I started running August 30. With minimal training and only one long run at 15km, I'm very proud of this outcome. I've played hockey and always been naturally athletic all my life. I have 7 months of training and then I'm doing 2 marathons and a 100km ultra in a span of 50 days next year. My goal is Sub 3:45 for one of the 2 marathons!

Phew. I (M33, 66 kg) ran my sixth marathon in Amsterdam on Sunday and broke three hours for the first time. Until fairly recently, that goal felt completely out of reach. It still hasn’t quite sunk in.

My previous marathon times: 4:15:56 → 3:58:55 → 4:00:19 → 3:35:00 → 3:21:43. Now there’s a 2:57:53.

The road back

Along the way, there were around 18 months of injury breaks and interrupted training. Last year it was the usual overuse injury. I finally got back into things towards the end of the year and ran a new 10K PB on New Year’s Eve.

Then, at my next 10K race in January, I rolled my ankle awkwardly and tore a muscle in my calf. Another break. It wasn’t until March that I could properly get going again.

At that point, I really wouldn’t have expected a sub-3 marathon this year.

Training

This year, I approached training a little differently: more quality than quantity. At the end of last year, I had physiological testing done to establish my training zones. Over the last 16 weeks, I ran around 1,200 km, with just one week above 100 km.

The regular fixtures were a Thursday track workout and a Sunday long run. Most long runs were structured, with one or more blocks at marathon pace.

Looking back, my best session was a half marathon as part of a long run: 5 km warm-up, the first 16 km of the half at marathon pace, the final 5 km or so progressing to an average of around 3:55 min/km, then a 5 km cooldown. Along the way, I ran a new half marathon PB of 1:27:43. That gave me a lot of confidence for Amsterdam.

But not everything went smoothly. My longest run was 36 km: 20 km easy, 10 km at marathon pace, 2 km at half marathon pace and 4 km cooldown. I couldn’t finish that one as planned because I couldn’t hold the pace towards the end. Whether that was down to the weather, fueling or just having an off day, I don’t know. It definitely wasn’t a session that left me thinking sub-3 was in the bag. 😅

Fueling

This was the first year I really paid deliberate attention to it. I was already eating more carbs than usual during race week, then tracked everything properly on Friday: around 670 g of carbs at 66 kg body weight.

Saturday was white toast with jam, Maurten Drink Mix, gummy sweets and pizza for dinner. On Sunday at 6 a.m., breakfast was three slices of white toast with jam and a Maurten Drink Mix 320.

The start: plan straight out the window

The race plan was simple: line up with the sub-3 pacers, follow them, avoid going out too fast and absolutely don’t risk the goal by getting carried away.

The Olympic Stadium was very cosy to begin with. According to the start list, there were almost 16,000 runners in our starting area, spread across half a lap of the track. Roughly the same number started outside the stadium. Our group was quite close to the front, right behind the elites. Definitely an experience.

Then the start got chaotic and crowded. I was more or less pushed along and suddenly found myself ahead of the pacers. Ran out of the stadium, looked around: gone. Never found them again either. 😂

So that nice plan was immediately out the window, and I had to run my own race after all. Having track mode enabled on my Garmin in the stadium also meant my GPS data for the first kilometre was useless. So I just ran by feel.

Fortunately, that felt pretty good. I settled into roughly 4:12 min/km and found my rhythm. Three seconds per kilometre faster than planned, but the rhythm just felt right.

Up to 30 km: cruising

Surprisingly little happened up to 30 km. It rained on and off, and there was wind too. The roads were very wet, with some large, deep puddles. Despite that, the running itself felt incredibly good.

I passed halfway in 1:28:31. My legs felt good, the pace felt right. The thought that sub-3 might actually happen was always in the back of my mind. But in a marathon, you know there’s still plenty that can happen.

Then the rain had soaked my bib so much that it came loose at around 30 km. 😱 I actually stopped briefly and tried to reattach it. No chance. So I grabbed it, carried it in my hand and kept going.

Sounds like a minor thing, but it completely threw me off in that moment.

The final kilometres

The last 5 km were really tough. My hamstrings started complaining, and I had a very clear feeling that if I tried to speed up, they would cramp.

At the same time, I thought I was slowing down significantly. People around me were picking up the pace, and it felt like I was constantly being overtaken. That’s when I started doubting whether I would actually make it.

Looking at the official splits afterwards was quite surprising:

• 5 km: 21:19 | 4:15 min/km
• 10 km: 42:09 | 4:12 min/km
• 15 km: 1:03:07 | 4:12 min/km
• 20 km: 1:23:55 | 4:11 min/km
• Half marathon: 1:28:31 | 4:11 min/km
• 25 km: 1:44:44 | 4:11 min/km
• 26.1 km: 1:49:23 | 4:11 min/km
• 30 km: 2:05:38 | 4:11 min/km
• 31.1 km: 2:10:26 | 4:11 min/km
• 35 km: 2:27:01 | 4:12 min/km
• 36.1 km: 2:31:53 | 4:12 min/km
• 40 km: 2:48:28 | 4:12 min/km
• Finish: 2:57:53 | 4:12 min/km

It definitely felt different.

The moment

I didn’t fully believe it until the final kilometre. That was when I realised I could slow down considerably and still make it.

And then, running into the stadium.

I’ve never felt anything like that in any of my previous races. After the injuries, the weeks of training and all the doubts, you run in there knowing that the goal that seemed so unrealistic for so long is actually becoming reality.

Crossing the finish line was a complete emotional overload. 🥹

2:57:53. Almost 24 minutes off my previous PB.

I still don’t quite know what to do with that feeling.

One thing that’s definitely back is a huge respect for the marathon distance. Somehow, I’d pushed aside just how hard those final kilometres get. Even with good preparation and a pace that feels controlled for so long.

But I suppose that final stretch is exactly what makes crossing the finish line so special.

One last note on shoes: I raced in the New Balance SC Elite. I didn’t wear carbon-plated shoes during training, mostly running in the Hoka Bondi 9, HOKA Clifton Pro and New Balance FreshFoam 880.

I’ve been running for YEARS, I’m pretty consistent, been following a 20-week training plan and hoping to finally break 4 hours this weekend. Ran a 1:49 HM PB a few weeks ago that took a huge amount of effort.

Reading posts about 1:30 half / 3hr marathon being “attainable for anyone with reasonable fitness” and that the rest of us are “just making excuses” makes me feel as if there’s something fundamentally wrong with me, and that I’m just embarrassing myself here by even trying

Edit: thank you to everyone commenting some sense into me. Usually I’m relatively happy doing my own thing but some of the comments on that influencers post just really got to me. I think the taper tantrums are messing with my head 😂 definitely need to spend more time offline this week

Posting about my partner (29F, 5’ 4”) who finished her first marathon in Baltimore this past weekend. She posted a time of 3:53:05 with almost precisely even splits of 8:53.

She has been a longtime runner, averaging between 25-35 miles a week for ten years, but had literally never run a race of any type or distance in her life.

For her training block, she kept her usual running volume and mostly just added a Sunday long run to the mix, probably maxing out between 40 and 45 miles.

Prior to the race she didn’t do anything resembling a big carb load, maybe just ate a little more and stopped drinking about a week out. During the race, she didn’t take any fuel, only reported grabbing water at the stations like 5-6 times.

All of this is to ask— how much do folks here think that more attention to fueling could have improved her performance? Obviously it should be said that she would have needed to train with fueling so as not to shock the system.

Admittedly, this comes from a place of skepticism of the importance of mid race fueling, particularly outside of the most elite levels. My mother ran over 20 marathons including several Boston’s well before gels or race fueling was popularized, never did anything other than water or Gatorade mid race. I’ve personally only fueled for a marathon and if I’m being so for real, im not sure if I feel it noticeably helped.

It’s also somewhat inspired by posts I’ve seen from folks bonking or at least being disrupted by gut cramps from over fueling… there’s a big part of me that feels it’s over complicating racing or a distraction from the run itself.

Can anyone talk me off my contrarian ledge against an obsession over fueling? Anyone else out there connect to this take? Curious what others think

Legs were not the greatest going into the run but decided halfway through that 16 was the number to hit for this long run. Legs got tired and started to feel sore around 6 miles in. Tried an energy gel for the first time and I can’t believe how much like magic those things are. I think I need to slow down the pace a little to work the aerobic system more.

Training for a sub 60 hyrox in November and hopefully a sub 3 marathon in April.

Current mileage until this past week was about 20-25 miles a week.

Saw a post recently about someone not too happy with their times compared to others on the thread. I think deep down no one is truly “happy” with their times. Even the top runners are looking at the people above them and comparing. What matters is you’re running and you’re getting better, sometimes it’s physically… sometimes it’s mentally.

I ran Amsterdam in 4:52, a 21 minute PB! The course was great, nice and flat, with great crowds and support along the way. This is only my second marathon, and the first was really difficult and felt like hard work. For this one I got into a nice comfy rhythm early on and just stayed there. I’m a slow runner, so the time isn’t anything amazing, but I’m so happy with my splits. Cruised round the course like the Terminator.

I started running 15 weeks ago with the aim of completing a half marathon and I am really happy with how it went! The course was very hilly so it did kill my pace in some parts, but overall I'm really happy with how it went and can't wait to book another one for next year 😁

Hello!

I ran Melb Mara a couple years ago (3:27) and keen to run another marathon next year. I've run a 1:28 half recently so would be hoping to push for a sub 3:05 mara.

Not going to apply for Melbourne ballot (looked like a bit of a shitshow this year) and didn't apply for the Sydney ballot - planning on spending a couple weeks overseas sometime between June and August with my partner so that would've interrupted the training block.

Ideally would like to do a 1 lap marathon - feels like 2 lap courses would be mentally taxing. And missing the June to August window. Been looking at Canberra in April - anyone done that before? Or any other mara recommendations?

(Would love to do a trail mara in 2028 or even a BYU, but think I should do another road mara first)

For background, I started running as an over 40 male in June of 2024. I ran my first half in May of 2025 in 2:15 and then May 2026 in 1:51:40

I ran a pretty good adherence to Pete Phitzinger 18:55 marathon program starting mid June for in October 18 full

My peak week was 50.5 miles, and I strung together quite a few weeks, averaging 45 miles per week. I only did one 20 miler three weeks out, although I did 18 miles three separate times

I had what I thought could potentially be a bone stress injury following the 20 mile run. I was cleared with no restrictions as an inflamed ankle joint to keep a long story short. However, due to missing almost a full week of training and still sometimes feeling the ankle enough to make me think the fall was a bad idea. I just did the house instead

I think this puts a feather in the cap of the idea that training for a marathon and just doing more miles significantly improves your half marathon time, even though I did not do as much threshold as I would have for half training, and even though my pace work, which I did not do a ton of because of the hot summer weather, was done at marathon pace goal of about nine minutes a mile

I took over six minutes off of my half marathon time from early May to mid October training for the full

I am 43 male 6’ (1.82m) 190 lbs (86kg)

For the past 5 or so years I’ve been getting back into casual running, almost exclusively on trails. Last year was my first year of racing, where I did a 35K, 50K, 23K trail races and did the same 50+23 this year, improving times on both. The most I’ve ever “raced” on road is basically a 5K time trial.

Thinking about entering my first half or full marathon next year. For starters, not even sure which distance would be “best”? I worry about the sustained higher effort to do a HM well, but also running a constant pace for a full for 3+ hours sounds… brutal?!

The bigger question though is - how screwed am I if I still intend to do almost all my running on trails? I live in a mountain valley so that also includes lots of elevation and technicality. I’d definitely still sprinkle in recovery runs and some of the workouts on road, but it would definitely be less.

Right now Garmin/Strava estimate my half and full times as 1:28/1:34 and 3:14/3:33. A big part of my issue, I think, is running those sustained paces for that long. Obviously, on some level, my aerobic system and speed is there but I struggle with maintaining that leg turnover and obviously mostly trail running doesn’t mitigate that exactly…

I've been training since the beginning of the year. I did two Pete's base aerobic plans going from 15 to 30 mpw and then from 30 to 45 mpw. After that I did the full 18/55 program missing only 3 runs early on. I've ran almost 1500 miles this year. Everything was great until the last week when I got a runny nose and a bit of a dry throat.

I thought it was mostly irritation from a cheap Chinese KN95 mask (which contributed to this). However, my symptoms were mild - no fever, no body aches, RHR normal. I did a 3.5 mile recover run the day before and I felt ready.

On the day of the marathon, I again felt pretty good. It was a cold 32F weather. I started running and I noticed my breathing felt a lot more labored than it should at that effort. I kept going. I tried reducing the speed. I took a break at 1.5 mile. I tried running again at a slower speed but I could tell that this was not sustainable and that something was off. At mile 2, I decided to quit and walk back. I noticed I had wheezing in my chest. It turned out I had a mild acute asthma attack because I had a mild cold and combined with the cold air trigger the asthma attack.

I felt fine the rest of the day and today. I plan on running another marathon in 3-weeks.

I just thought I share my story because there are a lot of stories about people running with an active cold. Not always a good idea. There is always another marathon.

EDIT: Thank you for all the support. I didn't expect this much support. This is one of the reasons I love dedicated running communities because people uinderstand what you are going through.

I had time to reflect on all of these:
I know quitting, especially, your first marathon can feel like the world is coming to an end but I accomplished a lot of great things this year that even if I don't end up running a full marathon matter a lot:

• My first 5k was last December, 2025 and it was 24:50
• My second 5k in March, 2026 increasing mileage to 30 mpw was 22:19.
• At the beginning of the year my longest run was 6 miles. Now, I've ran multiple 21-mile runs in the hot and humid Boston summer.
• I accomplished so many first like first time I hit 40mpw, first time I hit 50 mpw, first time I did 59mpw, etc. I cried so many times afterwards because I felt so proud. I never though any of this is possible. It felt like a dream.
• In addition, to running, I kept serious weight training, and usually did 3-4 double days per week and even increased my RDLs to 320-340lbs for multiple reps and I am 150lbs.
• I connected with many runners and fitness enthusiast and I started feeling like I am part of a community.
• My base aerobic pace improved to 9:00-9:30 min/mile. At the beginning of the year it was ~12 min/mile.
• I can keep going but this is enough. DNF does not mean the end of the world.

What started ultimately as giving up drinking, turned into this. 380 days later. Never ran farther then 10 miles as of last year and this year I started off training for a half marathon in June and killed it and with only 100 days I signed up for the Grand Rapids marathon and trained my ass off. Learned so much through the people of Reddit, there advice, seeing they’re failures and what they’d do different, recovery tips, eating habits, etc, like I had 0 clue what to do and solely this Reddit helped me become a marathoner. Proud of myself and how far I come within the last year. Not done yet it’s just my first and I got the itch. Just wish I could go back and redo it lol I see so many flaws but yet I am just so happy and so mf grateful and proud. I did it!

Hi all!

I just completed my first marathon last Sunday and I wanted to share with all you my results.

Background

M33 - 63kg

Before 2024 I never did any sports and I started to take my health much more seriously.
I started in 2024 with some light running and then I switched to road cycling.
From 89kg down to 62kg.

I started running seriously at the beginning of 2025 and I did 3 half marathons and diverse races
since (10 miles, 10k, etc...).

1st half - May 25: 1h52
2nd half - Oct 25: 1h32
3rd half - Mar 26: 1h26

Last 10k - Jun 26: 38m
Last 10 miles - Sep 26: 1h03

The Race

The wall killed me 🤣, my legs became concrete basically at km 30. I had the feeling that aerobically I could push much more, but my legs were about to burst.

It was windy and slippery but at least not warm.

It was lesson in humility, I thought that I could do it sub 3h10 or even sub 3h05 but of course that was not the case!

Overall, pretty happy with the result!

Total: 42.80 km GPS, 3:11:08 elapsed, avg HR 163.

Asked a few questions in here over the course of my training, thanks to anyone who shared tips along the way. Very proud!

Title. Trying to plan my races for next year and was curious if people mix halves and fulls or just stick to fulls!

I‘ve been looking for training plans for a bit and haven’t really found one that I liked. For some context I am coming off a xc season with a 17:25 5k and have never run a marathon before. I plan to do one sometime this winter and want to get under 3:30. I don’t tea have any experience with this type of distance running, so I don’t know what I should be doing. If anyone has advice on training plans or my goal is way off what it should be please let me know.

I came to running later in life, starting with c25k in 2021, and have gradually increased mileage (1600 miles 2023, 1700 miles 2024, 1900 miles 2025 and 1800 miles so far this year). I've had 2 attempts at a marathon, using the JD 2Q programme. The first, in Spring 2025, went wrong due to a heatwave and my poor tolerance for warm weather when running. This summer the situation was reversed, training and adapting to unusually warm weather (for the UK) and running the race in cooler temperatures on Sunday of last week.

I tried to control as many factors as I could, to the extent that I created my own training app. I ran 50+ mile weeks for 18 weeks, peaking at 61 miles. Easy pace is very easy and other paces were set according to my VDOT, which increased twice during the block inline with JD's recommendation.

Frustratingly, this time, my quads were the issue, almost locking up from around mile 20. This resulted in me missing my goal of sub 4 by 19 minutes.

I'm conscious I'm fighting the gradual decline in fitness due to age with the training that I am doing but I know, aerobically, I was more than able to go sub 4 and seek the advice of this group on areas to focus on. All race predictions I checked suggested sub 3:50 was possible.

My next marathon is likely around a year away (I've a couple of half's booked in the spring and don't want to risk running in a heatwave again). My thinking is to work on the glutes (as weakness there might explain the stress on the quads) as well as quads and a general S&C programme to improve my strength.

The programme I was following peaked at 17 miles for a long run (although I did 20 miles at easy pace). I wondered about having regular circa 20 mile long runs on my schedule. I feel my body needs to adapt to the longer distance, and don't see that happening if most of my long runs are 13 - 17 miles.

Grateful for any thoughts of areas to focus on.

hi! i (23F) have been running pretty seriously for about 2 years now. i average around 40 miles a week and run 6 days a week. race wise, ive done 4 official halves, and a few random 16 milers here and there. lately i’ve just really been wanting to full send it and run a full, and have considered buying a transfer for philly in a few weeks. for my long runs, i can comfortably run around 16 miles at an 11:30 pace. do you think i would be well equipped to complete a full? i have an itch that needs to be scratched.

I am currently training for my first marathon on January 17 in Bermuda and have started to ramp up to about 50-60km a week but lately have been dealing with this issue that I developed a very large nasty blister on my big toe rubbing against the toe next to it (I think it turned into a blood blister at this stage). It's extremely hot and humid where I live (Bermuda usually around 80-85 fahrenheit and 80% humidity) which already makes it hard to train but I think the sweating also amplifies the foot issue. I already had to upgrade to a larger shoe as I killed my toenail from having my feet swell up in that heat and humidity currently running in a new Asics Novablast 6. I like the shoe but it has caused this blister to form and I kept pushing (applying just a bandaid on longer runs) but this thing now looks like from a horror movie so I am inclined to take a week or so off (maybe just do some strength training and a bit of swimming) and let it heal rather than completely messing it up. I think I have enough time. My longest run so far was 26km at a 5:46 pace and my fastest 10k is 46min and given this crazy heat I think I will have a much better time when January comes as it will be substantially less hot and humid but I am wondering what to do to prevent this from happening. Does anyone have a trick or should I just try another shoe once I let it simmer down (any recommendations)? Just trying to manage this situation as it's really putting a damper on my running right now.

Ran my first ever marathon on Saturday. Kind of interested in doing another on November 22, but not sure how to optimize recovery and still be/stay marathon ready. I realize for most people two within that time span is not generally advisable, and I’m not committed to it, I’m just curious what it might look like if I wanted to try it.

Hello world

Curious if someone here has ran in the alpha fly 4’s before release! I love the alpha fly 3s, by far my favorite known working marathon race day shoe!

Release date for the AF4’s is October 29th, but I have my marathon Novemeber 7th and low key considering giving them a shot!

I am curious if anyone here suffers from IC (ie painful bladder syndrome, frequency/urgency). I am a 63m- long runs are built around available bathrooms but races are a crap shoot. On a good day, i need to stop about every 4 miles but regardless of whether I stop, the urge is always present.

Its not debilitating but I am curious if anyone has successfully trained stopping to pee as much out of their runs. TIA.