On May 6, 2023 I ran my first marathon. This article contains my notes on my training, race strategy and results.
Summary
Training
I started training for the marathon in January. I followed an 18-week Hal Higdon training program which aligned perfectly with the race date if I started the first week of January. Before I had decided to run a marathon though, I set a goal for myself to run every day in January, so I didn't actually start the training program until February. This ended up being fine because it was early on in the training cycle and I ended up running more in January than the training program called for.
The training program consisted of short to medium length runs during the week and a long run on Saturdays. In addition, Thursdays were rest days and Sundays were for cross training. Cross training was defined as any aerobic exercise besides running, so I used Sundays to go for hikes. Aside from the month of January I followed the training program very closely and only missed one short Monday run. I also had to move a couple long runs to Sunday, but that was fine since I still completed the long runs. I always did my weekday runs in the evenings after work and did the weekend runs in the morning.
As far as pacing for the training runs, I would usually run at whatever pace I felt comfortable. For weekday runs, I usually ran somewhere between 8 - 10 minutes per mile. For long runs, I intentionally ran slower. The recommendation for long runs was to run at a pace 30 to 90 seconds slower than the pace I would run the marathon. My goal pace for the marathon was 10 minutes per mile, so I did my long runs at around 11 minutes per mile.
The weekday runs were short enough that I didn't have to bring anything with me, but for long runs, I needed water and fuel. To do this, I used a running vest which could carry up to one liter of water and had pockets for my energy gels. I ate the same energy gels for training that I would use for the marathon so that I knew they wouldn't cause stomach issues. I also ate them at the same rate that I would for the marathon - one energy gel before running and one every 45 minutes during the run.
The table below shows all my runs from January 1st up to and including the day of the marathon.
| Week # | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Weekly total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5.2 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 3.5 | 8.0 | 32.4 |
| 2 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 7.1 | 3.8 | 3.0 | 29.2 |
| 3 | 6.0 | 4.0 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 13.1 | 41.3 |
| 4 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 6.0 | 6.1 | 5.0 | 11.1 | 43.7 |
| 5 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 6.1 | 3.0 | rest | 6.1 | 12.0 | 37.4 |
| 6 | x-train | 3.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | rest | 6.1 | 10.0 | 27.1 |
| 7 | x-train | 4.0 | 7.0 | 4.0 | rest | 7.1 | 14.1 | 36.2 |
| 8 | x-train | 4.0 | 7.1 | 4.1 | rest | 7.1 | 15.1 | 37.4 |
| 9 | x-train | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 | rest | 0.0 | 5.0 | 18.0 |
| 10 | 13.1 | 0.0 | 8.0 | 4.0 | rest | 8.0 | 17.0 | 50.1 |
| 11 | x-train | 5.0 | 8.0 | 5.2 | rest | 8.0 | 0.0 | 26.2 |
| 12 | 18.0 | 5.1 | 5.0 | 5.0 | rest | 8.0 | 13.1 | 54.2 |
| 13 | x-train | 5.1 | 8.0 | 5.0 | rest | 0.0 | 5.0 | 23.1 |
| 14 | 20.0 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 5.0 | rest | 8.1 | 12.3 | 55.7 |
| 15 | x-train | 5.2 | 8.0 | 5.0 | rest | 5.0 | 21.0 | 44.2 |
| 16 | x-train | 5.1 | 6.0 | 5.1 | rest | 4.0 | 12.0 | 32.2 |
| 17 | x-train | 4.0 | 5.2 | 4.1 | rest | 3.0 | 8.3 | 24.6 |
| 18 | x-train | 3.2 | 4.0 | 0.0 | rest | 2.0 | 26.4 | 35.6 |
Marathon
My goal for the marathon was to run 10 minute miles, meaning I would finish in about 4.5 hours. Based on how my long runs went during training, I thought that 10 minute miles would be a challenging but doable pace. During training though, I always had a run the Friday night before my long Saturday run, so my legs were never really fresh on Saturdays (this was done intentionally as part of the training program).
The week leading up to the marathon, my mileage was very low and I even got an extra rest day, so my legs were well-rested the day of the race. Because of this, I ended up maintaining a pace around 9:30 for the majority of the race, speeding up to 8 - 8:30 pace for the last four miles. For me personally, I was very happy to be able to run at that pace. I had originally planned on forcing myself to stick to a 10 minute pace even if I felt good just to avoid burning myself early on. I kept gravitating toward a 9:30 pace which wasn't that much faster than my target, so I just went with it. Trying to limit my pace early on seemed to be worth it since I was able to speed up during the last few miles while a lot of people who had previously been ahead of me started walking.
For fueling during the race, I stuck to what I did during training - one gel before the race and one very 45 minutes. This meant I ate six gels total on the day of the marathon. This worked really well and I never felt like I had completely depleted my carbohydrate store. There were 10 water stations along the route and I drank at each one.
Below are my splits:
| Mile | Pace (min/mi) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 9:28 |
| 2 | 9:36 |
| 3 | 9:38 |
| 4 | 9:33 |
| 5 | 9:39 |
| 6 | 9:40 |
| 7 | 10:26 |
| 8 | 9:27 |
| 9 | 9:30 |
| 10 | 9:17 |
| 11 | 9:34 |
| 12 | 9:39 |
| 13 | 9:54 |
| 14 | 9:49 |
| 15 | 9:22 |
| 16 | 9:33 |
| 17 | 9:30 |
| 18 | 9:28 |
| 19 | 9:42 |
| 20 | 9:33 |
| 21 | 9:24 |
| 22 | 8:42 |
| 23 | 8:26 |
| 24 | 8:00 |
| 25 | 8:18 |
| 26 | 8:25 |
Finish time: 4:06:27
Conclusion
If I run another marathon, I would increase my mileage during the training cycle. I would also run a bit faster during training now that I know what my actual race pace is. I think it will be easier to tune the training having one marathon under my belt.
Overall I really enjoyed the marathon experience. I especially liked the long runs on Saturdays. It was fun to use them as an opportunity to explore and run somewhere new. Four months of training was a lot, but it was extremely rewarding to cross the finish line.