5 last-minute marathon tips from an athletics champion to help you race like a pro

After months of training, the day is almost here when it’s time to lace up your running shoes for the final dance, to run your marathon.

No doubt you’ve been putting in endless hours of hard work; experienced a lot of sweat, maybe even a few tears, and plenty of achy joints and blisters, but that’s all about to pay off.

To help you put your best foot forward and get over the finish line happy, we spoke to COROS Ambassador and European Silver Medalist Holly Archer – who’ll also be running the London Marathon on the elite start line – to get some last-minute tips. They can make a big difference on race day and, hopefully, make your 26.2 mile journey more enjoyable.

1. Do a full dress rehearsal

To avoid any surprises on race day, Holly advises doing a full dress rehearsal ahead of time – all the way down to your socks and fitness tracker. “Do a long run where you wear all your kit you plan to race in; watch, socks, shoes, gels, breakfast, the works. Trust me, this is not the day to find out your lucky sports bra isn’t actually lucky, or worse, that your socks rub.”

2. Practice fueling like it’s a science experiment

Finding the right fueling strategy is essential to ensure race day success. However, fuelling strategies are subjective – what works for you may not work for another – and it’s not just about what you take, but when you take it too. “You must test your fueling in training,” says Holly. “I’ve figured out I can take on around 60–80g of carbs per hour through gels and drinks without feeling ill. But everyone’s different, so trial what works for you. I set up my COROS with nutrition alerts set to every 20 - 25 minutes to remind me to fuel on time.”

3. Break the race into manageable chunks

As exciting as a marathon is, the distance can feel incredibly daunting, especially if it's your first one – but breaking it down into smaller chunks can help you feel less overwhelmed, mentally and physically. “Thinking about the full 26.2 miles even gets me nervous, so I’m splitting it into 10K segments plus that small bonus of a few Ks at the end,” says Holly. “My watch stats will help me reset mentally every 10K, and I use internal encouragement and mantras to keep me going, like ‘Little wins. Less panic’.”

4. Set up your fitness tracker to capture the data you want

Let’s be honest, you’ll want to show off that you’ve just run 26.2 miles – who wouldn’t, it’s a massive achievement! But, the last thing you want to do is be faffing around on race day with your fitness tracker, so make sure you know exactly what you want to track and how to do it competently. “I want to show my overall distance on my COROS PACE Pro and I want my COROS Pod on my shoe tracking my GPS accurately, which is then shown on my watch. Then, when the signal gets distorted in Canary Wharf (due to the tall buildings), I’ll still know my exact pace and distance ran.”

5. Get familiar with your goal pace

If you’re looking to work towards a particular time, then you need to make sure you’re familiar with your goal pace, and that you’ve been practicing during training. “I’ve already done my longest run, so now I’m focusing on my Sunday long runs around the 20k mark distance and adding marathon pace. If I know that I can cruise through half the distance at race pace, I’ll have a much calmer brain on the day.”