Why Poor Marathon Performances?

The reasons for poor marathon performances are many. I'd be willing to bet that anyone who has run more than a few has had at least one. Oh, the disappointment! All the preparation, all that excitement and anticipation!
It's easy to identify why a marathon went bad, some of the causes we have control over, others we don't. Consider the following;


1.Bad weather. Not much you can do about that. I've known runners who've "bagged" their race the morning of due to the weather and picked another marathon somewhere else a week or two later.
2. A big one here: starting out too fast. You get caught up in the race day excitement and run those early miles much quicker than you had planned. This is something that should only happen to an inexperienced runner.
3. Insufficient hydration and electrolyte replacement before and during the race. If you dehydrate or run out of fuel, you're done. Experimenting beforehand with drinking fluids during long training runs is essential.
4. Not doing enough pre-race preparation. Here is one example of faulty preparation-- During my marathon days, the backbone of marathon preparation was the weekly 20 miler. I don't know how it was for you but everyone I knew did a weekly or twice monthly 20 miler. The problem I found early on was that the race is 26 miles, not 20. Derek Clayton (pictured above) said he always made a point of running the marathon distance once a week. I am not recommending this but I found that three, 24 to 26 milers incorporated into my marathon training worked very well.
5.Here is another big one: insufficient tapering for the race. A sufficient marathon taper involves "backing off" for two weeks prior to THE day.
Think about it, months of training, much of it stressful, now it's time to intelligently back off and allow your body to rest and recharge.
This is a common rookie mistake, but, I can't tell you how many experienced runners, athletes who should have known better but still couldn't back off those final two weeks. Some of them had been training and focusing on their marathon for 6 to 8 months, did they really think they were going to lose it all in the last 14 days?
After being around runners for as long as I have, I see the common cause of this "failing to taper" as  uncontrolled anxiety. I think of what a wise old runner once told me, while pointing to his head he remarked : "you run with this as well as your legs."
I will offer a final bit of advice regarding the marathon and I have written on this subject before.
If you want to race a  marathon (emphasis on race),  I believe it is something that you work up to after years of running and racing. It is a distance that is not to be taken lightly. Preparatory races from the 10k, to the 20 km to the half marathon to the 30k should be in every sensible runner's resume before tackling the marathon.
There is no pain quite like that experienced by a runner who tried to race a marathon but "crashed" because he or she hadn't done the necessary prep work.


Each race, good or bad, each workout, provides an opportunity to learn more about ourselves. Take advantage of that.