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Strategies to Help Get You Through the Last Few Miles of the Marathon
As with any marathon, the last few miles can be tough physically and mentally. You’ve been running for hours, your legs are heavy, and it takes more physical effort to maintain your pace. Your mind keeps telling you how easy it would be to slow down, walk, or even quit.
It can be beneficial to play mind games to get you through the last few miles. We’ve detailed a few strategies to not only get you though the last stages of the tough races like the Boston or New York City Marathon, but other races as well.
I Promise: Choose a landmark down the course (a light pole, tree, volunteer, etc.) and make a deal with yourself that you will maintain your pace until you at least reach that point. Once you reach it, immediately choose another landmark and maintain your pace to that one as well. Keep breaking the remaining distance into these small segments and vow to keep your pace just until you reach them. This strategy can help break the course down into smaller achievable segments when faced with the enormity of the last few miles.
Roping the Competition: Tie an imaginary rope to a runner a few yards in front of you and pretend to pull yourself up to them. Once you reach them, put a surge in and pass them with purpose. Then tie that imaginary rope to another person in front of you and pull yourself up to them. By “pulling” yourself to them, you mentally move toward them and down the course closer to the finish. The more you can use your imagination to dissociate, (lasso runners, slingshot between two, etc.) the less your focus is on your suffering.
Hill Chopping: If you find that the last few hills are getting the better of you, try to “chop” them down. When you come to a hill, don’t focus on the top of the hill. Stare 10-15 feet in front of you. Shorten your stride and increase your cadence a little as if you were “chopping” at the hill. By keeping your focus away from the top and changing your focus to your stride and cadence, the hill will come down a lot faster.
Home Course Advantage: Think about your training runs. For example, if you have two more miles to go in the race and are thinking about how far that seems, imagine the last two miles your most common training run course. The image of those familiar last two miles (and how easy they usually are during training) can help lessen the dreadful thoughts of how long the last two miles of a marathon can seem.
