Marathon Friend’s Running Tips – Berns Tan and Karen Reimann

The first part of our series of Marathon Friend’s Running Tips was thanks to our good friend Raul Concepcion aka the Running Shield where we learned about the power of positive thinking in terms of appreciating the challenges along the way so as to make the victory of finishing a marathon so much sweeter in the end.

Now it is time for some marathon tips brought to you by Filipina Berns Tan and Australian Karen Reimann.

Home-made Gel Advice from Berns:

“My best marathon time was 3:53:58 at the 2010 34th Milo Finals (December 12th). I was not taking commercial gels during this time and I made my own concoction of agave, honey, black molasses and chia seeds. I filled a palm size squeeze bottle with it but unfortunately I ran out of my concoction on the last 6 or 7km. This was my first attempt to run a sub-4 hour marathon and I was clueless with respect to pre-race and during race nutrition. I really think my home-made concoction is more effective than the sweeter commercial gels (and cheaper) as I was able to achieve my sub-4 hour goal and a personal best too.

Toilet and Smiling Advice from Karen:

“My first marathon was the Honolulu Marathon (4hrs 40min.) and I learned a lot from this one. I got caught up in the race expo and decided to try GU for the first time during the race. This meant a lot of time spent in the bathrooms along the course!

Don’t stop at the first toilets on the race course. Everyone is nervous at the start of a race (regardless of what they tell you) which leads to needing a bathroom stop early in the race. The Honolulu marathon has around 30,000 competitors so the first toilets had a 15 minute wait! Always miss the first toilets and go to the next – when I got to the second toilets there was no line up.

Smile for the cameras is a mantra for me for all races I do. There is nothing worse than looking through the race photos and not finding one that you like! The other (main) benefit of this is that you focus on something other than the pain. Having different things to occupy your mind along the course is a good way to get through a long race.”

Final Word from Chad:

When you lead a Primed Lifestyle you enjoy your own home-made gels (without the sugars and preservatives) that don’t lead to stomach issues. Generally, you have good gut health due to the highly nutritious diet of fresh fruit and vegetables together with your proteins, good fats (think avocado, eggs, coconut oil) and healthy drinks like green tea, water, coconut water.