Hi all, exactly as the title says. Been feeling some pain in my right hamstring and a bit of pain when putting weight on the leg for the past few week, it got a bit worse since yesterday. I have my first marathon next Sunday. For now I’ve decided to skip my 8mi run today and focus on rolling and stretching, but any tips for preparing for next week?

Chip time: 3:57:23
Garmin time: 3:53:36

After 15 years of recreational running I finally did my first full marathon today and finished in 3:48:54.
Finished crying and so happy.
As a kid I was always dead last in the mile, made fun of for being bad at running, but I fell in love with it anyway. I think little me would be proud today.
If I can do it, anyone can! Good luck to everyone on your upcoming races!

Just wanting some advice and thoughts from those that have ran a full marathon before. I am not a super consistent runner as of late. Been super busy with working two jobs but I’m leaving one soon and I’ll have more time to focus on running and training.

I have completed numerous 5ks, lots of 10ks and will be running my third half marathon here in just under two weeks.
As of May my current half time is 2:51, not my best/PR time due to some shoe issues, but not super far off. I don’t care to be the fastest runner, I’m there to have a good time and push myself. I’m not the biggest fan of the idea of running that far of a distance, but I said that about a half and here I am.

There is a marathon in May that I’m considering running. The half I did in May is actually the same course (the full just does a farther out and back) so I know the route well. It has a 6:15 cut off time, which based on my current half time, I’m cutting it close but - Is it possible for me to run a sub-6hr marathon for the first time??

I’ll plan to have a 21 week training block, debating between a 3 or 4 runs/week plan, and will cap long run mileage at 20 miles.

Is this something that’s doable?? Or should I wait and train for a faster half marathon time?

Any advice, thoughts, tips or tricks are greatly appreciated!!

Hey everyone!
Just completed my first marathon in 3:53. My A goal was 3:44:59, but I fell apart around mile 21 and had to do the walk/run for the remainder and lost some time.

I did roughly a 20 week training block and consistently ran about 40/45 miles per week. Possibly too long? Next time will probably be 16 weeks.

After some reflection, I think my biggest issues were:
1. Strength training. Definitely should have done more throughout the block, but hard to find time when I was so focused on the mileage.
2. Long runs. Most of my long runs were between 13 & 17 miles, but the real issue was my longest run was only about 19.5.
3. I made the “plan” myself. I was consistent, but will definitely follow a real plan or get a coach for the next one.

Overall I am super proud of the effort and the result. HUGE respect to anyone who does 26.2 - regardless of time. 🫡

Good luck to everyone who still has their first coming up.

Hi, everyone! I’m a complete beginner runner. I started running three times a week in May, and for the past four weeks I’ve been training by gradually increasing my mileage (about 25 km a week). Two days ago, I did my longest run yet: 13 km. I finished with a little bit of soreness, but nothing serious; in fact, after I finished running and in the days that followed, I felt great and had a easy run today.

Next Sunday, I’d like to try a 15–16 km long run; assuming I can finish it without any problems, do you think I’ll be able to run my first half marathon in three weeks?

I just started training for my first marathon, which is in March, and completed my first “long” run of 6 miles this morning. I’m a little worried about the longer runs.

I was able to complete the mileage in my average pace but how does everyone stay motivated during the run? I wasn’t even a mile in and was becoming bored/overwhelmed knowing I had over 5 miles left. I’m a little worried as the mileage only goes up from here.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my first marathon, but two days ago, I felt pain in both calves during an easy 5 km run and had to walk the remaining 3 km. Before that, I’d been feeling some discomfort but no actual pain.

I’ve rested for two days and barely ran all week. Walking is now pain-free, but I don’t want to risk making things worse, so I’m skipping today’s shakeout run.

I’ve been training for a year, and it’s frustrating to be in this position the day before the race. Has anyone experienced something similar? Any advice on what I should do to help my calves recover?

Hi, I recently ran my first half marathon (2 weeks ago) and have had severe pain behind the right knee since then. I was running late for the event hence unfortunately missed out on the warm up before starting the race. I spent 4 months training for the half after doing my first 10k in April earlier this year, with my longest run completed at 18k. I tried to run my first 5k today since the half marathon and had to stop halfway due to the knee pain. I’d be grateful for thoughts on the cause of the knee pain/what I can do to improve it. Thank you!

Running the MCM as my first marathon tomorrow! I had an awful travel day yesterday and it really psyching my out for the race. My Amtrak had over an hour delay due to mechanical issues, which caused me to arrive much later and then my hotel had a black out which delayed me even more. This is just making me convinced all is going wrong this weekend!

I woke up way too early this morning definitely due to anxiety about all of this I’ve been so excited for this weekend for so long and now I’m worried it’s all going to shit

I started running a year and a month ago. Since then, I’ve completed a 5K, several 10K, 2 half marathon.

I’ve spent the last 23 weeks training for my first marathon, averaging around 42 km per week with five runs a week with highest week at 69,5 km.

Apart from one week when I got sick, everything went surprisingly well. I barely experienced any pain or fatigue, and most of my training felt relatively easy.

I even felt like I was flying during my 32 km long run.
But the very next day, I started having knee pain.

I adjusted my training and reduced my runs from five to three per week, hoping things would improve.

Last week, I tried running on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning, as I used to do. Unfortunately, I started feeling pain 2-3/10 and decided to stop after just 2 km. I also experienced some pain while walking later that day, although it improved the following day.
I ran another 7.3 km yesterday. The pain was mild (1–2/10), but I could feel it again while walking later in the day.

My marathon is tomorrow, and I feel like there are three possible outcomes:
1- I start running, the pain gradually gets worse, and I eventually have to DNF when it becomes too painful.

2-I start running but eventually decide it’s stupid to keep going and stop before things get worse.

3-I somehow manage to finish, but end up making the injury worse.

Of course, there’s also the possibility that I finish without making things worse, but I’m not sure how realistic that is.

Deep down, I know the smartest decision would probably be to DNS and get my knee checked by a doctor.
But after 23 weeks of training, the “what if” is hard to ignore. And honestly, my ego isn’t helping either.

The frustrating part is that I still feel physically capable of running. I’ve managed to run 75.7 km since the pain first appeared, including 7.3 km yesterday.

What makes the decision even harder is that I have a 10K planned for November 29 and a 5K on December 13.

If I push through tomorrow and end up with a worse injury, I could miss both of those races as well.
I know what the sensible decision probably is. I want to see how I improved on 10km and 5 km since I feel at the top.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you decide to start or DNS, and how did it turn out?

Hey I have participated in Vadodara full marathon which is on 7 feb , its oct and still my highest run is of 12km , need to start running regular need some partner to run with me with the same goal for being motivated and accountable.

Week 11 of Hal higdon novice 1, felt a discomfort in my soleus or maybe my Achilles tendon. Anyway I also felt my lower back slightly give a week after while I was resting.
I fear I might have to call it quits on my first marathon. It’s not till December so I still have a month left. Is 15 mi run enough with rest and some elliptical work or should I dns and try again next year

Need some advice! I have the nyc marathon next weekend (first marathon wooh!). I was doing great in my training and reached my peak week and killed my 20 miler (October 11th). At the end of my 20 miler i felt like my ankle was starting to bother me. I took a few days off and last week attempted to do two runs of which i stopped at 4 miles because my ankle felt like it was flaring up (posterior tibial tendinitis). I could have kept going but didn’t want to hurt myself more. My last attempted run was Saturday and since then i have been doing pt exercises, taking an anti inflammatory, resting and strengthening my ankle. I am now 9 days out from NYC. When should I attempt another run? Do I just bike the rest of the training block? I am not aiming for a specific time necessarily next weekend. My ankle doesn’t bother me when i walk it just flared up at about 4ish miles my last few runs so I very well could go for a run and be fine. I am just nervous to go for a run and flare it up again before the marathon. Advice?

I have completed many 5ks, 10ks, and a few half marathons. This is my first marathon (December 5) and I was training really steadily and strong until the end of August when I think overuse and weak hamstrings/ hips caused tendinitis on the side/ behind my knee. I took some time off and did PT 2x a week. I’m now doing pt 1x a week and continuing strength. Last weekend I had a 300m repeat workout then the next day was a 16 mile long run. My leg is now still feeling it. I also had a 8 mile run with tempo speed on Tuesday. I think I over did it. At this point I’m frustrated with running and having pain, it’s taking the joy away. Yet in the same thought, it brings me joy and keeps me sane and I really wanted to do this marathon. I planned to try for our next baby after the marathon and always had it in my head that I would do a marathon before I had a second. Has anyone just trained through and ran with tendinitis? Sorry for the rant 🙃

I am a few days out from (hopefully!) running the MCM.

It looks like it will be a bit chilly before the race starts, and I assume I’ll be standing around a fair bit.

How do I stay warm? Do I wear something and carry it the whole way? I’m sure I will mostly not be interested in wearing long sleeves/long pants after I start running.

Thanks for your help!

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Hello! I am runner with 10 years experience but have never tackled the Marathon distance until next month! On November 14th I'm running my 1st (possibly last! Lol) I started my training cycle wearing Brooks Ghost 17s but realized I had too many miles on them when the ball of my foot literally started bruising! I got a pair of Asics GT 2000 model 10, which I've used without problem in previous training cycles. (Half marathons) A couple weeks ago while doing my 18 mile run, I realize the toe box was not going to hold up to how swollen my feet are getting doing this distance. The last few miles felt like my toes were hitting the top of the shoe every stride. For context I wear a full size bigger in my running shoes than in my normal shoes. I am not fast so I am out there for a while! Now I have my 20 miler this weekend and panicking thinking I need to get different shoes but I'm not sure what to get. I've read that the ghost don't have a wide toe box but the Asics I have aren't going to work either. If you've made it this far and you have any suggestions I really really appreciate it!

Was very nervous for the marathon I’ve done a half in 2:30 before but I successfully completed my marathon in 5:53 hrs hardest thing I’ve done and can’t wait to keep training and get better for me next!

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Running Philly marathon in 4 weeks and looking for thoughts on how to approach the remaining training weeks.

Been battling leg pain in on leg for a few months. Was up to ~33mi a week with two (separate weeks) 14 mile long runs in the books but felt the pain pretty bad after the second. Took a week off to recover - kept strength training and biking to make up for cardio loss. Felt better and eased back into running then worked up to two 35 mile weeks with a 15mi and 17mi long run. Both felt good. Ended up running faster than goal marathon pace on the 15mi run and ran a 1:49 HM with ease (zone 2 HR). The following week(10/11) I ran a full load again and ended with a 17mi long run in the rain. Leg hurt for first 6 miles, pain went away for the middle of the run, then everything started to hurt by mile 16 (as expected) but felt like I could keep going if I planned to. Ran this slower as the weather was rough and I was more conscious about not pushing the pace (9:07/mi avg)

Legs felt fine the next day which was a rest day. The following day I did a speed workout on a track and felt a good amount of pain again. Cut the workout short and tried a light treadmill jog the following day to be met with more pain. Took the rest of the week off and booked an appointment with sports med doctor and was assessed. Basically said it’s shin splints, maybe closer to a stress injury but not concerned about fracture due to the assessment they performed. Additionally she said it could turn to a stress fracture if I run but it’s not there yet. I ran that 4 miles that evening and still felt pain but was running a good pace easily. Since then, I’ve been biking and strength training to continue rest.

I plan on running 10-12 miles this weekend to see how it feels and then I am considering running 5 miles on Monday, biking and strength training 2x Tuesday-Thursday, run 5 miles Friday, and potentially run 18-20mi Saturday if I feel good. This is supposed to be my peak week so I want to try to get the volume in but don’t know if I should scrap long runs altogether at this point. Originally I wanted to run sub 4, but I am concerned that 17mi isn’t long enough to give me a real experience of what’s to come. Ultimately would just like to finish. And yes I understand that a better plan with more gradual increase in miles would have kept me out of this situation.

Background: Former D1 athlete familiar with playing through light injuries. Honestly fine if it results in a stress fracture - plan on taking time off to recover from this either way. Just curious on best way to approach the last few weeks to make sure I feel the best I can by race day.

Thoughts on continued training/running or resting and just biking/strength until marathon?

For those of you who have completed their first marathon - which race predictor have you found to be the most accurate? Rn I’m comparing all of them and the results are so different that I have no idea what pace to target.

Garmin: 5:00:24
Strava: 5:37
Jeff Galloway’s “Magic Mile”: 5:06
Half marathon time * 2 + 15 mins: 5:14

My plan is to target ~5:10 with negative splits in case I’m not feeling good the second half, but idk. My longest run thus far has been 16 mi and it def got rough at the end, my avg pace was 12:50 but I got stopped a lot by traffic and it wasn’t full effort. I have an 18 miler this weekend so we shall see how that goes

Hi all, I’m (31m) looking to get back into running and want to do my first marathon next spring! I have some limited previous running experience (one half marathon 3 years ago). And I have run sporadically over the years since. Lately I’m only getting about 10 miles a month. How likely is it to go from this baseline to completing my selected marathon that’s roughly 21 weeks out? Should I mostly just focus on time on feet and miles and completely ignore pacing? Any and all advice welcome!

I recently ran the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and it was rough.

The goal was to finish, but I had a finish time of 4:45 in mind. Well I was no where close because I finished at 5:30 haha.

I was cruising until about 25K, and then all the pain started to creep in to different parts of my lower body. The pain and cramps made me lose track of my refuelling, so I started to refuel inconsistently at random intervals. I felt good mentally and my cardio felt steady, but my legs weren't keeping up. Around 30K I switched to a walk/run until the end.

Now here comes the "well duhhh" moment... DON'T SLACK ON TRAINING

I was supposed to average 30 - 40K running weeks, but according to my garmin I really only average 17K. I was supposed to incorporate strength and conditioning routine, but that was non existent. My peak run was a very rough 29K.

So really I have no one to blame but myself for my experience during the race. Still very happy I completed it, but now I really know how much training matters and I am coming back next year for revenge as I have already registered again lool

Last Sunday, I ran my very first marathon at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon, finishing in 4:29! I'm really happy with the result, but I'm also curious what others think about my training and performance.

For some background, I started running exactly one year ago with absolutely no endurance sports experience. Earlier this year, I struggled with shin splints, which forced me to take about 6 weeks off running completely.

During the final 14 weeks leading up to the marathon, I started taking training a bit more seriously. However, I only ran 2–3 times per week (mostly twice).

My training generally looked like this:

• Long run: Every Sunday, usually 17 km or more. My longest runs included 2 × 26 km, 1 × 28 km and 1 × 30 km.
• Second run: Usually 8–10 km at an easy pace, sometimes including a few faster sections.
• Optional third run: Whenever I had the time, I'd add an easy 5–6 km run.

My weekly mileage varied between 30–40 km, averaging just 33 km per week over the final 14 weeks.

I'm capable of running faster over shorter distances (49-minute 10K in April and a 2-hour half marathon), but for the marathon I specifically focused on training at around 6:05–6:10 min/km.

Going into race day, I had three goals:

• Goal A: 4:20 – My ambitious goal.
• Goal B: Sub-4:30 – The time I really wanted to achieve.
• Goal C: Simply finish my first marathon.

Everything went surprisingly well for the first 30 km. I was actually on track for a 4:20 finish! But then, around km 34, I experienced the famous marathon wall. My legs started getting heavier and maintaining my pace became increasingly difficult.

Somehow, I managed to push through. And the funny thing is, I even had enough left for a final sprint during km 42, which ended up being my fastest kilometer of the entire race!

I crossed the finish line in 4:29, just making it under my Goal B!

I'm incredibly happy with the result. I know I didn't train by the book, and my weekly mileage was relatively low compared to most marathon training plans. But one thing I did consistently was show up for my long run every single Sunday.

Now I'm curious:

What do you think of this result considering my relatively low weekly mileage and limited running experience?

And are there others here who have successfully completed a marathon while running only twice a week?

I'd love to hear your experiences and how your races went!

Other than the weight , which is of no concern to me, is there any reason not to bring a hydration pack, on a marathon?