Marathons are a competitive sport and, as such, it draws competitive people to it. Runners tend to push their bodies to the limit, in order to achieve their goals of record breakings, being the best or sometimes just getting through anespecially harsh marathon.

However, in order to succeed at any of these attempts, this competitive mind-set must be aided by the right tools and proper information, and learn why to push your body, how, in what direction, when to stop, when to go harder, and more.

Want to know how to help yourself recover? These tips might shed some light on these issues.

The Magic 10

Our bodies run on oxygen, so gets your bloodpumping your muscles full of it by doing a proper warm up. We’re calling it “the magic 10” as a 10 minute warm up session before getting up and running

This practice goes a long way in protecting our muscles and joints, thus preventing injuries, and overall improving our performance.

The Ten Percent Rule

You’ll have better chances of increasing the distance you can run if you take it one day at a time. The general consensus, for avoiding injury, is to increase your mileage and length of the run weekly, and never over 10% at a time.

Give your body the chance to adjust nice and slow and smooth.

Aim for Comfort

We get it, you have a goal to achieve, however you will get there faster and better, if youtake it easy on your body,and run 60-90 seconds under your actual goal, about 80% of the time. Do it at a pace that feels comfortable and you’ll do it better every time.

Run to The Hills

Go out and find hills to run around in, at least once a week. We’ve established our bodies run on oxygen, and going up and down hills improves our oxygenation, in addition to strengthening our leg muscles and increasing our aerobic capacity.

Pushing your body to its limits doesn’t have to equal punishing it. Take care of your body, and it will take care of your running performance. Go easy on your muscles, while gradually demanding more from them. Your muscles and joints will thank you for it.

If you are a prolific runner, and would like to enter a marathon, you should check out this list as it presents the most outstanding and high profile marathons that take place all over the globe.

Our list offers everything from arid marathons in Africa to more high-profile ones which would need a harsh trainingschedule to get into.

Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris

This marathon will take place in April of 2019. It will be a road race with only a short climb in it and offers a buzzing atmosphere that makes it very enticing to run.

It has at Champ Elysées, and after going past all the important Parisian landmarks, finishes in the Avenue Foch, giving runners a sight of the Arc de Triomphe.

Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series: Pembrokeshire Marathon

Starting out on April 27th 2009, on a hilly and technical terrain, this trail race will allow you to experience the gorgeous sights Britain has to offer. If you love the outdoors you will definitely enjoy this marathon, as it goes along the coastlines of Wales and England.

And although this isn’t a smooth one, while it has some harsh climbs, the views are worth it.

Uganda International Marathon

This hot and hilly marathon, set for May 26th-June 2nd of 2019, gives its runners the chance to experience an excellent community experience. Although it lasts a full week, its path includes the breath-taking sight of Lake Victoria.

If you’re also a philanthropic person, you’ll be glad to know this is typically a fundraiser for the many needs of the community.

Patagonian International Marathon

Taking place in a very hostile and hilly terrain, with harsh weather conditions, in September the 7th of 2019, this might seem like a daunting marathon, but its epic mountain views are most encouraging.

It starts in the surroundings of the Torres del Paine National Park, and ends up at the base of Mount Almirante Nieto.

Midnight Sun Marathon

On June 22nd 2019, in Tromsø, Norway, you might get to bask in the everlasting sun of the season. It is a road type race with only gentle rolling hills, which include the Tromsø Bridge.

Even though most racers reach the finish line at midnight, after having enjoyed gorgeous views of snowy mountains and glistening waters, they do so under the beautiful Scandinavian sky.

From the romantically artistic Paris, to the daunting hills of Chile, and under a ray of everlasting sunshine, each of these marathons offers you astonishing views, lovely communities, and varying degrees of challenges that all runners can appreciate.

When it comes to running, some drills will help you improve your times and endurance, giving you better, more proficient running skills. Whether you are a professional runner, or interested in starting out, training is an important aspect of improving your performance.

Running drills will help you develop muscular memory and proprioception, strengthen your muscles and joints, make you more agile, coordinated and give you a better balance. Overall you’ll be in better shape and faster.

First, Some Basics

Running drills are best done after warming up, twice a week before faster workouts and may also be included in a circuit. If you are recovering from an injury, though, you should be careful about the drills you perform.

General Guidelines

You can do your running drills pretty much anywhere, although a flat smooth surface is highly recommended. If you’re trying to avoid joint impact, or are recovering from an injury, a softer grass-like terrain will work better for you.

Regarding distance, most of these drills should take about 30-50m, with carioca taking a bit more space. You should always walk back to the beginning between drills, and do sets of 2-3 before moving on to the next exercise.

When choosing which drills to practice, you must always keep in mind what goals you are aiming to achieve and any limitations you might have.

Butt-kicks

These work with your quads and your hips flexors. It is no secret that good, strong running legs need to have their quads worked out to most of their abilities. This drill will be lovely just for that, along as increasing your hip-flexor flexibility, which is also very valuable to fast and efficient runners.

High Knees

As a good runner, you need to have excellent mid-foot landing, flexible hamstrings and a high cadence. This drill might make you look and feel a bit silly, but as you perform it, you’ll definitely feel the impact it has on the flexibility of your hamstrings, that mid-foot landing and it will also increase your cadence.Silly, but the outcome is certainly worth it.

A-Skip

Strengthening your muscles is paramount to a proficient performance, yet this drill will also help you improve your coordination, reinforce the mid-foot landing that high knees have given you, and also work with your cadence.

B-Skip

Your hamstrings play a very important role for runners’ legs, and you can never just have enough coordination. This drill focuses mainly on improving your hamstring’s flexibility and your coordination.

Carioca

You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of your hips and the impact they have on your performance. This drill will continue to reinforce improved coordination while also helping your hip flexor, to have that extra flexibility you can greatly benefit from.

Straight-leg Bounds

Now that we’ve taken care of quads, hamstrings, and hips. We must also dedicate some time to our glutes, as these are also important for running better, faster and efficiently.  This drill continues to reinforce your coordination while activating your glutes.

Give these drills a go, and you should see and feel the positive impact they will definitely have on your performance.There are other drills, of course, but we chose these ones as they are the easiest drills, and they just offer the most benefits.

The marathon is a sports activity that takes place in different parts of the world; some are made for different causes such as breast cancer foundation, and many more. But for some time now these events have also been the object of bets in several bookmakers, and it has become very popular.

Marathon breaks records in bets

Even in the annual marathon held in London, the UK broke an incredible record, never seen in a career’s competition, where they got to bet more than 1 million pounds in the event.

This is due to a system that has been installed in several betting houses, where they already identify the male figures you can bet on, and how many professional athletes participated and where, for those people who bet.

Some of them were Stefano Baldini, Martin Lel, and Haile Gebrselassie. They like any other person who is going to participate in marathons at the moment, will be identified by specific colours, and if this competition is available to bet at the betting house.

The same is being done with various marathons from different places and even marathons of only women as well. The event was a success, and that’s why it was extended to different marathons events.

Betting houses

This annual London marathon served as an experiment to see if the betting marathon was successful. And without a doubt it was. One of the bookmakers that enabled its system was William Hill to offer these type of bets online.

But what stands out and enchants people is that competitors are classified by colours so you can follow them and identify them easily.

But the betting house enabled to do these bets offer limited selections. But the most typical betting methodology is applied, like betting on an athleteyou consider as the winner.

He has the highest odds of winning so if he wins you will not receive a lot for the bets, as you would do on the contrary, if you bet for someone who isn’t one of the favourites.

Most important marathons worldwide

Some of the most important marathon events are those held during the Olympic Games and the IAAF World Athletics Championships which are also subject to bets. But the reality is not all bookmakers have implemented this competition as well.

Only some, a few in comparison to the amount of betting houses there are in the whole world are already supporting them.

Change and progress

Marathons are a very good event for society, because in many of them anyone who wants to register can participate. In addition to being a great way to keep active, many of them are dedicated to noble causes.

But this change, or rather, this extension of the marathons now they’re also used for betting is an advance because this practice is being evaluated more professionally and also the work of professional athletes who dedicate all their effort and resistance to this activity.