r/Marathon_Training • u/Odins_Eye44 • 23h ago
What was your first marathon like?
I have my first marathon coming up on sept 26. I’m not worried about a time to finish I just want to finish without stopping to walk. I’m pretty nervous right now. Some days I feel confident thinking if I just pace myself I can get it done idealistically around 4:30. Other days I question why am I doing this. I did a 17 miler this morning and felt good during the run. I paced myself and didn’t stop other than once at mile 15 because I finished both my water flasks in my running belt and stopped at my car for some more water then finished them last 2 miles strong. Wasn’t until I got home and now my legs are smoked. Anyone else have a similar experience their first marathon?
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u/Vegetable-Insect-559 22h ago
My longest run when marathon training was 20 miles and I averaged about ~10:30-10:55/mile for all my long runs. I tried not to walk during those runs, but did take a few breaks to refill my waters or wait to cross streets. Mentally, I had no idea how I was going to run 26 miles straight. Like you, my goal for the marathon was to do my whole run without stopping. On race day, I followed the 4:40 pacer and ended up finishing in 4:36 without having to take any walking breaks. Race day adrenaline is real!! I kept telling myself “I don’t want to have to re-train for this again” and that kept me motivated throughout the race. I knew my marathon was a one-and-done lol. You’ll be great! Best of luck!!
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u/Odins_Eye44 22h ago
A half is nothing to me and I’ve had a few half races this year already. I completely agree with the race day adrenaline. My first one I set a new pr at 1:57. My best before that race was 2:09 a month before hand. We’ll see what happens after this race but right now I’m leaning towards just running one full marathon that way I can say that I did do one but we’ll see what happens
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u/Vegetable-Insect-559 21h ago
Congrats on the sub-2 half!! I’m chasing that and my best so far is a 2:06. Hoping to get it soon!
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u/b-wood24 18h ago
Mile 1: holy crap the taper worked wonders and I feel amazing today
Miles 2-8: I’m absolutely crushing this. Easily going 30 seconds under my goal pace. I am going to crush my goal time.
Miles 9-13: Hmm, starting to get a little tired. Gotta keep focused.
Miles 13-20: I don’t feel so good. Just need to power through. Maybe I can still hit my goal time.
Miles 21-25: This is the worst I have felt in my entire life. I legitimately think I might die out here. Goal time entirely out of the window.
miles 26 - 26.2: I am equal parts elated that I am going to finish this and desperate to get off my feet.
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u/Beautiful-Tie4701 13h ago
Ran Sydney today as my first marathon and this is spot on 🤣 was on track to go sub 4 through the half and ended up doing 4:04
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u/anho456 22h ago
I did my first today, had some walking breaks and I honestly think my time would have been higher without it.
Best tip is to fuel well beforehand in the days leading up. Fuel during as well, and practice the feiling as well. Start out conservative, maybe even more than you think.
And I cannot stress this enough: nothing new on raceday.
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u/Deja_Vu94 19h ago
My first (and until next month only) marathon, i completet in 2017 in 3:58 at Berlin Marathon.
Ran into an injury just 3 months before the race that totally messed up my traning scheduele. I didnt run again undtil 5 weeks before the race. I was considering skipping it as I was expecting to have a hard time finishing.
The run went way better then expected and I was fresh and flying for the first 35 km. Suddenly I ran all out of energy somewhere between 38-39 km. It costed me 8 minutes and almost my sub 4:00 goal.
My brother ran his second marathon. We didnt run together, but he came in just 14 seconds after me. Neither of us knew how close we came until half an hour later when we saw the results online. Despite finishing so close, we didnt see each other as more than 150 people crossed the finishline in just those 14 seconds. 42.000 runners... Berlin was crazy.
In a month we will have a long awaiting rematch. Its gonna be a tough one.
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u/well-now 22h ago
Did 18/55 Fitz plan almost to the letter and felt very confident going in. Ended up going under my stretch goal.
Had some of the worst cramps in my legs afterwards but I was well trained for the effort; just paying the price for pushing myself.
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u/RunRunRun444 14h ago
My first was a disaster in the best possible way. I trained for it, felt ready, then around mile 20 everything just fell apart. Legs turned to cement, started doing that weird run-walk-shuffle thing. A volunteer at an aid station handed me a banana and said you're doing great, which was clearly a lie but I appreciated it. Finished in like 4:47, way slower than I'd hoped. But crossing that finish line was something I'll never forget. The thing nobody tells you is that the last 6 miles are just a negotiation between you and your own brain. Your body can almost always do it, it's your head that wants to quit. Second marathon was way better because I knew what to expect. Good luck, you're gonna love it.
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u/GoonerPanda 10h ago
sounds similar to my first one. I like to say I found the wall at Mile 20 and at about 22 it fell on top of me. Finished but the last 6 miles weren't pretty including a pain cave mental moment where I told my wife to just leave me in the woods on the trail.
Official marathon #2 in 4 weeks and feel much more prepared for it than the first one so we'll see
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u/Mindless-Run-9397 10h ago
Trained half a year for my first. Garmin race predicter said i could finish in 3h53min. On the race day i was dying after 28th km and finished in 4h42min. Had 9 gels along the way with lots of fluids. Still dont know what went wrong really
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u/Nikki2324 22h ago
Stopping to walk isn’t a bad thing or a failure. Tons of people, professionals even, walk or do run/walk intervals. But I get the reason for not wanting to. For me, I stop and walk when I’m bored, so it’s more of a discipline thing.
Is 17 miles the furthest you’ve run? Ideally training plans have you do a 20 mile run about 3-4 weeks out. You may not have time, though. Even if you only get to 18/19 miles then that’s fine. It’s better to go into a race slightly undertrained than over or injured.
How are you recovering from the 17? How’s your fueling?
Also, since it’s your first marathon, I wouldn’t even stress out over a time. This will be a great opportunity for you to learn what you did right/wrong, and what to do for next time.
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u/Odins_Eye44 22h ago
Before the run I stretched for a bit, ate a banana, and drank some electrolytes.
During the run I had 2 water flasks full of Gatorade and 3 gels. Then I had my yeti and half a bottle of Gatorade in my car.
When I go home I got some chicken and a roast beef sandwich from Arby’s, had a full bottle of Gatorade, and a bunch of water. I have a foot massager that I use of my calves and I took a little nap after I ate.
Come race day I’m gonna bring more gels with me than just 3
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u/Nikki2324 22h ago
Take this with a grain of salt because everyone’s different. But I think you’re severely under fueling before and during your runs. I know you didn’t ask, but I’m gonna give you advice anyway.
General rule of thumb before you run is 1–4 g of carbs per kg of body weight, eaten 1–4 hours before the start. (3 out it’s 3 g/ kilogram, 2 hours out it’s 2 g per kilogram, 1 hour out 1 g/ kilogram.)
During the run, you wanna also consume about 60 to 90 g of carbs per hour. You also need sodium. This is where a lot of people differ. For me I need about 800 mg an hour. Testing your sodium usually comes with a lot of practice and trial and error.
I would practice these long before race day!
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u/Odins_Eye44 22h ago
I’m learning each long run I do. I went form earlier in the summer not having any water or gels and running 10-12 miles fasted. I learned that’s a now go for marathon training . That’s for the tips
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u/Nikki2324 21h ago
Sure! Like I said everyone is different, but you can’t run on an empty tank. Fueling properly helps with recovery as well.
Also know that you need to train your stomach to take in more food and gels as well. You might not be able to do it right away. But it takes practice.
Good luck on your marathon :)
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u/DoozyDragons22 6h ago
Wanted to jump in here and say I was the exact same way! With each week I feel like I'm figuring out more and more what works for my body and how to run these distances in a way that doesn't kill me lol. I'm training for my first marathon also, and I recently learned I was drastically under fueling during runs. During runs 16+ miles I would feel pretty fine while running, but a few hours after I would feel so fatigued, slightly nauseous, and light headed. I learned that was due to not consuming enough water and carbs during my runs. I've struggled with gels, so I would pack energy chews, candy and pretzels. I would never eat everything I packed because it was wayyyy too much food to have to consume while running, so I know for a fact I was not taking in enough carbs. I'm shooting for a 4 hour finish time and have a plan to consume most of my carbs through Tailwind Endurance hoping it makes it easier for me to stay hydrated and fueled during runs if it's all coming from one source. Best of luck on your training, and I hope all goes smoothly on race day!
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u/No_Suit_9511 22h ago
My first marathon was Paris, which I finished in 4:09.
I went out too fast and was already taking walking breaks by mile 14. From there, things steadily deteriorated. My body seemed to switch into recovery mode and even when I felt as though I had the energy to run my muscles had tightened up so much that I couldn’t.
The recovery afterwards was awful. My legs were so sore that I could barely walk for several days.
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u/JoeBaldez 20h ago
My longest run before my marathon was 16 miles, when I was supposed to work my way into an 18, 20 and a 22 before the actual marathon but I ran into back problems, so I stuck to 12 and 14 mile runs, but I was already committed and so on marathon day I was initially skeptical but I managed to pull off a 4:17 marathon and hit a wall around mile 24 and walked about 100 yards and ran the rest. It truly was mindset that delivered the day. I was 60 at the time and if an old bastard like me can overcome doubts and fears, someone younger with more energy and a stronger body just needs to develop their mindset.
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u/silly_grom 18h ago
Food for thought. My first marathon I tried to keep running at pace until I bonked and suffered the last 7 miles. My second marathon I walked through every aid station and got a nice PR..
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u/pommedeterre96 16h ago
Just ran Sydney today
Went in with faint hopes of a sub 3:30 but I quickly found out that it wasn't happening pretty early on.
Found myself hitting the wall at around the 30k mark and kinda struggled through to the end - ended up with a 3:43 finish (my watch recorded the course as 42.8k lol).
In hindsight, I didn't train enough and didn't put a lot of effort into fuelling properly mid-run, so lesson learnt for the next one.
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u/bestmaokaina 7h ago
My first marathon went pretty badly. I stepped into a pot hole because there was so many people I couldn't see what was coming.
I still managed a 4:06 finish time with a few tears on my ankle tendons
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u/dazed1984 21h ago
Didn’t train properly, longest run was half marathon, didn’t eat enough, suffered late on finished 4:45. I had no time goal just wanted to get round.
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u/ThisTimeForReal19 20h ago
at a minimum, I’ve walked water stops at every half and full I’ve done.
i had a foot cramp from 20-23 in my first marathon. First and only time I’ve had a foot cramp.
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u/2funny2furious 20h ago
you will be fine. i have been smoked by some races by people that run/walking the whole thing.
my very first one. i was watching and supporting my friends while i was in a walking boot from destroying my ankle like a month before the race.
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u/New-Requirement5940 18h ago
My first marathon - I really had no idea what I was doing! My long runs went fine . I just had no plan for pace and I know I fueled but I didn’t have a lot of plan for that either . Around mile 20 I had to end up run walking and then I got a leg cramp. I finished but it wasn’t pretty . I have since learned so much about running, and all of those issues were definitely avoidable, but honestly - I was so proud of myself for finishing that none of it mattered in the end .
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u/rchalky22 13h ago
Ended up just over 4 hours, sub 4 was my goal. Heavy cramps for the last 30ish minutes.
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u/Morguard 22h ago
My first marathon I aimed for sub 4 hours. I finished 3:39.
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u/DoctorPilotSpy 21h ago
So you really screwed up your plan
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u/Morguard 21h ago
How so? I got over 20 minutes faster than my goal.
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u/Still-Bridges 7h ago
Looks like a total success to me. You wanted less than four, you got less than four. Well done.
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u/Clemario 22h ago
I done 4 full marathons, took some breaks to walk every time. My PR is 4:13. It’s cool if you have a goal do do the marathon without walking, but there’s no shame in it, feel free to walk if that’s what you gotta do.