Mind vs Body

Veronica Dian
Aug 9, 2017 · 8 min read
Solid proof of the 42.195KM quest. Cr: Rushrunners

In the middle of the hectic wedding preparation, comes the marathon training. HA! Not a bad thing, indeed, as it can help with the weight lost (yep, can’t be better timing than this), but isn’t this exhausting to do both on the same time!

As much as I love defining myself as a runner, long runs never fascinate me. Yep, I occasionally do them, probably twice or thrice in a month, and I was actually thinking to make a marathon such a holy-distance in my running journey (and not even planning to have it twice), until NIKE made me do it. Oh what I wouldn’t do for you, NIKE. And there goes my leisure running plan this year turns into an organized marathon training plan.

It’s Always About the Mind

I always struggle to prepare for long runs. Most of the times, the thought of it scares me a lot, I got trouble sleeping the night before. Which result, as you may expect, with short breath and cranky mood during the run. A big no no on the long runs.

Even so, I’ve learnt that my mood and lack of patience (!!) are what causing me the most pain during the long runs. And so my training for the marathon always involve a lot of mind trick.


After few years seeing many friends of mine conquering greater distances, I do notice that people with calmness and serenity tend to less suffer on the long runs. As for me, being a very temperamental and moody person, taking control of what’s in my head takes a lot of energy and power!

Here are some things that I think would be important on marathon (or any other long runs) preparation. Things that you don’t usually hear on “Tips for Conquering a Marathon” articles, things that I summarized from my personal experience, based on my very cranky and impatient self.

Think About It. And Read About It. A Lot.

42.2 kilometers is a very long distance to be ran. This used to scare me a lot. Imagine running for 6 hours, under the hot-scorching sun, sweating. Imagine being very uncomfortable. Read about people’s story on finishing marathon, focus on what happened during the torturing KMs. KM 29 and above is usually where they feel most miserable, hitting the wall, feeling injured — to cut it short, when they feel the worst.

Now I believe on overcoming my fear by embracing it. So find out about any kind of uncomfortable things that might happen during the run. If you’re scared about getting stiffed legs or painful knees, imagine it and think on how you can cope with it and get going. Channel your inner spirit to be able to be comfortable being uncomfortable for a long time.
The more you know the scariest thing that could happen during a marathon, the more you think about it, the more you are getting used of the idea, and the more it becomes ordinary to you, which could lead you to be calmer and wiser when the real things happen.

But guess what? What you think is what you become. And if you’re not scared anymore to all of this, it’s not likely gonna happen as worst as you think it will.

Patience. Patience. Patience

This is one of my weakness that is sooooo hard to get rid of. So hard that I have it tattooed on my shoulder as a reminder, but still having a hard time achieving it no matter how many times I look up to it. LOL. But this is an important point for a marathon.

A normal person averagely spends 4 to 5 hours running a marathon. As for myself, it takes me 6 hours 18 minutes to do the last one. And running for 6 hours is boring. Super boring. If you’re not having enough patience, you’ll end up speeding too much in the early KMs, thus leaving you with very exhausted mind and body, and also prone to more injury, on the later KMs. Usually, that’s where you hit the wall.

And so patience is the key. To keep moving slow and steady when everyone overlaps you. To maintain your comfortable pace for at least 75% of the course, no matter how your body wants to speed up mid-run. To keep moving and motivate yourself to keep going when the feet want you to stop and the brain screams TIRED. To keep yourself from sprinting once you see the finish line, only to realize that it’s still some 300 metres away and you’re speeding too much it contracts your body in a very unpleasant way (I saw this a lot, how people crumpled and twitched just metres before the finish line because of sudden speeding).

Few metres to the finish line, still manage to laughs and shouts happily! Cr: Rushrunners

Patience saves your ass. And it also saves your dignity from finishing with a fall or cramps, or that painful pout in your face (doesn’t make a good finish photo, eh?). It makes you able to finish slowly but steady, smiling, even posing for the camera. And it keeps you positive during the painful KMs.

A good way to train your mind to be patience, which I think is very effective for me, is by running a mid to long distance in the same loop over and over again. For example, running a 15K in a 400-metres track. Imagine it being super boring, just looking at the same view over and over again, and how it’s gonna feel super loooonnggg to finish the moderate distance, just because one loop is just so small. Well, that’s it. That’s what we’re aiming. To press your mind with boredom, giving a little stress, and see how you can ease the pressure, finding your own way to calm yourself down, so you can finish the loops still feeling happy.

I once did a 13K in a 400-metres loop and damn, the struggle not to whine mid-run is real! I remember feeling very offensively panic and tired and felt like I’m gonna cry out of boredom because it is so frustrating! Felt like I’ve ran for a long time and it’s just 6K! But then I tried to be comfortable while still have to do 7 more kilometers (that’s 17.5 more laps), and find out how can I relax myself when the panic strike. As for me, it always comes to the basic breathing exercise, properly inhaling and exhaling, to bring down the boil and keeping the heart rate low. Once you’re too busy paying attention to your breathing, you’ll look down at your form and try to correct things to make the run easier. And it worked!

And this technique helped me a lot on the race day, around KM 33 where I felt soooo exhausted and I just want to walk, but not patience enough to walk to the finish line since it’s gonna take forever (complicated, I know). I was so busy on the proper breathing that my heart rate went down and I can start jog again.

Get Your Body Used to It. Just Like Breathing.

No matter how great you are at mind-training, running is still a physical effort. Thus, physical training is highly necessary to level up the survival rate.

I don’t fancy lots of long runs, so it’s usually just runs that I do in the peak training, up to 30 kilometers and no more than that. And for the other day of training, I combine tempo, easy run, and occasional speed run, with a little strength training for the core and other muscle groups.

The idea of the training is to train the body to run automatically, to get used to it so that it will be as easy as breathing. So the more often you run, the better. But always remember the rest part, otherwise you’d be prone to injury. Once again, patience is the key. If you feel like you want to do the PM session after an AM session on the same day, be patient and do the AM session the day after instead, and adding up some intensity to raise the bar.


Below are some quick question that I usually encounter from fellow running friends during a prep for greater distance, just in case you’re curious.

Do you have to keep running for the whole course?
For a distance greater than 15K, I usually do breaks. The idea is to rest before you feel tired, so you can recharge the energy faster (same principle with hydrating yourself during any physical activity), thus enduring more physical effort for the later KMs.
So what I usually do for a marathon is: run 15K straight without a break, walk for 1K, run for 5K, walk for 1K, run for 5K, and so on until the finish line. The mind trick is to keep the mind positive (“oh, you just have to run 5K then you can walk!”), while giving yourself the rest to catch your breath and stretch. It also saves you the energy to keep going, slowly and steady, and crossing the finish line feeling happy and not painful.

What kind of strength training that you do to help on running?
After going through differents body workout, I found that circuit boxing helps me the most. It’s a quick workout which combine cardio + muscle toning, and not using lots of feet work. Since my main sport is running, I try not to do too much lower body workout to prevent injury and giving that part a break.
The boxing movement helps me train the muscle on the bicep and shoulder (which could help prevent that “pegel-pegel” you feel on the shoulder after some Ks), while it also trains me to work on the core muscles and breathing (good to maintain proper running form on the run). The explosive cardio workout also helps increase my stamina and practicing patience (!), which could help on the endurance during long runs.

How do you motivate your mind to keep going when you feel like stopping?
Easy. I look back to how many KMs I’ve done, and how it would be such a waste if I do not finish this. And remembering that the more walks I do, the longer it takes for me to the finish line. Other than that, I always know that my bunch of Rushrunners and Ladyrushers are waiting at the finish line, and the thought of later celebration with them always keeps me going, because the slower I go, the longer they are burnt in the sun LOL. I just can’t do that to them, letting them being grilled too long like that ;)


My main support on every race on high-altitude training a week before Bali Marathon 2016. Cr: Garmin Indonesia

So that’s some thoughts on my personal marathon prep. Hope it helps you as much as it helps me, making your first attempt (or even many, many, many attempts) on conquering the greater distance easier and finishing with happy face and thoughts.

See you on the road!

Veronica Dian

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Word weaver, full-time explorer and part-time runner.

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