This Marathon Golden Rule Could Save You on Race Morning
Most people have heard of Murphy’s law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I have a modified “Predhome’s law” as it pertains to runners: If you don’t budget an extra 15-30 minutes for something to go wrong, you’ll wish you had.
In other words, my best piece of marathon advice isn’t necessarily about fueling or pacing or shoes or straws. My best piece of marathon advice is to budget a little extra time to be lost to bullshit into your race day plan to get to the starting line.
It’s not that those other things aren’t important, but there’s one reality that can affect everyone from the 2:10 runner to the 6:00 runner: sometimes life happens and things don’t go according to plan.
Trust me, I would know.
I had a close call at the Cambridge Half Marathon in 2021. After a warm up jog, I went to hit the bathroom and lines for the bathroom were overwhelmingly long, costing me an extra 15 minutes. After that, I was instructed that I was only allowed to get to my corral by maneuvering through every other corral with hundreds of people, costing an extra 10 minutes. I made it with exactly 2 minutes to spare and was able to get a single stride out before the gun.
What really solidified it for me was the Philadelphia Half Marathon in 2023, easily the worst close call in my experience. I was staying at a hotel about a 1.5 mile jog from the security entrance,
and after I did some Googling on how long security might take, I made a plan with a broken up warmup that factored in waiting in security in the middle. I would get through and then continue on with strides and time to hit the bathroom. What I did not consider was that the security line was significantly longer than I planned and would take about 30 minutes longer than my budgeted time. I got the start line on time, but only by skipping warmups and the bathroom line altogether (had to pee the whole race).
From then on, I made it a rule that to add an extra 15-30 to be lost to bullshit after mapping out race day details. If it’s a small, local race, it can be more like 15 minutes. But a larger race requires more like 30 minutes.
There are several ways that things could go wrong on race day. I could have transportation issues, such as waiting for an uber or a train. It could also be longer lines than normal, such as bib pickups or security or even getting to my corral. It could be that I suddenly realized that I didn’t grab everything I needed out the door and needed to go back and grab something.
Last year, I ran the Bobby Doyle 5 miler. in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It can be a little slow getting to the course as traffic can get clogged up. But knowing that this could happen, I budgeted an extra 15 minutes just in case. And I sat in traffic completely relaxed. I was able to get my warmups in, hit the bathroom, and was able to run one of my best times with a 25:37.
I find that including this leaves me a little more relaxed on race day. All of this is really an attempt to work through a race day as it sometimes is rather than hoping that things go perfectly. And ironically, it gives me a little more control over the situation.
In my mind, I'm not saying that shit will happen, but if it did, it would be part of the plan all along.
Alex Predhome is a contributing writer at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-region runner at Dickinson College and a five-time marathoner with a best time of 2:27:11. He also boasts a sub-2:00 4x800-meter relay split and once logged his wedding ceremony on Strava. His other hobbies include telling bad puns and being a diehard fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. (Go Birds!)