running 500 miles just to run 26 is such a scam: a first-time marathon experience report
vancouver marathon 2023 race report and personal experience training for and running a marathon from a recreational runner
i’m never running again after this — me the day of the marathon
maybe — me 1 month later
nvmd no — me 1 year later
the vancouver marathon in british columbia, canada was may 7, 2023 making this over a year overdue (gasp) :,) i am both proud i did this, empowered that i was able to do this, fond in looking back on it, and glad that it’s over (it’s been over for awhile now tho) :-)
background: in hindsight, i’m not sure why a marathon was a good idea
i ran a bit around san diego during college since my friends did and i wanted an excuse to hang out. these runs taught me i are more capable than i think i am since i could never imagine running more than a mile. i started running on my own during the pandemic because helth.
i continued running on and off and when i moved and started working and eventually wanted to give myself a challenge. not quite sure why a marathon was the next step beyond mental health running…? but here we are. i signed up for the vancouver marathon which was 7 months from when i started training.
❗ disclaimer — i was naive and didn’t know anything less than a year is not really enough time to not always be on the brink of injury, plz build a weekly base mileage (source: r/running, mike kessler)
my process and training: mistakes were made but a marathon was run
round 1: september 2022 — december 2022
in september 2022, i started out with a random internet beginner 5k to marathon training plan, going from 2 miles a day, 9 miles a week, ramping up to 30 miles a week. i got to week 8 with whatever fitness level i came in with, however, my lack of initial weekly base milage finally caught up to me when i started having a clicking feeling in my foot when i ran. i stopped after that, had my first visit with a physical therapist, was told i had tight, weak muscles in multiple areas, saw the bill, and never went back (ha).
after that, in november i took about a 3 week break then through december ran 2 miles a day to build a mini base. i joined r/firstmarathon + r/running and read and followed hanson’s first marathon training plan.
round 2 (for real, for real): january 2023 — may 2023
i started doing dynamic warm ups (ones in the book and from social media), cool downs (mytrl hip routine), and post-workout massage using the foam roller, lacrosse ball, and sometimes an ice pack and leg elevation. i did an ice bath or two to try out but ultimately didn’t continue that.
i followed the hanson’s first marathon book’s high weekly mileage, low long-run mileage and the suggested advice to run every run as a slow run since the weekly mileage alone was more than i could really handle without the physical mileage base. some internet folk wrote up a nice experience report to summarize some of the training concepts: hanson’s first marathon reddit post.
what an ideal week would look like
weekdays
- morning: wake up at 30 minutes before sunrise → high-carb snack → warm up → run → protein and water→ hip mobility routine → cool downs → shower → high-protein breakfast → pack lunch and head to work
- afternoon: work → lunch → elevate leg at desk and rest (sit, avoid walking) as much as possible → high-protein or carb snack
- night: dinner → protein and water→ night stretches → look for places to run on the weekend
weekend
- 1 long run
finding places to run: a weekly expedition
looking for places to run
when i started running, i lived nearby the sammamish river trail, a walking and biking trail that goes far up and (i think) connects with the popular burke gilman biking trail. thank you redmond for being a biking city because of this, i was connected to miles and miles of non street intersecting trail :^) it’s asphalt so not as hard as concrete if that’s any impact too.
i soon started to want new scenery for runs so most days i would spend my free time scrolling around google maps looking at parks and all trails changing filters based on what i was looking for. when i looked for places to do long runs i had a few preferred factors: less elevation, continuous trail, and softer, dirt surface to ease tension on joints. i looked to alltrails for some of these.
places i enjoyed running near-ish to me
ones that i enjoyed that were continuous and >10 miles were the the sammamish river trail and sammamish lake trail (marymoor park connects these two), snoqualmie valley trail, running across the 520 and 90 freeway bridges, and stanley park. there were 5k and 10k trails with softer ground were part of the lake to lake trail in bellevue, soaring eagle park, redmond watershed and generally solid 5k and 10k ones were seward park, green lake, and lake union. all the places i ran are mostly linked in the “training week by week (and locations)” section
running while traveling is the move
while training, i was also in san francisco, new york, raleigh, and washington dc. i had to incorporate where i was into my runs which i found i really enjoyed seeing the places i was in through running and is something i will continue doing. i was able to cover more ground more quickly than walking while still seeing cool, little things i wouldn’t have gotten being in a car. the solace and being able to take pictures and go at my pace was also pleasant.
miles and miles and running to work
at some point it was taking too much time to warm up, run in the morning, cool down, shower, pack lunch, then take a bus with a connection to work. luckily with the bike trails conveniently going along the freeway, i found i could run the entire way to work which had showers. i drove or took transit in monday with meals and outfits prepped for the week then just run to work everyday, shower, and start.
on the way to work was another office so around 5k i would stop in, down two orange juices, take a bathroom break, then continue on. i usually carried 3 small high-carb snacks on me. it was admittedly a little strange saying i ran 7.5 miles to work from the base of a hill up up up 700 ft gain but it worked for me.
inclement weather is no obstacle
training never stops! anticipating cold weather for hiking, i picked up some of those nanospikes from costco. these proved useful for running — when taking a snowboarding trip up to whistler, i still had to train so these allowed me to run on icy sidewalks without any worry of slipping.
i originally started running in sunny orange county and san diego so it would be colder and sometimes more drizzly. i read to dress for the temperature minus 10 as running makes the weather feel 10 degrees hotter. so i learned to layer clothing and build some slight mental hardness of enduring the cold for a short while in exchange for not being hot after warming up. ever had to work around weather.
i ended up enjoying (or being pavloved?) running in cloudy weather with not having to put on sunscreen and being uncomfortably sticky. most of the time, rain drizzle was light enough to just wear a hat. i even sometimes liked when a light drizzle would spice it up with a downpour.
managing diet and digestion: a new frontier of carbs, electrolytes, and outlook on eating
carb-loading: more chewing = less expensive
for running long distances / long amounts of times, it’s advised to be eating enough carbs to maintain glycogen stores aka carb-loading. i’m not sure the exact science but it’s explained the new york times how to feed a runner. basically, after 45 minutes of running and every ~30 minutes after, it’s recommended to be eating 40–60 grams. the gu pouches and energy fruit blocks are popular, simple, non-messy, packable ways to get this energy.
however, these are expensive and weeks and miles of these energy products add up in cost. so armed with a costco membership, 25 lbs of rice, and the airplane and tech snacks i poached, i was determined to stay fueled without spending a lot of money. through the miles, i experimented and tried many new foods to “train” my body to handle the food while running as well as figure out what i wanted to fuel with for 26 miles.
some of these include homemade things like rice balls and banana bread or packaged granola bars, that’s it fruit bars, and airplane cookies and pretzels. eventually though, these became tedious and difficult to pack and chew so i found candy to be more palatable. however, right before the marathon, i tried some of the honey stinger gummies which were really efficient and tasty but i was still determined to eat purely sour patch kids. lack of chewing is for the weak! but around mile 8 i was like, dang this is a lot of chewing for 26 miles ;-;
a healthier mindset on eating: calories are energy
i didn’t grow up with the worst relationship with food but was demonstrated to opt for skim milk, egg whites, avoided oil to cook, only lean beef and chicken breast, and “starchy” vegetables like carrots since they were too “close” to carbs, and at some point even thought ketchup was a “waste” of calories.
however, eating for training changed my mindset to that everything i consumed was going to be used to its full potential. my relationship with carbs and sugar changed from being “empty” to full of energy which would help me on my next runs and to fuel my recovery from those runs. by not eating enough it would put me at risk for injury since i wouldn’t be recuperating enough energy to repair my body from its long runs it wasn’t used to doing consistently.
nowadays i enjoy delicious eggs with silky runny yolks, juicy chicken thigh, whole milk lattes, and butter basted steak. interestingly, i neither gained nor lost weight and it’s not like i was building a huge amount of muscle so it all kind of went into the energy void.
food favorites: craving things like when i was a high-school athlete
i drank a lot of farlife chocolate protein milk, treated bobos oat bites with coffee like a sacred dessert, had many an anjiomoto fried rice with fly by jing chili oil when i was too lazy to cook, discovered raos sauce to feast on over thick chewy pasta, noshed on nature’s bakery fig bars, found lesser evil popcorn and craved the butteriness, cleaned the costco greek yogurt and strawberry aisle, glugged tablets of nuun electrolytes over 18 weeks, sacrificed the lives of many sour patch kids, and feinded for panda express orange chicken like no other.
a normal day of eating
i’m not an elite athlete at all so my routine was fixed but the macros, micros, and everything weren’t strict because the mental energy required to do that well would probably make me very sad
- pre-run snack: rice or bread with chili oil and egg
- post-run: protein milk and electrolyte water
- breakfast: yogurt with strawberries
- snack: some carb-y tech snack or rice with egg
- lunch + dinner: standard to what i eat now i just felt free to eat more so usually rice, protein, cooked vegetable. and extra rice because why not
- long run day: extra protein milk for good measure
- dessert: boba or ice cream bc treat yourself hehe
rate everything
i tried so many packaged tech snacks and was so exhausted to cook that i resorted to frozen food and through all of this, i started an instagram story series of stream of consciousness called rate everything.
staying entertained and motivated for 115 hours
in total, i ran about 115 hours so had listening time to burn.
outdoor runs
for outdoor runs, i enjoyed listening to podcasts — i finished all of the npr planet money episodes, kept up with darknet diaries, started throughline, and listened to crime junkie. on long runs when i really needed a motivation pick-me-up, i created an upbeat playlist with songs that could activate my runners high with bass house like knock2.
indoor runs
for indoor treadmill runs, i rewatched the avatar and legend of korra series as well as started and finished blacklist. i often found it difficult to wake up early enough on weekends to get a long run in before things i had so at my longest, ran 10 miles and a half marathon on a treadmill, rewatching mockingjay parts 1 and 2 of the hunger games movies.
on safety and running as a woman
while running trails is beautiful, they’re sometimes less trafficked than populated streets which can feel scary. i always ran with just one earbud in so i could hear around me. i personally never ran at night for safety reasons since i ran solo but this was challenging to schedule around when there was only 8–10 hours of daylight. i was fortunate enough to live in a relatively safe area but if i was running into the evening or didn’t have the mental energy to be on alert i might run part outside then go inside and use the treadmill (however, this may not be an option for those without access to a treadmill).
looking forward to looking back: gamifying documenting my journey
running tok found me and gave me new ideas to document my days, runs, and journey. some of these were taking 0.5x wide angle selfies from the back camera at each mile segment holding up x number of fingers for what mile one was on and a picture of scenery seen along the way for each mile.
training week by week (and locations)
first, some views i had on runs in general:
week 1–10 miles: and so it begins! ran 5ks from where i lived to along the sammamish river trail and back
week 2–12.5 miles: continued daily runs along that river trail; over the weekend went snowboarding with friends in whistler so brought some micro-spikes and ran through whistler valley trail in the mornings before
week 3–16 miles: at this point i know the exact place in which i hit a 5k on the river trail; got sick at the end of this week and skipped the long run
week 4–14 miles: took a week off to recover, then picked up where left off after and continued schedule; ran around saint edwards park for the long run (hilly 🥵)
week 5–24 miles: continued 5ks on weekdays; ran around redmond watershed for weekend long run
week 6–28 miles: saw some really pink sunsets on my daily runs; ran around marymoor dog park with a friend
week 7–11.5 miles: started to feel some injury so did the elliptical instead to maintain cardio; was looking forward to running central park and the brooklyn bridge during a new york trip but walked around instead
week 8–30 miles: started running to work (8 miles one way) along the 520 bike trail
week 9–38 miles: was in san francisco and for daily, ran along the embarcadero; for long run went through golden gate park, along the beach up to lands end, sutro baths, the bluffs, and across the golden gate bridge
week 10–35.5 miles: did a long run around soaring eagle park in redmond with a friend that ran everyday and they decided to do the marathon too; for long run went through volunteer park, down interlaken park, through the washington arborteum, up foster island, then across the 520 bridge
week 11–38.5 miles: ran to work, ran from nike park through hartman park in redmond then timed a 1 mile sprint and was proud to see i can still do a 7:30 mile; ran a lake sammamish half marathon for the long run
week 12–30.5 miles: ran to work more, ran with some friends around lake hills in bellevue, ran a half marathon on a treadmill while re-watching hunger games: mockingjay
week 13–19 miles: treadmill and normal runs to work
week 14–52 miles: took a trip to raleigh and ran multiple loops around lake johnson park and random trails around gloucester
week 15–41 miles: more loops around lake johnson and some river trails of alexandria
week 16–18.5 miles: visited washington dc, finished last half marathon on the snoqualamie valley trail
week 17–36 miles: just 5ks left, home stretch
week 18–13 miles: tried to keep up with seattle run club but they were fast fast
marathon — 26.2 miles: let’s goooo
supplies and equipment: not as cheap as just a pair of sneakers
registering for and the supplies to train for a marathon is not cheap. as i began to run more, i learned my years old middle school running shoes that made me successful in 5ks would not hold up to longer distances. running shoes last 300–500 miles but shoes on rotation can extend wear in allowing time for the foam material to decompress between runs. because of this, i had to buy more than the shoes i had sitting in my closet. additionally, i didn’t have a lot of athletic clothing so bought more so i wouldn’t have to do laundry every time a ran (6 days x week)
appx how much i spent
$141 marathon early registration + $106 lodging (stayed in vancouver the night before) + $26 electrolyte tablet packs (6) + $124 shoes (2) + $12 fleece long sleeve + $10 hat + $40 shorts (2) + $16 leggings + $20 running belt + $12 fruit bars (36) + $36 foam roller + $10 athletic tape + $4 lacrosse ball + $23 socks (7) = ~$580
ways i saved
as both a victim and victor to sales, i come across deals somewhat often. there are a few ways to save on shoes, whether it be buying last year’s model, an unpopular colorway, being crafty with coupons, or running stores seasonal sales.
shoes: i scored $20 topo shoes from rei re/supply which is where there are discounts on gently used gear. i wanted to splurge and try the popular hokas but didn’t want to pay full price so found some shoes that were listed in r/running for long distance and looked up sales for them so got some hoka mach 4s for $104 and used those for long runs and the marathon.
clothes: i found good discounts for running belt from lululemon, shorts from nike and athlete, and cold-weather athletic clothing from costco
hidden savings (girl math):
- i had some athletic clothes so i wasn’t starting from scratch
- avoided buying hydration running vests which run >$70 from athetlic stores and instead looped back for water
- not using the gu energy pouches which run about $2 each probably saved me $100
hidden costs
- gas $$$ to drive to further places to run
- eating more food for fuel and eating out more due to exhaustion
- felt a lot more tired some days so wasn’t able to work at full capacity so it could potentially impact long-term promotion cycle
- went to a pt once since it was reccomended and walked out with a huge bill…i was so shocked and never went again
down the running consumer rabbit hole: learning about running supplies and developing preference
in exploring this new hobby, i became familiar with different brands and shoe models like brooks ghost 14s (classic), some snazzy sacuony speeds, on cloud and and adidas bostons, and generally found joy in seeing different cult-favorite running shoes people in the running community liked and used.
as with many hobbies, there are levels of price pointing, fan favorites and unnecessary “must-haves” so there’s a lot of opportunity for overconsumption. however, in learning about preferred features of running gear, i began to become more mindful of features in clothing i like more and how to resist buying something just because it’s cute or on sale unless it meets my preferred criteria.
for instance, thumb holes for keeping the back of my hands protected from the sun or cold, small zippers i can put my keys in, loops to attach things or fidget with, and sock thickness so i have more room in my shoe to breathe and don’t feel as gross after. in doing so, i also began to recognize things like, i always wear flat shoes like birkenstocks and flip flops my whole life, making zero-drop shoes ideal for my feet. or even learning i have wider feet and have been wearing too narrow of shoes my whole life and didn’t know it.
challenges encountered during training: travel, sickness, wildfires, and exhaustion
i was running 5–6 days a week. it was very hard. it became a personality (lol). i had a few obstacles including near injury, wildfire smoke, and sickness twice. as i mentioned, do not do what i did and instead, build a weekly base :,)
the world does not want me to run a a marathon: wildfire smoke, sickness, and injury
in october, just a month after a i started training, i was sick for a week. i tried my best to recover and i did, but just in time for smoke season in washington where it was so heavy even exercise indoors was discouraged. then in november, i got pretty close to injury and stopped. once i started again in january, i got sick again and was out for another solid week.
around week 8 of the second round of training i started feeling pretty close to injury again so did elliptical for a week to keep cardio up but not strain joints as much. i think i was supposed to reach up to 52 miles a week but only went up to 48 just in case. once again, i would discourage doing what i did heh
the mental health spike then dip
while it was originally a form of self-care, running became worse for my mental health than good for it because i was doing so much. planning my mornings, weekends, and evenings around my daily runs, long runs, diet, and recovery was a lot. i didn’t have as much time to do things i enjoyed like hiking and climbing with friends. when i went off-schedule, so did plans as i couldn’t skip more than a few runs. i also went dry as it slowed my recovery. since so much of my time centered around me training. sometimes i think about doing it again then remember how much of my life it took over. i didn’t realize how much i would struggle with being able to separate running and life and am not ready for that again yet.
the marathon: the easy part
part of me was nervous since everything after mile 16 was in the dark as my training plan made that my longest run. the other part of me knew this is what i had worked up to and i was prepared — after all the marathon is the easy part and all the training was the hard part.
my friends and i drove up to vancouver the night before to pick up the race packets, rest, then wake up early to start.
time splits and thoughts/feelings/progress/stream of consciousness mile by mile
- 13:13 —big nerves but the starting ring went off, stayed slow, felt good, listened to music
- 12:25 — found the 5:45 run walk pacer! people have amazing signs, running through the neighborhoods
- 12:35 — ate my first sour patch kids, had to use the restroom but caught up with the pacer, drank 2 little cups of water at the first station
- 11:40 — more amazing signs and people cheering everyone on!
- 12:23 — people out with speakers, drums, and guitar to cheer everyone on, nice beautiful greenery, nice dappling shade of trees
- 13:13 — saw someone running official attempt for most t-shirts worn during a marathon, had to use the restroom again, got some electrolyte water
- 13:25 — up the big hill everyone dreads, pacer gives advice to keep head tall when going up the hill “as if there’s an invisible string holding you up”. in her words: “you must listen to me because i’m an asian mom. well, actually a grandma”
- 12:22 — sun starting to peek out, hoping there will be bananas soon because the faster runners took them from the first stations
- 12:36 — run run run near ubc, saw my friends for the first time, got a sour patch kid refill from them and electrolyte tablets just in case, nice cloudy shade rolling through
- 12:36 — beautiful, beautiful run but a little too preoccupied to enjoy the views. took some pictures and it was an amazing sunny day with pillowy clouds on the horizon of the mountains
- 12:15 — had to take a long restroom break ugh, gi issues, was annoyed
- 11:37 — big catch up! big downhill with views of vancouver city peeking through, my friend that also ran said this is where a lot of people’s knees blew out and i could see some people sitting on the side of the road, this downhill put pressure on toenails (and yes, the unfortunate did happen)
- 10:57 — reached the half way mark!! can’t believe it
- 12:43 — trail flattens out with water stations, neighborhoods, and water views
- 13:29 — coming back through neighborhoods and up into the city, one last bathroom break
- 12:54 — thought the hills were over but running through neighborhoods and small but annoying hills
- 12:18 — i think the hills subsided here, thinking a lot about when i’m going to speed up, saw friends again!!! they had different signs
- 11:55 — motivation was strong after seeing friends, run up the big vancouver bridge into the main city area, at this point i separate from my pacer group and know it’s time to speed up
- 12:05 — round the corner and what do i see, a big screen with my DAD’s face with an encouraging message, i guess the chip tracker knows your location based on some sort of nfc tagging
- 11:11 — getting down to down to business, i start to speed up, going for that 5:30 time, moving from 12:30 min miles to 11 (pacer was set for 5:45)
- 11:13 —i stop taking mile by mile selfies and just focus on the run, nice, flat, through stanley park; this is all familiar since i ran this before, this is what i’ve trained for
- 11:37 — start feeling weird, think i need ibuprofen? i can feel a stitch in my side for the first time in months. at the same time feel good, since this is my fast portion and it’s only passing at this point
- 11:28 —try to ask my friend who’s finished if they have ibuprofen
- 11:52 — start to not be able to feel my feet and hands, like tingly. there hasn’t been many electrolyte stations and as a slower runner never got any banana at the banana stations :-( all the fast runners took them
- 11:11 — take an electrolyte tablet and water and the pain subsides, it was electrolytes that were the issue all along!
- 10:05 — running running running, passing folks, going under the stanley bridge, rounding the corner and not much left to go!
- 10:01 — final race to the finish! i round the corner and am sprinting but there was so much left haha (also i didn’t know there was cameras so my finishing photo was derpy)
my final finishing time was 5:24:19. this met my goal of finishing and of completing in under 5:30:00!
the first question i usually got after someone hearing i ran a marathon is not congrats! but how long did it take you? but i like to think of it the way my someone at work responded, “wow you ran for 5 hours straight? it’s almost harder to run the same distance longer” :,) i might do it again and i know i can
post-marathon thoughts
privilege in training for and running a marathon
marathon running is a privilege (new york times: one partner runs the marathon — the other does everything else) with work / schedule flexibility, finances, and of course physical health which are not to be taken for granted. i have deep admiration for those who strive for their goals despite added pressures like taking care of others or not having easy access to safe or well-suited running areas. while running as a hobby can be inexpensive, distance running shoes and fuel can add up and without adequete gear can lead to injury.
next up: flexibility and self-consciousmore hiking
nowadays, i like to run around cities as a way to explore and get a vibe, and am currently working on more mobility and yoga. my goal is to be able to deep squat as running taught me about my lack of mobility and strength in my hips, glutes, knees…and pretty much everywhere. by strengthening the bases now that i have the time and understanding, maybe i can pick up another marathon someday…but probably not.
advice to my past self
bro just stick to the half marathon. it’s a lower barrier to entry timeline, less risk of injury, and amazing accomplishment :D also, comparison in running truly is the thief of joy. i was def self-conscious about other people being able to do so much faster marathons but had to remember it’s a race but it’s my own race. it ended up feeling very empowering during the marathon to be surrounded by everyone running their own race.
ending with appreciation :-)
shoutout to calvin for taking care of me and supporting all my training and chloe who listened to me on my 7 month escapade complain about scheduling conflicts and random pain and they followed me around vancouver by car + my supportive friends who continue running marathons (why tho) roopal and ethan. maybe the real marathon was the friends we made along the way :,)
