5 Things Carole Radziwill Experienced During Her First Marathon That Are True for All Runners

We've all been there: You signed up for a race, inviting all your non-runner friends to come cheer you on. But instead of a chorus of yeses, you're met with blank stares.

We love to hang out on the sideline for hours cheering for complete strangers, but I guess we understand why that may not be appealing to everyone.

Radziwill bought 20 tickets for the grandstand at the finish line, but only four of her friends actually showed up. But running your first marathon is a big deal. So, friends of runners if you're reading this, show up for their races. They'll appreciate it more than you know.

No matter how many times you toe the line, you can't help but feel a little nervous. Running through your mind is an endless list of things that could go wrong and a little voice that keeps telling you how unprepared you are.

In Radziwill's case, not only was she running her first marathon, but she was running the New York City Marathon—the largest marathon with more than 50,000 finishers and two million spectators per year. Yeah, that's a little scary.

“I’m more scared to run the marathon than I was when I was working at ABC News and I was covering the war in the Middle East,” she said in the episode. “Going over to Afghanistan, I felt exhilarated, excited. Now, standing at the start line is probably the scariest place I’ve ever been.”

Getting nervous before a big race is totally normal. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to manage this. Running coach and exercise physiologist Susan Paul recommends breaking the 26.2 into smaller chunks, setting goals for yourself, and focusing your thoughts on other things, like what you might do after the race. Burger and beer, anyone?

In the episode, Radziwill talked about how after a while, she didn't think her body would allow her to make it to the finish line. Her legs were tired and heavy, and each step forward was getting harder and harder.

But then something in her mind clicked. It didn't matter how her body felt—she wasn't going to throw away months of training by dropping out.

“It definitely took a lot of mental power, even more than physical power. It's like a mental game, the marathon,” Radziwill told Bravo's Daily Dish. “Physically, your body's just gonna move forward. If you're strong mentally, that's the difference between finishing and not finishing.”

This scenario has probably happened to you more times than you can count, and you always find a way to keep yourself moving. (But if you are stuck, try playing one of these mind games when things are getting tough.)

Radziwill barely exercised a day in her life before she decided to sign up for the marathon.

“I never so much as ran across the street,” she told Runner's World in 2017.

But through training and racing, you learn a lot about yourself not just as a runner, but as a person. Radziwill's experience was no different.

“I went in search of self-esteem but instead found self-acceptance,” she wrote in an essay for Cosmopolitan. “I’ve learned that setting micro goals and achieving them is a saner path to cultivating confidence and self-satisfaction.”

Radziwill told viewers that her younger self would never have believed she was capable of running a marathon. But with grit and determination, she was able to do it.

It's inevitable: At mile 23 you tell yourself, "Never again!" But once you cross that finish line, you're thinking about the next race. Radziwill, although still somewhat new to running, already knows this to be true.

“I don't know if I'll do another marathon,” she told Bravo's Daily Dish. "I think I'm a natural half-marathoner, or I've done half marathons before, and that, to me, feels more my speed.”

While she doesn't have a half already scheduled on her race calendar, we're willing to bet she will soon. May we suggest the Runner's World Half Marathon?