As tempting as it might be to treat yourself to a new outfit for marathon day as a reward for coming so far, don’t wear anything for your marathon that you haven’t worn without problems on you long run. Chaffing and blisters are not your friends and can pop up in the most unlikely places. Test your kit and wear something comfortable.

3 Put your name on your shirt
Everyone said the crowd would cheer my name if I did this. But I wasn’t expecting quite so many people to be shouting out for me and offering me encouragemnt from start to finish. It made such a differnce both to my motivation and the experience – I felt like a superstar.

4 Start slow and go slower
More than half of people running a race (especially a marathon) go off too fast and end up paying for it in the later stages. Don’t get dragged along with the masses, plan what pace you’re going to run at and stick to it. If, come mile 18, you find you’ve got something left in the tank – by all means pick up the pace. But something tells me you won’t.

5 Drink early, drink often
When you get to the first water station, drink – even if you’re not thirsty. When you get to the second water station, drink – even if you’re not thirsty. When you… well you get the idea. Saving a few seconds by skipping a drinks station is a false economy. By the time you start to feel thirsty you’ll be fighting an uphill battle against dehydration.

6 Seeing friends and family
Decide in advance where your friends and family are going to stand to look out for you and tell them to get a big balloon or something to help you spot them but try not to focus too much on seeing them. In a big city marathon it can be pretty tough to find each other and that can be an emotional blow. I missed seeing Lazy Boy at the first two of our desgnated spots and didn’t see him until half way which got me down for a couple of miles. Accept that it will be hard to spot them in advance.

7 Smile for the cameras
There’s be so many people taking photos you’ll feel like a celebrity. Although you probably won’t feel or look your best, in a few weeks time you’ll be proudly showing strangers on the bus your marathon pictures. There’ll probably be the official race photographers as well as snappers from the local paper and you may even find yourself on Flickr courtesy of local amateur photographers as I have. So smile at any cameras pointing at you.

8 Positive thoughts

9 Remember how far you’ve come

The days and minutes before the starting pistol goes off, everyone thinks about what they should or could have done differently. One more long run, a few more miles further, another sports massage. By this point, it’s too late and instead you sould be focussing on what you have done. Remember when you thought you’d never get round your long run? Or even when five miles sounded huge? But you did it and you can run a marathon too.

If you’re training for your first marathon in Autumn 2012, sign up to train virtually with me. Go here for more details.