3 Ways to Make Your Marathon Successful

In 48 hours you will be settled into your running and enjoying the overwhelmingly wonderful support of the thousands who line the streets of London to cheer you on in The Marathon. It's called 'The' Marathon because it is the best of all the majors. You are becoming part of history.

This article is to share with you my experience as a non-runner who worked hard and achieved a few things when it comes to The Marathon. I can sum up my best advice in 3 points. I promise if you take them on board, your marathon, whether it's 3 hours of 8 hours, will be significantly easier and much more enjoyable.

Even if you are not running, please share with your network because everyone knows someone who will line up at Greenwich Park on Sunday.

We both know how many miles you have covered in training. To be on the start line in London you have trained all winter, in the cold, wet, windy darkness of November and December, the ice of Jan and Feb, into the peaks and troughs of sun then rain in March and April. The good news is, all those miles are in the bank. Sunday is when they pay out.

Tip #1 for More Marathon Success

VASELINE

Buy a large pot. Not the small one you have in your bag as lip balm, but a big one that you normally see in hospitals. In the hotel or in the park (don't worry everyone is getting naked and adjusting themselves and kit or both at Greenwich) open it up and apply liberally to your skin in every place that moves when you walk.

I don't care if you are smooth skinned and petite like Paula Radcliffe or large hairy and still overweight (despite all the miles of running - how is that possible?) like me, VASELINE makes every race better. I promise you that if you daub the pot liberally on your body, at the end of the race, nothing will hurt, chafe, bleed or be rubbed the wrong way. Everywhere the vaseline has been, your skin is moisturised and ready for the next morning, and the morning after that (when the real pain kicks in - like a hangover, dont think because on Monday you feel ok that you got away with it, you didnt, the stiffness and injuries emerge on Tuesday when you try to jump out of bed to admire your medal just once more before work.)

INSTRUCTIONS;

1) Get naked, no kit, running or otherwise should be on your body

2) Open pot and apply everywhere; armpits, soles of your feet, inbetween your toes, nipples (obviously), inner thighs, derriere (in the middle, delve in a little....) and under your butt cheeks where they meet your legs, eye brows (keeps sweat out of your eyes like a boxer), back of your neck, behind your ears, under your gut if you still have one at your waist.

3) when you have applied everywhere, rub it in as much as it will go in. Dont worry if its a bit blobby and sticky and feels weird, it won't by the time you are high fiving spectators along Birdcage Walk.

NOW THE IMPORTANT BIT, THE CRITICAL STEP 4 TO TOP TIP #1

4) DO IT ALL AGAIN! Everywhere you just coated and rubbed in, coat again and don't rub in. Get a layer on top of your layer of Vaseline. Your feet should look like they are dipped in lard before roasting. Your nipples should look like strange greasy peaks. Your arm pit should squelch as you reach for your next drink of water before the race. 5) Put your kit on. Socks feel awful but your feet will love you for what you just did. Your race vest/t-shirt will stick to your body in places you never want to see again, but it will be darkened with sweat not blood at the end - gotta be a winner right? 6) Kit on, give the rest of your pot to your support person(s) and ask them to have it ready when you run past them. Probably not for your now super greased bod, but for your lips and nose area which will dry out as you breathe out a million breaths as you pound the streets of the big smoke.

Tip #2 for More Marathon Success

WATER AND LUCOZADE SPORT

You probably won't like this tip much. You have been drinking gallons of water for the past week or more and the toilet knows you better than your best friend. Why won't it stay in? They said it would once you fully hydrated and your body got used to it. But it hasn't and what goes in, must come out!!!

You MUST, MUST, MUST keep pouring it in during the race. I do NOT mean every bit of every bottle or pouch. Don't finish any of the bottles. And DONT take anything from any unofficial water people, the kids have a horrible habit of collecting the discarded bottles and handing them back to you a few metres past the water station, dont go for these, toilet trouble ensues.

I DO mean take a little from EVERY water and feeding station. What's the difference? Water stations give you water, Feeding stations give you liquid food, in my marathons it was Lucozade Sport, @ Silverstone recently it was Gatorade, whatever, they are both 'approved' energy drinks to help you.

INSTRUCTIONS;

1) EVERY single station collect a bottle or pouch. 2) Take a sip or two. (Have you practised eating and drinking while you run, you should have!). 3) HOLD ON to the bottle for the next 1000 metres or so. Take a couple more sips if you like. 4) Before you discard it, take a few more sips. Particularly the energy drink , try to finish it.

NOW THE IMPORTANT BIT, THE CRITICAL STEP 5 TO TOP TIP #2

5) Ignore your body telling you that you are not thirsty and feel a bit bloated. The human body can only store the easily accessible energy you put in for a maximum of 1.5 hours. Unless you are about to become a marathon superstar and super human first time runner, you will be out there way longer than that.

Secondly, the scraps of fat that remain on your svelte super trained physique are not helpful in the marathon. They cant be accessed for the urgent calories you need as you hit the burners around the Isle of Dogs or put in a determined spurt to catch the pensioner in the Scooby Doo costume carrying a fridge who is ahead of you as you come up onto The Embankment, (by the way, the biggest mistake you can make, apart from not training, is to judge anyone around you. One of the strongest runners I ever had the privilege of watching disappear into the distance looked like a farmer's wife in a woolly jumper who loved pies even more than me.)

SO, you need instant energy and the best way to cover that need is to PREPARE for it. Put in a little and often means it's in your system from mile 1 and there when you need it at mile 20 onwards. A bit like your Nectar points all year to pay for the bottles of plonk at Christmas. You don't notice it but are glad it's there when you need it. That's how your water and Lucozade intake will pay you back. Sip it every mile, please!

Tip #3 for More Marathon Success

'THE WALL' is a real thing.

KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY UNTIL MILE 20

20 Miles is HALF-WAY.

No it isn't Mat, it's 13.1 miles, where the huge set of balloons over the road, just down the road after you cross Tower Bridge, that's half way you fool.

Trust me, you feel like your floating on air at the actual half way. The iconic Tower Bridge, the symbolic crossing of the Thames, the packed throngs of supporters, the bevy of TV semi-celebrities sticking a microphone under your nose or pointing a tv camera in your overly-red, is this really-my-tv-debut face. The marathon is easy at half way.

Then you look to the left, where the exit to the Isle of Dogs is about 18 miles in. You're at 13, they're at 18, not much difference you think. But the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf are had yards. Less people, cold winds, grey facades, very few residents and your investment in training starting to either nag you or reassure you.

Let's step (literally in my case as I am run-walking by now) to Mile 19 and 20. You are on the Embankment, or at least in the tunnels that lead to it, past Tower Hill, down through The Vintry and catching a glimpse of Southwark Bridge, you emerge on the bank of the Thames and can see Big Ben or a whole pile of scaffolding in this years race, in front of you. Touching distance. 6 miles to go. You did that easily back in November, even when it was your 'long run' at the weekend. An hour's running to go? You've made it.

NO YOU HAVEN'T!

NOW THE IMPORTANT BIT FOR TOP TIP #3

Run your race nice and steady until Mile 20. If you feel good with 6 to go, feel free to go mad and turn up the burners.

INSTRUCTIONS;

1) Ignore everyone at the start when they run off like Usain Bolt. 2) Continue to ignore them at mile 6 around Cutty Sark when they are still stretching their legs like Sir Mo. 3) When the guy in the divers suit passes you at Mile 10 or 14, brush it aside. 4) When the recovery bus and street sweepers are brushing your the heels of your Asics at Mile 18, think nothing of it. Because if you go for broke, run a different race to the one you trained for all winter, THE WALL will prove an impenetrable barrier at Mile 20.

Like your last hangover, (please dont let it be Sunday after an over exhuberant pasta party on Saturday night..... i did that with my sister in law Katie at a Great North Run once and mile 3 on the Tyne Bridge proved categorically that 'one more for the road' at 2am was not a good idea) you may think you have escaped the wall as Mile 20 disappears, even 21....22.....23. Good for you. It took me until marathon #5 to avoid the cold slap of the wall, where your brain shuts down, a strange electrical current courses down your spine into your stone legs and on to your lifeless and lead lined feet.

NOW THE IMPORTANT BIT, THE CRITICAL STEP 5 TO TOP TIP #3

STICK TO YOUR OWN PACE, YOUR OWN PLAN. It might sound easy, but i promise between talented grandmas and voicy spectators telling you to get your knees up, you will be tempted many times to run faster, overtake more, take on the hill at pace. Don't do it. Run your own race. I went from a walk to a mild amble at Mile 20, cranked it up to a talented stumble at Mile 23, was glad to see 1500m to go and raised a smile to accompany my stumble at Mile 24, was in full big boys jog mode by mile 25 and really hit the gas into a fully fledged Dad dash (aka sprint finish) at Mile 26, when of course there is still 0.2 of a mile to go - that's 320m you know, further than I ever ran at school sports day!

There you have it.

For what it's worth, my 3 top tips for a more successful marathon, 1) Vaseline, 2) Water and 3) Powder, the dry sort, (especially near the Houses of Parliament).

I started in 2001 taking over 7 hours in my first London Marathon.

By 2009 I had it down to 5h53m29s. Not a time you ever see on the BBC, the cameras are off by then. Not a time witnessed by the masses, they are glad their loved ones made it and are on the tube home. But a time witnessed by me. My personal best.

The culmination of years of hard work, winter miles and a very patient wife, (especially the first one where she did an ultra marathon with a pushchair containing Max while i had the easy clear route around London) motivating father-in-law (except when he sang 'Frosty the Snowman' at a Silverstone Half Marathon once, when it snowed in March...) and supportive family, colleagues and friends, who paid many tens of thousands to the charities I have run for.

It's you versus the clock. Nothing else matters. I promise you will go back again, it's addictive.

Enjoy it. You worked so hard to get to the start line. The finish line is the best place in the world.

God Bless you, the other runners, all the marathon team and the families, friends, locals and internationals that make THE Marathon, THE best in the world.

My name is Mat. I am the tallest and heaviest man to have run The London Marathon and The Great North Run five times. I have more marathon and half marathon medals than any giant on the planet. I did it, you will too. God speed :)

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