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" 1. Whenever you see a camera, smile.  Of all the advice I received for running my first marathon, this was the single most useful tip I got. I survived one of the hardest physical challenges of my life, and thanks to advice from Today Show co-anchor Natalie Morales in Runner&amp;#039;s World, I have documentation of the milestone\u2014and I look decently cheerful through it all. 2. Run with a charity partner.  After losing my lottery bid to run in the New York City Marathon, I resigned myself to the fact that I&amp;#039;d have to wait until next year to run. Part of me was glad I could put off worrying about completing 26.2 miles for another 18 months. The only ways into the marathon are through the lottery, participating in New York Road Runners&amp;#039;s 9+1 programs, meeting a (ridiculously fast) time standard for a previous race, running in 15 previous NYC Marathons, signing up as part of an international travel package (only for runners coming from abroad), or running with a charity, which requires a fundraising commitment. An e-mail from a college friend of mine soliciting donations for his Team for Kids marathon entry convinced me to sign up this way, and I&amp;#039;m very glad I did. By running with Team for Kids, which supports youth running initivatives for more than 200,000 children each year in 800 schoools and community centers around the world as the official charity of New York Road Runners, I had access to weekly training runs, coaches, coach bus transportation to the start, and access to the team&amp;#039;s heated tent on Staten Island (a godsend on what proved to be an especially cold morning in the start village at Fort Wadsworth) and again after the finish line in Central Park. I raised $3,235 through my fundraising initiative (the Team for Kids minimum requirement was $2,620). It&amp;#039;s a great deal for everyone that charities like Team for Kids and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center&amp;#039;s Fred&amp;#039;s Team (just two of the 324 official charity partners this year) turn runners&amp;#039;s zeal for getting into the NYC Marathon\u2014considered among the best in the world\u2014into dollars that do good. 3. Use a GPS Watch. A watch like the new Garmin Forerunner 620 lets you check your pace with a casual glance at the wrist, instead of having to fumble through pockets to pull out your phone and click into a running app. (GPS watches display pace more accurately than smartphone apps, too, I&amp;#039;m told.)  4. Wear clothing that feels as comfortable as it is stylish. Lululemon is a good option.  5. Use a gear belt for your fluids, but one that is small enough to be concealed under a singlet. I like the SPIbelt. It&amp;#039;s big enough to hold the 7 GU energy gels I carried, but not so unwieldly that it looks like its meant for an expedition up Mount Everest.  6. Wear the right kind of shoes.  Take the time to get fitted for shoes at a specialty running store. At JackRabbit and New York Running Company, that process involves trying on different pairs of shoes and running with them on a treadmill while your stride is videotaped. Afterward, you get to watch the tape and see how different shoes affect the way your foot strikes the ground. Like a lot of people I pronate when I run, so in order to maintain proper form and prevent injury I need shoes that provide a heightened level of cushioning stability like Asics&amp;#039;s GEL-Kayano. A recently released, especially colorful version celebrates the 20th anniversary of the NYC Marathon, which Asics sponsors.  7. Calf sleeves are your friend.  At the first Team for Kids long training run I attended, I noticed a lot of people wearing brightly colored socks on their shins. They turned out to be more than just a fashion statement. Compression socks or sleeves from a company like CEP activate blood flow in the muscles and thus reduce the likelihood that you&amp;#039;ll develop calf tightness (as I did after that training run). 8. If you want to listen to music, use the right headphones. After 26.2 miles, you&amp;#039;re bound to get pretty sweaty, and most headphones seem to fall out of your ears, stop working because they&amp;#039;ve gotten wet, or just don&amp;#039;t feel comfortable anymore after all those strides. To combat these problems, about five years ago a triathlete and a 24-time marathoner developed Yurbuds. I can vouch for the company&amp;#039;s claims; they stayed in my ears throughout the race, felt comfortable the entire time, and\u2014perhaps most important\u2014created a seal that was tight enough to let me hear my music clearly but not so tight that I couldn&amp;#039;t hear what was going on around me. This proved especially beneficial when people passed me (letting them pass me was, of course, all part of my pacing strategy).  9. At a big race, tell your friends and family to watch from a specific place. My parents, younger brother, and a group of friends were on First Avenue and 67th Street, just past the halfway point of the marathon. Seeing them and being able to stop briefly for a group hug provided me with a much-needed boost of energy for the second half.  10. Have fun! Remember that you&amp;#039;re only competing with yourself, so don&amp;#039;t take the race too seriously. You may never do something like this again, so embrace the moment. I crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 18 seconds, a time that was slightly below what I was hoping for but fast enough that I bested Pamela Anderson, who ran this year for Sean Penn&amp;#039;s J/P Haitian Relief Organization and finished with a time of 5:41. If she runs again next year, maybe I&amp;#039;ll break off mid-way and try to accompany her to the finish line. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/sporting/a1369/nyc-marathon/>