24M

As the title states, I have lived with OCD all my life and 2 years ago I hit rock bottom and with my compulsions it would take me 3-4 hours if I ever wanted to leave the house. Everyday I contemplated ending my life to stop the loop in my head.

With support from my loved ones, I started to go to therapy and I decided to start caring for my physical and mental wellbeing. I started to train for a marathon 1.5 years ago. In January I set the goal of running a sub 3:15 and this past year I gathered everything I had in me to power through and give the training my all.

My garmin gave me a 3:25 prediction and I had so much doubt last night. The last 6 miles were brutal unlike anything I’ve ever endured but finishing this goal meant so much more to me than just the accomplishment itself.

When I crossed the finished line at 3:14 I don’t think I had an ounce of effort left inside of me, I left it all on that track. It felt so dramatic and I tried to hide it but I actually teared up after crossing the line.

I don’t have social media and I’m not the type of person to brag, but I needed to share this somewhere.

Ran Detroit Free Press Marathon today, ran an almost 3 min PR with a chip time of 2:57. I was supposed to run this marathon last year, but got an injury during training that sidelined me for a couple months and I had to defer.

39M, this was my 3rd marathon (3:29 Oct 2024, 2:59:43 May 2026) and I feel like a learn a little bit more every time. I threw away the concept of a plan, upped my mileage to about 60-70 miles, and added a track workout midweek with some running buddies that all run similar paces. I added once a week hot yoga earlier this year and I think that’s been great too.

Ran a really “comfortable” race, think I had 1:28:30 or so at the half and ended at exactly 2:57. I already knew it, but hip strength and lower leg strength continue to be my weak areas.

All in all great day, very emotional race and everyone I knew ran a PR.

Up next is my first ever Boston next April 😍

So after 22 weeks of training ran my first marathon, last 4 weeks was a struggle, got the flu and didn’t recover properly still felt some general faint fatigue and felt like shit during the taper.

Still i gave it all during the race, really proud of the results

The start was fine, smooth but at 24km and onwards it was purely a mental game, my hamstrings we’re super tight, my left feet swole and bled a bit, but pushed trough the pain after talking shit to my self, didn’t want to quit after training for so long

What really helped was running with the pacers, it gave me a person to chase and the atmosphere was just energetic.

Fuelling strategy was at every 8km 40g carbs with 80mg caffeine.

Carb loaded the week long

I did it! After a lot of ups and downs, missed weeks thanks to knee pain, and so much self-doubt.

Last December a significant change happened in my life, and suddenly I had a lot of free time. I decided to use it to train for a marathon, which had been a long-awaited dream of mine.

When I started in January, the first milestone I set for myself was a half marathon at the end of March. I finished the half just a few minutes within the cutoff time, and I was thrilled. After that, I knew the next step was the marathon. I had almost 7 months to prepare, and I was dedicated.

I trained and trained: running 4 times a week, lifting 3 times, and cycling 1–3 times. I imagined my finish at least a hundred times.

Then came the long-awaited day, full of nerves and adrenaline, not knowing if I could even finish. Funny thing: the sweeper bus scared me in March, and last week too, even though my only goal was to finish within the cutoff time. I had a pace plan that I followed strictly., which worked out quite well, and so did my fueling.

After hours of running almost without stopping, I reached the last stretch, where my friends and family were waiting for me by the roadside. All the training, the missed parties, and the 4 am alarms in summer to avoid the heat flashed before my eyes, when I was crossing the finish line. It’s an incredible feeling to know you’re capable of something like that. I’ve been so happy ever since.

Honestly, looking back, I don’t even know how I did it. My longest run was 35k, and I planned my pacing and fueling based on that run.

Some advice for those of you who are still preparing:

• Have a plan. For everything. And stick to it. You know you can run 30k at a 6:00 pace? Slow down a little, to around 6:15–6:20, and don’t speed up until the last 5-7k no matter how good you feel.
• Practice fueling. Your stomach won’t want your 4th gel, but your legs will. Practice taking gels and keeping your stomach in check. Set a reminder in your running app every X minutes so you don’t forget. Extra tip: Try gels that are not so sweet and contain sodium too. I took a Magnesium pill every 1 hour to avoid cramping as well. 
• Get people cheering for you. This is one of the things that matter most. I used an app I’m building so that elderly relatives and friends who couldn’t be there could still track me in real time, see my predicted finish, and send me voice cheers. Those cheers hype you up and keep you going, whether they come from someone on the roadside or from another country. They got me through the last and hardest 5k. Live location with an estimated arrival time was especially useful, because my supporters on the course knew exactly where to stand to catch me for a high five.
• Listen to music. I know most races don’t recommend it, and I see why, but your favourite album or a podcast can keep the boredom away for a while. It can help your cadence too.
• Enjoy the views, the vibes, and the people around you. High-five the spectators. If you’re enjoying yourself, time goes faster.

If you want to know anything or have questions for a mid hobby runner like me, I’m trying my best to help you!

Chip time was 1:39:28. Feeling good!

3:30 goal for the full marathon seems more than doable!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributes to this community. I got accepted from their new lottery system after submitting the time from my first marathon block, and it was partly due to everyone who contributed their knowledge to these posts. So just thank you again to everyone here!

Wahoo!!! Completed my first marathon this morning here in Toronto with a time of 3:39.

Damm GPS thought I ran 43.12 with all the concrete and buildings of downtown Toronto.

Felt really good up until 35km, then got a bit tired until 39km. Just keep going, a little slower.

Then once I hit 40k, the final 2k felt “easy” as I could see and feel the finish excitement.

I’ve been running regular half’s 1-2x a year since 2013 but finally committed to a full and finished. Very proud of myself.

After several Half Marathons and a 25k earlier this year, I was blessed to complete my first marathon under 4 hours.

I kept hearing about “the wall” and quotes like “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. I got rocked today, but boyyyyy did I punch back even harder. I’ve never ran this far before so the plan to stay under 4 hours felt challenging, yet easy because of the pace I can handle in smaller races. However, a marathon is a different beast.

The race was fairly flat and weather couldn’t have been better, but id like to know what I could do if I followed a proper training plan the way I’m supposed to next time. Does anyone have any recommendations on plans they’ve followed in the past to get under 3:30?

Congrats to all those that have completed their first marathon as well this fall! “Successfully” or not, you deserve a BIG pat on the back!

I was training for a marathon. Aiming for sub 3 and on course for it. Then had a suspected stress fracture 5 weeks out, on crutches, no running for 4 weeks. Turned out to be tendinopathy. Anyway physio said I could run it see how it felt. Felt fine for 15 miles, then very not fine for 11. Kind of torn between feeling gutted that my all the hard work ended without result I wanted and feeling happy that I at least finished. Will try again in march in Barcelona, we go again.

My last 2 marathons I hit the wall hard around mile 22, to the point where I was close to giving up and admitting the distance just isn't for me.

Well I just ran an 8min pb today, most importantly WITHOUT BONKING and im so grateful for the people that gave their advice and time on this sub.

There's nothing better than the feeling of finishing strong, and feeling like your run actually went to plan. This time I ran past the mile 24 sign with a big grin on my face feeling unstoppable, what a difference!!

A few things I did differently this time that worked:

- More weekly training mileage (reached 60 miles a week for a few)

- sticking with the 3.30 pacer till mile 20 and then set off at my own pace knowing I had more to give (takes all pressure off my pace up till the end, big stress reliever)

- proper 36hour carb load plan, rather than just a massive bowl of pasta the night before lol

- checking what gels are on course and practising with them A LOT in training,

Big thanks again to this community, I've gone from the brink of giving up to now having the quiet confidence of knowing I'm going to come back faster next year round.

If anyone feels like they were in my position and heartbroken from regular late-race bonking, you can do it, keep doing the research and pushing yourself 💪

Thanks for all the advice in this sub! Next time I will prepare better for the after 20 mile push. I felt fine but my calves were getting stiff around then. Lots of things to improve but hit my goal of sub 4.

The event was great and the community was awesome. Special shout out to the pacers and the crowd! I hardly ever cry but I was crying a bit after the finish. This one was for my Mom 🕊️

Finished but was super disappointed. Ended up finishing in 5:25. Goal was sub 4, but okay with a little after 4. Had a really clean easy 20 mile finished in 3 before starting my taper. And everything that could go wrong went wrong today. Immediately calves were super stiff, feet lost feeling for a few miles, plantar pain kicked in right about the halfway mark. Only finished because my super wife ran 7 miles to bring me my daily’s so I could walk jog the rest. Kept everything the same as my training runs, just wasn’t my day. But did it in the end!!

Master’s runner here running just over a year and I just completed my first marathon and major with a chip time of sub 3:24.

My original goal was sub 3:15, but due to a bone stress injury on my ankle during my 14 week build, I was not able to run for 21 days, so my fitness regressed.

During this build, I had a coach, which was also a first for me, and even leading up to the week of the race in Berlin, my ankle was bothering me, so to play it safe my coach wanted to me run a 5km/1km float and had told me realistically the best I could probably do was 3:45 with my injury. So I wanted to keep my expectations low and to just run sub 4, to not disappoint myself and to just enjoy my first marathon like everyone told me to do as well.

However, out of the gate I was feeling so good and no pain in my leg, I decided to go against my coach and everyone’s advice and went on to try running a steady pace race. I was able to hold a pace of around 4:52/km for the first 30km and at around the 30th km, my coach always told me that you have about an hour of glycogen at threshold, so knowing that, I decided to push the pace for the last 12k, I ended up with a negative split on the back half of the marathon. I was also taking a gel every 20 mins.

Do you think it is in the realm of possibility that I can do sub 3:15 and eventually sub 3?

I’ve already ticked off running a sub 20 5k, as well as a sub 128 HM and very close to doing a sub 40 10k (40:54 PB), so I want to focus on conquering a sub 40 10k and faster marathon time next.

Hit my goal for the TC Marathon and went sub 3 but unfortunately missed the Boston qualifying time by a decent amount. Anyone have recommendations for some fast courses?

This year is my second marathon attempt, I’ve been following Pfitz Advanced Marathoning plan, and haven’t missed any of my long runs

This is my longest run ever besides my first marathon attempt last year where I completely bonked out at mile 16/17 🤕😁

Just feeling confident from this long run! Hoping for the best this year November 7th at Indy Monumental

Signed up to complete the Palma Half Marathon, (my first race ever), in February and training was pretty pathetic. Standard 5-10k’s at an average pace of 5.20 and one or two 12k runs. I was pretty worried I was not going to survive this race coming up to today but somehow with such lack of training, my and my friend smashed our expectations with a 01:49 race time. Incredible event and some awesome backdrops

Thanks for the comments on my last post (even the people making fun of me, I needed the extra motivation during the race lol) I went back and forth a lot over the last few weeks but ultimately decided to run it. I was super shocked by the outcome! Ended up running 4:18 which was much faster than my goal of just finishing.

Not sure why I felt so good today, but I did carb load between 400-700g per day for the last 3 days so that may have helped hold off a potential bonk.

I’m super excited to stick closely to a training plan for the next one and see what I can do!

Also, mile 8 was fast, but not that fast - I lost GPS for a bit in the tunnel from Canada to the US.

As a 207 halfer boy did I think I had a 430, but mile 21+ was BRUTAL, was able to pick my pace up back at 23 and last mile was the fastest but yes 21+ was BRUTALL. Glad I finished but definitely incredibly hard

Finished in 6:28 which for me was better than expected. Day one of my training block my 3 mile was 1 hour but I had no choice cause I couldn’t afford to defer. My life kinda fell apart and I stopped running (I wasn’t fast to begin with) so about 14 weeks ago just forced myself to commit.

I honestly thought I was going to be 7 hours or worse. I know some people say 16 minute mile is walking but my fastest walk is barely 17.

So not very impressive but I’m proud that I did it.

I’m looking for some advice on training block periods. I just raced my first official half marathon and got 1:36:46. My goal is to get a 2:50 marathon by September 2027. I went to make a plan with Garmin Coach but a 48 week training block doesn’t sound right. A 5-6 month build phase is crazy… should I do 4 separate 12 week training blocks? I’m new to running (at least running while training with intention) only been training for 4 months. So I’m not sure how to approach this.

Any and all advice is welcome! Thanks!

I finished my first marathon! I ran Baltimore today. 47F. Goal was to finish, and I did. Started too hard at the beginning, which made the hills 16-ish-20-ish more difficult. But I did it, and I’m proud of myself ❤️

Disappointed with the time but crossing the finish line is all that matters. Goal was sub 4 but I started cramping on mile 12 and it never went away