NJ Marathon/Long Branch Half Marathon

Good luck. Thinking of doing the 1/2 next year.

I will be doing the Half this weekend! Hope to see some other BT'ers there!

Did the full. My first marathon. I was superman (with the not-so-super knees). But they held up, so I think that I will keep pushing the distance. Now ready to get into the tri season and start aiming for a half-iron. (minus one toenail, lol) First up will be Hammonton.

Word of warning, don't underestimate the residual effects of running a marathon. I did the full NJ last year, then eased off of the running and got on the bike, and I just never really got into a groove. In hindsight, I needed more recovery.
Good luck.

How long did you ease off? And, in hindsight, how much time do you think you would have needed? I did absolutely nothing for five days after, then got on the bike and did a 12 mile easy ride on Sat., a hilly 6.6 mile run on Sun at 8:52 pace (i did the marathon at around a 9:50 pace) and a 1 mile swim this morning in around 30 min. Does that sound like too much? Especially with Hammonton in ~2 weeks? I can still feel it in my knees.

I eased back into the running - 8 mile long run the following weekend, 10 mile the next. I don't think that's too much - well, maybe a little. But, I also upped my cycling mileage - was doing about 40-50 mpw before the race, then went to 60miles (during the 7 days after the race), then to 85. And I wondered why my legs were beat!! DOH!

I think if I kept the cycling miles at the same level (without any hard efforts) for a few weeks and eased more slowly back into running, I would have been better off. With the running, be wary of any minor niggling pains and back off.

Some people can race again a couple weeks after a marathon - I'm not one of them. If you got your tri in 2 weeks, i would say keep away from the hard efforts, and treat these weeks as a combination recovery / taper. As the marathon saying goes, better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained.