Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 163rd day.
Today's topic is: How to Register for the Marathon
Today I will continue our discussion on running by talking about the marathon.
We should set goals in all areas of our life and exercise is no exception. Goals help integrate exercise into our daily life. I recommend setting the goal of running a marathon. Many people develop habits for a healthy life by planning and training for marathons. These goals help us adhere to and maintain these habits.
Japan's well-known writer Haruki Murakami developed the habit of running a marathon once a year. And believe it or not, he has even participated in an ultramarathon – a run of one hundred kilometers. Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, the former president of Taiwan, has run for over 40 years.
In fact, the key point to running the marathon doesn't lie in the number of kilometers you run, but in whether you can continue to run, and spread the concept that sports is good for the health to more people.
Similarly, I have vowed to reach 100 million people with my time management methods in order to share how to have a new way of life of greater health, efficiency, balance and happiness. Therefore, I plan to run the marathon every year. In the past year, I have completed three half-marathons.
So, from my own personal experience, let me talk about how to train for and run a marathon, and what problems we need to pay attention to in the process of running a marathon?
First of all, I want to point out that running a marathon is an extreme act of sport.
If you are an experienced runner then you will be just fine. However if you are a new runner and you rush to sign up to run a marathon, then there is some risk to you. We often see inexperienced marathon runners fall into a coma and taken to the hospital. We saw this often on television. This is usually due to improper training or extreme weather during the event. So, unless you have developed good athletic skill, then I suggest you think carefully about this challenge and be sure you plan properly. This really is a serious challenge.
Having said this, some of you must be up to the challenge and you must be wondering how to register for the marathon.
There are marathon events in a lot of cities in China and all around the world often several each month. Marathon races can be large, medium or small in terms of the number of people registered.
Sometimes, however, it is not easy to successfully register for these events. Many of the larger marathons conduct registration in the form of lottery, especially in major city destinations where marathons are more popular like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Hangzhou and other cities.
Because more and more people are focusing on improving their health, more people are participating in marathon in these developed cities. In addition, these cities have been holding marathons for years and they are great opportunities for merchants to buy ad space. For all of these reasons, customer demand is very high and registration sells out fast. It may even require networking with important people to register for marathons in these major cities.
Therefore, I propose that beginners should choose small cities to register for a marathon, because you have a greater chance of successfully registering for these events.
I recently chose to run the "Lanzhou Marathon". Fortunately, a form of "first-come, first-served" registration was used instead of the lottery registration. For "first-come, first-serve" registration, you must register quickly in the first few days. And sometimes, if it's very popular, in the first few hours of registration.
You can register for most marathons online at their website. You can also register on certain mobile APPs and websites, such as: Plump, Joyrun Lap and so on. Signing up for a marathon online rather than in person will prove to be more successful for you as long as you fill out the form in the provided time, and pay the registration fee.
Well I want to mention there are two ways to run a marathon – you can run one offline or online or at the site. In an online marathon, you run alone and you track your progress on a mobile phone app. After the run, these applications or apps will give you an electronic medal or even mail you one.
The offline marathon or the on-site marathon is one where you run with a group of people at a specific date and time at a specific place.
You will feel a greater sense of accomplishment and more emotions if you run an offline or on-site marathon, because you will run together with lots of different people. The organizers and many bystanders will cheer for you. The feeling you get from random strangers cheering for you is something you will not forget. It will fill you with pride. Therefore, if you have the opportunity, I highly recommend that you try running an offline or on-site marathon.
Next, let us talk about some of the problems we need to pay attention to in the process of running an offline marathon:
1. If the marathon is held some place you are not familiar with, it is recommended that you arrive there early, so that you can check the route out beforehand.
You should choose a hotel near the starting point. You can also choose hotels near the end point which will give you the added bonus of being able to immediately take a bath at the end. But we still recommend to choose the hotels near the starting point, because often road closures and parking will make it difficult to get to the starting line.
2. Eat light before the marathon. A bowl of porridge is a good recommendation. If you eat heavy, then most of the energy in your body will be spent digesting food and you will grow tired earlier in the race.
3. When running, run at a constant pace, and be sure to drink water and have nutrition during the race. If you run fast too soon, you will grow very tired. Keep in mind the habit of running slowly and consistently.
4. Looking for groups of people or participants to run together with and encourage each other. It's a good thing. This sense of teamwork and camaraderie will motivate you and give you a great sense of accomplishment. And in the same sense, it will be helping others to get something accomplished which is the whole goal runing in the first place.
5. Make sure you wear your race number and the timing chip in the appropriate place, such as on your bib or around your ankle. Without it your progress will not be tracked.
6. Book the round-trip air tickets in advance, or it will delay your return time because there will be lots of people booking flights after the race.
Before you run the marathon make sure you train appropriately. And remember, there are lots of different apps to help you run including marathon training programs like Plump, and Joyrun Lap. In general, after after two months of training, you will be ready for a half-marathon. And after 6 months of training, you will be ready to run the full marathon.
Some people also say that if you can complete 10 km within 1 hour, you may be ready to finish a half marathon in 2.5 to 3 hours. If you can finish the half-marathon within 2 hours, then you should be ready to attempt a full marathon!
I have set my own goal of completing the world's six great marathons: Tokyo, Berlin, Boston, London, Chicago and New York City.
But the real goal is to constantly challenge ourselves with goals no matter what they are, whether it's running or Ximalya recordings or some other challenge. The most important thing is to convince more and more people to learn about and make a difference in their own health while building a great habit in exercise. Are you ready to set your fitness goals?
That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together today. Have a wonderful day!