 things to do to never quit a marathon!

After 16 races, you start to have a bad habit, thinking you are invicible … That what happened to me! It was one of the worst mistake I made and pushed me to quit my marathon: Amazon Race Forest. So that is why I really wanted to share my experience and advises to never quit again another race.

1.Eat well the day of the race!
The day before the race of Amazon Forest I had a good sleep and ate properly… I forgot something really important that I never forget on a race day : eat well ! I had one banana and a bunch of almonds for breakfast. Never do that, it is not enough!
You have to eat a healthy breakfast : nuts, eggs, bananas, … enough to give you the ability to run this competition.

2.Never being to confident on yourself
Too much confidence will lead you to make bad and even stupid decisions… I had not already eat that much but I was thinking : « I can do it, I have already ran races even harder… I can do it! » You bet, I barely managed to run the first hill… I also waited to climb this hill to eat again, usually I wait and eat later, around the 20th kilometre. But this race was not like all other races. All bad decisions I made were a chain reaction. Eating less at the begging of the race and delaying the time I was supposed to eat really worsen my health conditions.

3.Listen to your body
By competing a lot, you start knowing more your body but you can also bare more the pain. My healthy condition was getting worst and you could tell it by checking my temperature. I was really cold and the temperature outside was 25 degrees celsius with 50% of humidity. Moving and in a good health condition, your body is not supposed to be as cold as mine was. Hopefully I had a running partner, Adam, who made me realize it. He was pretty worried about me. So at the 15th kilometre I ate all the food that I had in my backpack.

4. Don’t try to push your limits if your health is in danger!
At the 21th kilometer even with a really bad condition that made me cried and almost made me pass out, I really wanted to continue. I would have made this decision if I was by myself. When you are running long distance, it is completely different from running 5 to 10 kilometres. After 20-30 kilometers, your body is really suffering and you have to be aware of that because the next 10 or 20k more will be worst as you have already run the same amount. To continue would have been reckless. Thus, I quit but I can tell you I cried as my aim is to run marathons all around the world.

5. Know to draw some conclusions of a failure
Tears, negatives thoughts were my first reactions. I felt also disappointed of myself for not ending this race and for La Fondation Motrice. But you don’t have to stay locked up in this mind set. You have to look forward, analyze the situation and set up new goals for the next race. I will finish by quoting my friend Adam : « Only bad runners don’t fail. » Something to meditate on! 🙂

If you want to participate to this race go to Amazon Race Forest website. The race is taking place mid November. You can run 10k, 21k, 42k or 65k. If you want more detail, feel free to send me an e-mail to worldwildrunneuze@gmail.com