Good Pain vs. Bad Pain (Competing or Completing?)
How to successfully plan and train for your first marathon: plus, enjoy yourself while doing it
By Dan Glover
Veteran runner, triathlete, and coach Dan Glover offers vital knowledge on how to tell the difference between good pain and bad pain in relation to the concept of competing vs. completing your first marathon.
Good pain vs. Bad pain
When training my runners, I always bring up the topic of “good” pain vs. “bad” pain. To be able to reliably differentiate the two, a person needs to have been running for several months and be in tune with their body.
GOOD pain…
is one brought on by doing a workout where you’ve pushed yourself beyond what you’ve done before.
is often a dull ache that almost feels good- or at least, it feels good knowing that it was produced due to hard work.
will go away within 24 to 48 hours.
is often caused by lactic acid build up in the muscles and the body's inability to remove it efficiently enough.
can be greatly reduced by taking some ibuprofen.
usually does not necessitate a visit to the doctor.
BAD pain…
is often a sharp or extremely heavy ache that causes fairly significant discomfort for a longer period of time, often more than a week.
might be “masked” by taking an ibuprofen, but will not make it go away.
lingers and can cause concern.
will often require a trip to a specialist who can help. Specialists that can be of benefit are often chiropractors, massage therapists and exercise physiologists.
Competing vs. Completing
An often-overlooked topic to consider is competing vs. completing, especially if you’ve never run a marathon before.
If you are competing in a marathon, you may very well end up frustrated and/or disappointed if you fail to accomplish your goal (be it a certain race time, or even “finish before that person who looks slower than me”). There is nothing wrong with competing, but I encourage you to avoid this option until you’ve run at least one marathon and know what you are capable of.
Instead, the option I would encourage you to take is that of completing. If your goal is to simply complete the marathon, then you have a much higher likelihood of accomplishing your goal.
Don’t forget to enjoy it!
The last suggestion I will share with you is to figure out how to enjoy the process! There’s no way to sugarcoat it: properly training to run a marathon is a lot of work. You may not feel like doing it every single day. But if done correctly you will walk away, probably a little sore, but having done something the majority of the population will never accomplish.
Give yourself rewards along the way. Treat yourself to some food that you love once in a while. You can afford to eat some “junk” calories along the way– you will be burning way more calories than your body is used to burning.
Many people even opt to raise money for some good cause, which can also add to the sense of accomplishment, motivation and enjoyment.
Look at you: you’re on your way towards fulfilling one of the most challenging and rewarding physical feats you can perform as a human. Good luck, have fun, and stay safe while getting into the best shape of your life!
About the Author
Dan Glover has been running for over 45 years. He’s completed three Boston Marathons, fifteen Sprint Triathlons, and two Half Ironman Triathlons. He has been Varsity Coach for Women’s Cross Country, Women’s Track and Field, and Men’s JV Hockey Coach at Nashoba Regional High School for fourteen years, as well as being its Guidance Counselor. Recently, he qualified for the 2023 USA Triathlon Nationals, to be held in Milwaukee, WI in the summer of 2023.
