Some marathon runners speak of “the pyramid,” others speak of “the broad base.” Whatever term they use, they all know that you can only run a marathon with careful preparation. At the start of such a preparation, which takes about ten weeks for most runners, a certain endurance condition is already required. This is then expanded from day to day, from week to week with increasingly longer endurance runs, usually just below the pace of the marathon.
“The fact that you feel that you have taken steps every time is perhaps the most beautiful thing, including the marathon itself,” says Björn Koreman about the so-called ‘taper period’. Most of his preparation is then already over and in two weeks the built-up base must be maintained; the body still needs to receive some stimuli, but not too much. Koreman hopes to be fit and not too tired at the start this Sunday in Rotterdam.
Most athletes can run two marathons a year, at a level. Usually one in the spring and one in the fall, when the weather conditions are most suitable. That is different with other long distances in athletics, and even with a half marathon, says Koreman: “If you run a five or ten kilometer, you can train for it for a few weeks. If you are satisfied then it is fun, and if you are not satisfied, you do it again after a few weeks.”
Like Koreman, Tirza van der Wolf enjoys her preparation. “It can be tough and it can be difficult, but you see that progression every time, that is so cool and motivating. You can really push boundaries,” says Van der Wolf. She was the fastest Dutch woman in Rotterdam a year and a half ago with a time of 2:34.50, but had to cancel this year with a pelvic injury.
Frank Futselaar has included two long training periods in Namibia in his preparation. “I kept making the engine bigger and more economical,” he says. He runs an average of 160 kilometers a week during the preparation period, but also considers saving energy essential. Because the next training is always the most important, you should make sure you don’t do too much so that you can start fresh again, says Futselaar.
When the physical preparation is over, there is still a lot of work to do before the starting gun sounds. A plan must be made with the hares, pacemakers who are hired by the organization for top runners. Hares run “like a Swiss watch,” says Kim Dillen, who, like Van der Wolf, had to cancel the Rotterdam marathon due to an injury. Accurate to the second, they indicate the pace per kilometer. “The fact that you don’t have to concentrate on that takes the pressure off you,” says Dillen.
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Although it doesn’t always go well. In Björn Koreman’s first marathon, when he was not yet among the Dutch top, he had to hire a hare himself. His pacemaker had run another half marathon the week before. He could not maintain the desired pace for long and had to get out after twelve kilometers. “I was looking at my watch all the time after that,” recalls Koreman. He found that it is also mentally much harder to run alone than in a group that keeps the pace stable. On Sunday he will leave with three hares who have to run the pace of twenty, twenty-five and thirty kilometers for a final time of 2.09, about one and a half minutes faster than his personal best, which he ran in Rotterdam last year.
The weather forecasts are also taken into account in the preparation. It is a factor that runners have no influence on, but they can adapt to it. In warmer weather, for example, the concentration of the energy drinks can be adjusted. After all, more moisture is then needed, while the number of carbohydrates should not be higher. These are essential for the second phase of the race and should be taken at the start. Every five kilometers pre-prepared drinks are available for the top runners.
Get rid of a bottle
Drinking well is important, but not easy. It requires a technique that runners have to practice continuously during training. Frank Futselaar always fills his water bottle completely, so that he can easily squeeze out the ‘energy mix’ and does not ingest any air. On his transparent water bottle is a line to where he has to drink. “If you run twenty kilometers per hour, it is really very difficult to get rid of such a water bottle. Your stomach also has to accept the carbohydrates and you have to build up a tolerance for that.”
The water bottles that are ready on a table are divided by start number for the top runners. In itself very clear, but it still often enough goes wrong. Björn Koreman was once surprised when the last drinking point at forty kilometers was suddenly on the other side of the road. Left, instead of right, like all previous tables. “I didn’t know where to look.” Due to the confusion, he could not find his water bottle – “I really needed it” – and he faced a difficult final phase.
In such a situation it is also an advantage to run together, because if one runner misses the mark at the drinking point, another person may want to share the drink. “A marathon is so long and tough that you just need each other,” says Futselaar. What appears to be an individual discipline at first glance is largely teamwork. Marathon runners mainly run against the clock and the kilometers, and possibly against each other only in the final phase of the race.
For the marathon, the less experience, the more pitfalls. Almost every runner has stories about how a good preparation is canceled out by a clumsiness. For example, Kim Dillen ran out of gas at her first marathon, in 2014 in Paris. She had arranged for someone to bring her energy gels, but because the credit card of the person at the rental bicycles did not work, the energy gel did not reach Dillen in time. She saw her attempt to run a European Championship limit fail.
Nausea
Tirza van der Wolf ran her first marathon in the spring of 2021 in Dresden. It was an atypical marathon, because there was no audience due to the corona pandemic. She ran a course with laps of 2.5 kilometers. It was also very cold, the temperature was just above freezing. Van der Wolf insisted on sticking to her predetermined nutritional plan. She did everything by the book, but the energy drinks didn’t go down well. Just before the finish she became so sick that she had to get out.
As experience grows, these kinds of errors of judgment become rarer, and runners dare to deviate from their plans. They simply know better and better how their body reacts to the extreme conditions. Running a marathon always hurts, but when it goes well you feel it less. “A marathon is just 50 percent physical, 50 percent mental,” says Koreman. “If you appear at the start with confidence from the training sessions, you are already 1-0 ahead.”
“You have to have confidence that you have trained well, but also have a little respect for the distance,” says Dillen. Keeping the balance between becoming overconfident and doubting is shaky. During the race, the aim is to distribute the ‘energy pot’ as well as possible over the 42,195 metres.
It is important to relax at the start of the race, and certainly not to start too hard. With the adrenaline of the race and the many kilometers of training, the chosen pace must be easy to maintain. For relaxation, athletes use various tricks. In the first part of the race, Dill mainly tries to absorb the surroundings. “I then see if I see separate buildings or crazy people. You shouldn’t be too focused.” Runners also look for family and friends along the way, as welcome encouragement and distraction.
Koreman especially tries to approach everything positively while walking. At each kilometer sign is the countdown to the finish. “Then I say to myself: I have already had 25 kilometers, only 17 to go.” What also helps is to keep repeating the expected end time – if a good one – to yourself.
When the hares are gone, often after kilometer thirty, it really starts. The formed groups get smaller and smaller and runners end up alone. They break down, count down, focus on technique or whatever helps them keep the pace or, if things are going really well, speed it up. “I always make sure that I make good ground contact,” says Futselaar. “That I put my feet down properly to be able to push off again and maintain my frequency.” If you really break down, it’s also just a matter of putting one leg in front of the other.
At the NK, which takes place during the Rotterdam marathon, last year’s winner Abdi Nageeye is usually the fastest among the men. Behind him, Koreman, Futselaar and a number of other competitors have to battle for the podium spots. Among the women, the runners with the fastest personal bests on the intended list of participants – Dillen and Van der Wolf – are absent and it seems to be an open battle.
“It would be great if we sat together with a few Dutch people at the end, then we could push each other to a better time,” says Futselaar. For him, at the end of the marathon, it’s a matter of zeroing your mind and keeping going. “You can’t really think in the last phase, so then it’s just death or the gladioli.”