Anchorage Daily News

We'll get to sage advice from the marathon masters eventually, but first let's administer the buzz-kill for you rookies who are all jacked up for Saturday's Mayor's Marathon:

Prepare for pain.

The forecast for many of you 26.2-mile first-timers is partly miserable with occasional periods of suffering and a mild chance of legitimate anguish. Doesn't matter if you're a lickety-split type or someone who gets passed on training runs by people pushing strollers -- the marathon does not discriminate.

Still, it's important to embrace your agony. You've worked hard for this day -- if not, big bummer for you -- and you've no doubt persevered through some difficult training, so you have experience with excruciation. You're going to endure some bad patches Saturday, sure, but you'll be in good company.

"Pretty much, everybody suffers,'' said 2007 Mayor's men's champ Jerry Ross of Anchorage. "There's something communal about group suffering.

"But remember, you ran 26.2 miles. You accomplished something, whether you run two and half hours, or eight hours. Power to the people who are out there that long. That's a third of your day, running.''

Most of us marvel at someone as fast as Ross, who won last year in 2:30:47, or race director and race record-holder Michael Friess, who blistered his 2:24:44 in 1987. But those guys and their kind often are likewise impressed by the resolve of folks who take four, five, six hours or more to finish.

Either way, rookies are in for a day to remember, and hopefully cherish, no matter their level of misery.

Sharon Shutter, 68, of Vernon Hills, Ill., at least knows what to expect. She made her 26.2-mile debut at last fall's Chicago Marathon, and made it to the 16-mile mark before the race was stopped. Given the searing conditions -- 88 degrees -- organizers shut down the second half of the course four hours after the race start.

Shutter, who is here to race while on vacation with her daughter, Dawn, seems determined to go the distance this time.

"I expect to finish it under seven hours and still be standing when I cross the finish line,'' she said.

Dawn, 48, of Blaine, Minn., will be running her 41st marathon, and this will be the 28th state she knocks off on her way to running a marathon in all 50 states. Take it easy, she tells her mom. Finishing will take care of itself.

"I just tell her to run her own race, and she'll be fine,'' Dawn said.

Marathon rookie Ray Devite, 40, an Air Force senior master sergeant who lives in Eagle River, will harbor extra motivation. He's running in memory of his grandmother, who died of cancer in April. He's part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training Program, which trains runners who raise money for research and patient services.

"I think the crowd and the supporters are going to carry me through,'' Devite said.

And even though some inflammation around his knee has cut into his training of late, he grinned and said he's a man with a backup plan in case he really needs to suck it up Saturday.

"I'm gonna pick up a rock, put it in my mouth and bite until I break a tooth and that pain is more than the pain from my runner's knee,'' Devite said.

Friess and Ross offered some tips for the Shutters, Devite and the rest of the marathon rookies, which includes former Alaska Aces coach Davis Payne, back in town for his marathon debut.

Friess, the UAA running coach, encourages rookies to avail themselves of every aid station. He recalls running the Honolulu Marathon years ago. He stopped and drank water while he walked through every aid station, clocked a 2:55 and finished feeling very good.

"Don't be in a hurry,'' Friess cautioned. "And when you get to an aid station, walk through it and don't try to run through it. Get the appropriate amount of fluids in you and take a couple deep breaths.

"When you rush through, you never get the amount of fluids you need.''

Ross likewise preaches patience. Your adrenaline will be spiking, Ross said, but start slowly. Otherwise, he said, you'll pay later.

"The seconds you save at the beginning in terms of pace turn into minutes you lose at the end,'' Ross said.

Like Friess, Ross said maintaining positive thoughts helps a runner push through pain. Ross advises runners to break the race into small sections -- mile chunks or five-mile chunks, for instance -- instead of thinking of it as 26.2 miles.

"Even at 20 miles, when the bear and the monkey jump on your back at the same time, the more you keep moving forward, the sooner you get to the finish,'' Ross said.

Just know, rookies, that you will almost certainly endure some tough stretches out on the course Saturday.

Get through those, though, and you will have accomplished something you coveted. And that will furnish satisfaction to savor.

This column is the opinion of Daily News reporter Doyle Woody. Find his blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

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