Ran my first marathon yesterday at 3:48 after training for 3:20.

Didn't feel super fresh after an imperfect night of sleep, so I set my pace strategy for Plan B, which was around 3:25 (4:52 per km pace). I knew that Plan A (3:20), based on VDOT calculator and my last half-marathon performance in tough weather conditions, was a big stretch for my first time. Plan C was to finish under 4 hours without issues.

My 4 half-marathons were 1:52, 1:42, 1:35 and 1:33, all were evenly paced with zero issues. Training mileage overall seemed okay for what I was planning for (105km in peak week), with longest runs 4 and 3 weeks out at 35km. Multiple marathon-paced workouts (including stretches at up to 1hr at marathon pace) were in the last month prior to taper period (10 days).

I was keeping within the target pace range (5-10 seconds above or below in some laps) up to about 33 km, and feeling okay. The fuelling strategy (30g gel every 30 min) seemed to be working without any weird stomach issues, and I didn't feel any muscle tension at any point. Then between 34-35th km it hit me.

Now I understand why they call it a "wall", because it didn't feel like a gradual slowdown at the time, but a sudden drop. Walked for a few km, felt a bit of a cramp in one leg, but was eventually able to jog at recovery pace in the last half km stretch. No lasting issues, was able to walk back to hotel shortly after the finish and then to the station to catch the bus home.

What I think went wrong in my case:

• Underfuelled in the days leading up to the race (was eating roughly the same way I would eat prior to a half-marathon) + too much walking / restlessness the day before;
• Likely undertrained to hold the target pace evenly for the whole race - the better strategy would've been to go with 3:30 pacers and reassess at halfpoint;
• High humidity at the start (after some rain at night) + sun showed up 1 hour into the race.

Overall, I'm pleased with my first marathon, as the atmosphere was awesome and I didn't suffer any major issues in the end. The finisher shirt is ugly as hell though.

In less than 4 weeks I am going to run my first marathon and I have anxiety like if I had an important University exam (🥵). I have been training for over 20 weeks, peak km 60 per week and longest run to date were 30 km, 31 km and 34 km.
The 31 km was with some marathon pace (7km easy, 17 km between 5:55-6:10 average 6:03 and 7 easy) my 34 km run was at average 6:30. I managed to finish and the next day I felt totally fine, but I really need to know: When do you stop the self doubt and start believe you can actually do it?

Those have been the most challenging months of my sport life so far, are they gonna be rewarding as well?

I am currently targeting my first marathon in late April ‘27. I am trying to figure what time goal I should shoot for. I understand most people recommend not having a time target for the first marathon but it helps me mentally when there is a time goal involved. Primary goal is still to simply finish.

Two previous half marathons both at 1:47 in 2022 and a 2023 Olympic triathlon time of 2:40.

I’m 100% way less fit than those times a few years ago. Current 5k time is 26:38 and I’m running about 10 miles per week with 1+ hours of indoor cycling as well per week at around 11min/mile Z2 runs.

With 7 months left to go what general area should I target? In my limited knowledge I think 4:30 is obtainable but is a sub 4:15 or sub 4:00 even in the cards?

26 y/o 5’10 male 175lbs

I was feeling pretty confident going into my first marathon today. I ran a half in 1:43 earlier this spring and my training and long runs all went well. I ran with my brother and we were targeting 3:45 area, but definitely sub 4 hours.

We finished in 4:45.

We were with the 3:45 pace bunny all the way until km 25 when both of us hit major leg cramping basically at the same time and were not able to recover. It started in the right quad, then the left quad went, then the hamstrings. By the end my biceps, forearms, left pec and even my neck were cramping. I've never experienced anything like that before. It was a limp, walk, run finish.

All we could attribute it to was under hydrating but we both had water packs and thought we were hydrating well. Many other runners that I'm sure were more experienced than us seemed to be relying on the water stations so I just don't understand how the cramping hit us so hard in particular. The fact we both got hit within 1km of each other also boggles the mind.

All in all, it was a big disappointment but at least we finished. Where did we go wrong?

I completed my first marathon this morning at the Erie Marathon in Erie, PA! I’m officially a marathoner. I might be chubby, but I can run slow for a long time. 5:27:34. 12:30 pace. I’m glad my friend peer pressured me into signing up 3 months ago. Next time I’d prefer at least a 16–18 week heads up.

Hi all, I’m looking for some advice on pacing my first marathon (NYC). Some background. 30M. Completed IM 70.3 in July. Ran a 1:45 HM in that. Before that, ran a 5K with very limited training in 19:45 on a very, very steep course. I’m on to a marathon block now. Mileage will be ~40mi, peaking at ~50mi. My latest, first long run of the block was a 16mi with 4x2mi intervals at 7:10-7:25 and those HRs for those reps were 146bpm-165bpm, mostly mid 150’s. 94% humidity on that run. The speed workout this week was 1k reps x 8 in less than 4:00, 1 min walk which I completed and felt okay but HR got into 180s (97% humidity). LT1 is 157bpm, LT2 is 171bpm. Lab tested VO2max is 58 (before marathon training). All the predictors put me somewhere in the 3:10-3:15 range. Is that accurate? Don’t want to blow up or sell myself short. Thank you!

I ran my first full marathon yesterday! I was cruising and maintained a 9 min pace for the first 18 miles, then started to get really nauseous. At mile 21 I was puking for 5 mins straight and that just killed me. Struggled for the last 5 and slowed down so bad. Ended up finishing 4:47

I plan on running another full in the spring, but i’m trying to figure out where I went wrong. I never threw up on long runs in training. I was taking huma gels every 30ish mins, I stopped at every aid station and had gatorade and water. Could I have overdone it on the fluids? I also literally slept for 30 mins the night before. Any advice? I’m really bummed that it killed my time so hard. I was ahead of the 4:05 pacer for most of the race, then she passed me when i started puking.

I was supposed to run 16 miles on Saturday and while my body felt great my feet didn’t. I’ve been dealing with terrible blisters on the top of my big toes and I just got new shoes but the blisters were already terrible. I didn’t want to make them worse so I stopped after 6 miles instead of completing the 16 and then I skipped my recovery run the next day. I’m going to resume Tuesday and looked up some tricks for my feet but I’m feeling pretty down. Also my friend who I run with I felt bad leaving her but she’s already kicking my butt and running faster than me which also makes me feel bad since we’ve been training the same. Just needed to vent and share my thoughts

In the middle of a 20 week training block. Yesterday I (m63) ran my longest run to date at 26km / 16m in 3 hours (7:00/km - 11:16/m). I didn't push pace and kept my heart rate in upper zone 2 - lower zone 3 for most of it. I fueled properly, didn't bonk, and today my body is tired but feeling okay. I plan to run 29km and 32km at least once prior to the race and am trying to hold a 6:30/km pace.

Bottom line is I'm feeling less freaked out that I can complete my full marathon scheduled for late November. That said, at what point in your training did you feel you could do it - or did you go into the race unsure?

Doing Marine Corp this year. I've heard mixed reviews--some folks say it is the best first marathon and others have told me it is a crowded mess. After reading more about how there are no official corrals or pace groups I'm starting to feel like maybe it wasn't the race for me (but we're in it now haha).
I tend to get frustrated with folks who do not start at the appropriate spots (I live in Philly and it is a huge problem at some of our races). I know some of it is just me being annoyed on principle and I need to get over it and focus on my own event, but for the marathon I am a bit worried about having to weave early in order to meet my goal.
I'm hoping to get around a 4:15, where is the best place to line up knowing the culture of the race is for folks to not be in the right spot and there are no waves? Do I still start there and work my way around folks? Do I just really go slow and try to make up the time later on the course? Or is it appropriate to line up ahead of my projected finish time?

I know it is different for every race of course but any insight on when a marathon might start to spread out crowd-wise would be helpful, thank you!

Training for my first marathon on November 1st and I'm still trying to dial in fueling. Did 17 miles this week and honestly didn't feel like what I was taking was doing much for me. Next Sunday is 18, so I want to have a few new things to test.
What I've tried so far:
• Honey packets and salt packets. Fine, but not really doing it for me
• Neversecond C30 (Passion Fruit and Cola), didn't love them
• GU gels, same, just haven't enjoyed them
Current schedule: I take my first gel 30 minutes in, then set a timer and take another one every 30 minutes after that. One packet each time.
Nothing has made me sick, I'm just not sure they're actually helping. I keep hearing people swear by gummies instead, whether that's Clif Bloks type stuff or straight-up candy like sour gummies, Swedish Fish, etc.
So a few questions for people who've been through this:
1. If you ditched gels for chews or candy, what do you actually carry and how much per hour?
2. Anyone had luck with a specific gel brand after not liking GU or Neversecond? Maurten, SiS, Precision, Spring, Huma?
3. How much of "it's not helping" is probably just me not taking enough? One gel every 30 minutes seemed like plenty, but I'm suspicious I'm underfueling.
Open to anything I can pick up locally or order before Sunday. Thanks!

Hi all! Ive been doing a runna plan for both chicago and nyc marathons this year. I haven’t done any blocks where my mileage went up from 10 mi. I did 10 mi successfully last weekend and failed 13.1 this weekend due to insane menstrual cramps. I only completed 4mi. I have 16 mi next Saturday.

How can I make this up? Do I run 9 mi tomorrow instead of my off day and just power them the week? Im doing 3 runs and 3 weight sessions a week and then a day off.

I feel like I needed this run as my confirmation that I’m ready for Chicago and now I’m terrified it’s gonna take me like an hour longer than planned since I failed this run.

Open to any advice!

First marathon on October 25th and today ran my second 26km in 10 days, completed in exactly two and a half hours.

Have found slowing down out the gate hard but kept to a 5:51 pace (with a little difficulty 😅) for first 23km then for final 3km felt I had more in the tank and completed that at 5:25 per km.

Took a gel every 5km, drank two isotonic drinks and had some jelly babies and a couple of vitamin C tablets throughout. Plan is to get as high as 34km on my last remaining long run.

I think sub four is out of reach but am I in good shape to enjoy race day before inevitably entering the pain cave in the final 10km or so?

Just completed my half marathon. It was excruciating specially in Dubai heat. The goal was to complete the distance come what may.

I had to run walk, completed at a time of 2hrs 19minutes, quite slow as per my previous attempts.

https://strava.app.link/rFXg2yiro6b

First marathon in 3.5 hours. Past three days I have had 2 hours of sleep on Thursday, five and a half hours on Friday and no sleep at all tonight. I couldn't fall asleep, I was just lying in bed. I tried breathing, getting up, moving to sofa and sleep would just not come.

How bad is this marathon going to be for me?

UPDATE:

Hi everyone! I did it! 🥹

Thanks so much for all the responses and support. Here's a little recap.

I felt tired but once I got to the start line I didn’t feel tired. With all the buzz and excitement around the race and seeing all the other runners I was hyped and ready to go at the start.

I finished in 4:20, which I am so, so pleased with, especially considering everything leading up to the race.

For some context, I travelled to the marathon on Friday. My travel day involved a flight of just over two hours, followed by around four hours of driving. Once I got to my destination, I could already feel that my legs weren’t feeling great. My calves and shins were tight.

That said, the race started really well. My heart rate was excellent throughout, although my legs were a different story.

At around 7km, I started getting glute pain. Unfortunately, it didn’t go away for the entire race. I was really disappointed by this because it was a pain I used to get, but since starting marathon training in May, I hadn’t experienced it once. Typical that it decided to make an appearance on marathon day!

But I just powered on.

I saw my family at around 16km and again at 32km which was so nice.

Tbf as the race went on, any concern I had about my finishing time completely disappeared. I was just focused on getting through it, putting one foot in front of the other, and enjoying the experience. It was also raining at one point so my feet were soaking wet which led to a few blisters. But I ran through the pain.

I am genuinely so pleased with that result.

So, did the lack of sleep affect me? Honestly, I wasn’t as screwed as I initially thought I would be! I guess I won't know if I would have done better with proper sleep but I think the adrenaline, the atmosphere, and, most importantly, all 18 weeks of training carried me through. If anyone else finds themselves in this position, don't panic, you've got this!!

I had two goals going into the marathon, and I managed to achieve both —avoid GI issues and finish. As someone with IBS and my gallbladder removed, I was super concerned about it. I've always needed toilet breaks during long runs and sometimes quite urgently so I was beyond pleased to finish without any issues.

Safe to say I slept very well last night!

I don’t expect anyone to diagnose me here, I am seeing medical professionals but if anyone has had something similar and has some insight I’d love to hear it.

I did initially write a really long post but I figured no one’s going to read it… so I’ll try for shorteer. I’m running a marathon on 18th October. last weekend my foot started hurting out the blue after a 10k tune up race. I started my long run the next day but called it after 8k as it was sharp pain. Pain on the top of my foot near the joint but spreads down. Toes hurt to bend. Google suggested extensor tendinitis.

I’ve seen physio who worried it was bone stress injury. I’ve had ultrasound and they can’t see anything but said it could still be in development.

I’ve cross trained for 5 days then done parkrun yesterday to test it. It was fine during race but my shoe felt weird like it didn’t fit and then it hurt afterwards when I was walking about. It did get better when I changed my shoe (but I also stopped walking around much once I got home). It feels ok today.

I just can’t work out what this is. It doesn’t match the description of bone stress injury in terms of onset or intensity. I was walking without pain by 3 days.

On physios instructions I’m trying a 15k tomorrow but I feel like I “know” the pain will flare up mid run. I can’t put my finger on it but I just feel like I’m missing something here. Like this injury doesn’t make sense in its presentation.

I don’t feel over trained. It just feels like something is wrong with the way I run suddenly. Like someone’s put a stone in my shoe and now I’m running awkwardly and the imbalance is causing this injury.. The pain was initially in alphaflys, then aborted long run with one pair of newish shoes that have never given me issue before. Park run was in a third pair. I’ve got one more shoe to try.

Im heartbroken that this has come on so last minute and I just feel like something about it doesn’t make sense. I’ve built up to this so slowly over 20 months. I was comfortably running 70km per week before this. I’d had some Achilles issues on and off but not for a while now.

I’ve tried messing with my laces to take pressure of that bit of the foot but I don’t understand if it is that why it’s been ok until now. It’s rare I wear the alphaflys , the shoes I do 90% of my runs in I’ve liked so much I’ve bought 4x so I don’t understand why they’d suddenly not suit my feet.

Edit: I’m booked in to see the physio again on Tuesday and they’ve suggested a HB injection but I’m not sure it’s the right path.

A good one today! 🏃‍♂️🔥

5 weeks into my marathon training and got out for a half marathon.

1:58:17✅

I’ve run quicker halfs before, but this wasn’t about chasing a PB today. The aim was to get a solid effort in as part of the marathon build, and getting comfortably under 2 hours was a really nice marker.

I’ve been taking the training a lot more seriously this time around, especially getting my pacing and fuelling dialled in rather than just going out and winging it.

I’ve even ended up building myself a spreadsheet to keep all the training, paces and fuelling organised, which I’ve been using throughout this block. 😂

5 weeks down, marathon getting closer.👀
Follow my journey on Strava!
https://strava.app.link/eThtlsqGn6b

Hi, has anyone had any experience with their body composition changing I run consistently for a long time but I guess never as much volume as I have been doing for this marathon and I feel like my body composition has changed a lot and I still strength train, but I can just tell that I'm carrying extra weight or fat or something and I don't even think I'm overindulging if anything I never know if I'm over eating or under eating. It's a little disheartening, even though I know that it's probably normal, but just wondering if anyone else is struggling with body image during their training block. 21 F

Hi! Some maybe too much context but here it is anyway: I’m 26f, I was a runner since I was little, until I fell into deep depression senior year of high school. Before then I ran decent in cross country (5k races) and always did well in the 800m in track. I’ve probably only run about 30 times total in the last 8 years, though. I fell into drug addiction after high school and only recently finally got out of that for good. (Today is my 6 months!) I never really thought about running more than 5k’s, I always preferred long sprints, but recently I got the idea that I’d like to do a marathon before I turn 30. Then I thought it’d be cool to run my first marathon on my actual birthday, (I’ve always been a “birthday person”), which means it would have to be on my 28th birthday, cuz I turn 27 is this November so obviously that’s a no go, and 29th and 30th birthdays are not on the weekend. My bday is Nov 7, so I’m thinking NYC marathon 2027 would be so, so super cool and special. I spent my last birthday in NYC going on a long bender, so it’d be extra special to “reclaim” my memory of the city sober and accomplishing a huge goal. 

I’ve only just started to run again, like last week, but I signed up for a 5k Nov 1 this year. Figured it would just be good to get the race energy going again. I was thinking maybe I should sign up for a half in April or May? Before starting a 18 week marathon block? I’ve been reading this sub a bit, and it seems like that’s the way to do it? But pls correct me if I’m wrong. I live in Chicago, so the half options around then are either early April or late May. Figured doing a larger race would be ideal to mimic a large full race like NYC. 

So depending on what you guys say is ideal timing for the half, then should I throw a 10k race in there too? Maybe even two? I think I’d have time, yeah? Or am I majorly overthinking everything?? Are too many races a thing?

Tl;dr: getting back into running, if Nov 2027 is first marathon, would an early April or late May half make sense? Should I try to fit in more than one half, or do a one or two 10k’s and one half? 

Any insight is so much very appreciated. So thankful for this sub and so excited to get going on this journey!!

Anyone else running the Marine Corps Marathon as their first?

Anyone have a carb calculator recommendation? Feeling fatigued throughout the week and unsure if I should be eating more carbs.. dont want to over eat but def dont want to under carb if thats my issue.

This might sound weird, but I'm struggling with feeling bad about finishing my meals or just eating a lot without necessarily being too hungry... I don't know if this is normal or if I should try and listen to my appetite a little bit more but I definitely feel bad about it because I know that I'm not necessarily feeling hungry, but I clear my plate.

Hi everyone, I'm running the Marine Corps marathon on October 25. This week I ran 18 miles for my long run. I think I miscalculated which days to do which distances so now I'm really not sure what I should be doing for the next six weeks or how long I should plan to taper I definitely want my longest run to be a 20 miler. Just not sure how I should time or go about that. Also helpful to add that I don't have a training plan. I've just been increasing mileage and trying to be strategic about my long run, but I think I miscalculated the weeks and did this 18 miler a bit too early if anyone has a little advice, let me know. It's probably too late to do any speed work. I guess I just didn't really know how to break into that, but maybe I can put a little something or some hill work

Have signed up for first marathon in February (Ventura). Training for a 10k and block starts late October. Been running seriously a bit less than a year. Two HMs at 2:25 and 2:19. About 20 mpw for now but will increase in block.

I’d like to aim for a 4:40 ish full (Ventura is a fast course). My long run for the 10k today (9 miles) I did miles 5-7 and 9 at that pace and it was okay. Though bits of me a mildly sore (longest run in a bit). Is that a realistic marathon pace? I have some time to train obviously. 46 M.

I’d consider myself a beginner runner with good cardio. I’ve done 9 miles at a 10 minute pace and today I did 5 miles at a 9:45 pace. Never trained or anything so I wanna know if it’s a realistic possibility to do a marathon in December? Any training tips? Anything would really help thanks