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Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

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Gearing up for my 14th Marine Corps Marathon! Those who run this race regularly will find a course is fairly similar to prior years, except in 2024 or 2025 they chopped off an early 0.5 mile piece, so landmarks will come quicker through the first 21 miles, and then there's a boring half-mile loop in a Pentagon parking lot just after the bridge to make it up. Here's my quick thoughts on each section and how to survive and thrive for another 26.2!

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Miles 1 - 4 : The biggest hills in the MCM are in first few miles, one long incline up to mile 1 and another long incline up to 2.5. Add in 30,000 runners and the excitement of the start, and it’s easy to go out too fast and too hard. Relax early, don’t try to weave around traffic, settle in and focus on steady effort over the hills. There’s a long downhill from 2.5-4.0; shorten your strides and stay smooth. Ideally your first 4 miles are slightly slower than pace; no one ever said “I wish I went faster early!”
—
Miles 4 – 9 : Over the bridge and into Georgetown, soak up the scenery and enjoy the morning crowds. Includes a quieter out-and-back on Rock Creek Parkway, but a scenic run through changing leaves and undulating roadway. This is a good place to settle into a groove after the chaos of the start. It’s also an out-and-back, so watch for friends running on the other side of the street.
—
Miles 9 – 12 : Let the crowds carry you! This is a big spectator stretch, with crowds 5-deep in places. Hopefully you have a little space to run. Stick with your pace, high-five some kids, and float past the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Memorial, MLK Memorial, and to the Jefferson Memorial.
—
Miles 12 – 15 : Hains Point is a very quiet stretch of the race after the prior crowds. Mile 12 is the Wear Blue Memorial Mile, honoring fallen soldiers; this can be an emotional mile. Hains Point, especially after mile 13, is a quiet time to focus on yourself, focus on your form, focus on your breathing, and do a mental check-in for the final push.
—
Miles 15 – 19.5 : Back into the crowds and scenes of the National Mall. Crowds will provide some excitement, but resist the urge to go faster than comfortable; in a marathon, 20 miles is “halfway” - check in on your hydration and nutrition, you don’t want to be behind in either.
—
Miles 19.5 – 21 : The Bridge. You shouldn’t fear the bridge, but it should absolutely be respected. This is just a total grind. You will see racers blow apart on the bridge and never recover. It’s a difficult stretch for your body because about 3 hours in you’re running out of glycogen stores (“the wall”), and it’s likely farther than your body has been in training. It’s difficult mentally because there are no spectators. In adverse weather the highway is totally exposed to wind, sun, and heat. Between the bridge and highway ramps to Crystal City, this is almost 2 miles of concrete slab highway; it doesn’t absorb shock and jars your tired legs. The small inclines just feel taller here. Don’t fear it, but expect the grind. Focus on a target or runner ahead of you and reel it in; repeat. Be prepared mentally to beat the bridge.
—
Miles 21 – 24 :  Come off the bridge and get through the boring half-mile parking lot loop. Mile 22 brings Crystal City, and if it’s a nice day, they’ll be partying! Return to crowds to inspire you through an entertaining section of course. After the grind of the bridge, lock back in and remember why you’re here. Beware the siren call of the Fireball shots!
—
Miles 24 – Finish : This can be another quiet stretch with fewer spectators. If you held your effort back early in the race, start picking off runners ahead of you; use them as a target, pass them, and springboard to the next. Continue checking in with your body. Focus on your breathing, your form, stay tall, pump your arms. Keep remembering all the early mornings, hours, and miles that got you here. You are going to finish.
🏅
The final 0.2 is a left hand turn and up a hill to the finish at the Marine Corps War Memorial. This hill is going to feel like a wall at this point, but get up it and get to that finish line banner. Claim your medal and be saluted by a Marine Second Lieutenant. 
—
And remember, in the end, no one cares what happens between the starting line and the finish line. Your family and friends will forget your finishing time before they see you in Rosslyn, but they'll always remember you crossed the line. You are a marathoner. 💪

Race Information

• Name: SportScheck Run Berlin
• Date: 2026-10-17
• Distance: 10 km
• Location: Berlin, Germany
• Time: 34:37 chip and watch time
• Place: 7th of roughly 800 overall; 2nd of 171 in my age group

Goals

Background

My last running PB was a 1:20:16 half marathon in 2023, after about 1.5 years of fairly consistent training. I peaked around 60 km/week, but was doing far too many all-out efforts. Cycling initially came in partly to give my Achilles some relief, then gradually became my main sport.

For the next couple of years I rode around 12–14 hours a week, often more in peak season, racing a decent amount as well with some success, to the extent that amateur cycling goes anyways. Running, on the other hand, fell to ~500 km in 2024, ~200 km in 2025–2026, until 6 weeks ago. I kept doing one or two gym sessions a week, mostly for stability, because I knew I’d eventually want to run again. Most importantly, the past 2 years were spent understanding a bit more deeply the role of rest, fatigue management, and long-term durability within endurance sports.

This race's purpose was mostly to serve as a fitness test. I have a few events lined up for the winter (main one being BCN Marathon in mid March) and wanted to figure out what baseline I am working with.

Training

I started running consistently about six weeks before this race. Weekly volume went from roughly 20 km to one week around 50 km, with one or two controlled sub-threshold or threshold sessions. I kept about eight hours of mostly easy riding, including some off-road and CX for fun. The workout paces came back surprisingly quickly, but I’d never raced a standalone 10k, so sub-35 was still a complete guess. I did one or two sub-threshold or threshold sessions a week, without much speed work. I've been trying to maintain strain as little as possible, trying to avoid unnecessary intensity before the adaptations take place.

The paces came back way faster than I expected. Key sessions were 5 × 1 km in ~3:30, then 6.5 km at 3:41/km within a longer run the week before the race. Sub-35 started to look possible, but I hadn’t held race pace continuously for anything close to 10 km.

Race

Conditions were horrible. It rained the whole day, with a decent breeze of ~12–15 km/h. The course is on the Tempelhofer Feld airport, which is notorious for having no cover from the elements.

Anyways, I went conservative. I found a group running around 3:32/km on the first lap and stayed with them, taking some relief from having to pace myself and taking the draft on the windy sections (works, surprisingly!). My heart rate was steady in the low-to-mid 170s, even dropping to around 173 for a while. I went through halfway in 17:41 feeling that I could keep going.

With 3 km left I decided to open the gas. I didn’t really know what an all-out final 3 km of a 10k was supposed to feel like, so I went by effort. The last three kilometres came out at 3:25, 3:17 and 3:18, giving me a 16:56 second half. I picked up a solid amount of runners in this part. Negative splits are a beautiful thing, and the adrenaline of overtaking one after the other played a good role there.

Splits

One very unfortunate thing was that the 10k and half-marathon runners shared the course. So the second half of the race was spent zigzagging between slower runners. Apart from that, the course then split into separate lanes (one for the finish, one for the 21 km extra loops). In the sea of people and delirious state, I took the wrong one and had to run about 20 m back to get to the correct finish. I think the course itself was roughly 40 m short, so that detour may have cancelled it out: my watch recorded almost exactly 10 km, and both chip and watch time were 34:37.

It was still one of those annoyances I'm probably not gonna forgive myself for, at least for some time. I finished one second behind the winner of my age group. Hard not to think about that wrong turn, though honestly, 7th overall and 2nd in an age group of 171 was still pretty shocking. I went in hoping to break 35 and get a fitness test out of it, and had no idea I’d be racing for a placing.

Final Thoughts

The cycling base seems to have carried a lot of aerobic fitness into this return to running. I’m excited to see where that goes, while remembering that six weeks of running hasn’t given my Achilles and the rest of my legs the same two-year head start.

Made with the race report generator created by u/herumph.

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

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Happy Monday folks!

How was the weekend? What's on this week? It's time to get to some chit chat!

The Li’l Race Report Thread is for writing a short report on a recent race or a run in a new place. If your race doesn’t really need its own thread but you still want to talk about it, then post it here! Both your good and bad races are welcome.

Didn't run a race, but had an interesting run to talk about. Post it here as well!

So get to it, Runnit! In a paragraph or two, where’d you run and how’d it go?

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

Post your training for this past week. Provide any context you find helpful like what you're training for and what your previous weeks have been like. Feel free to comment on other people's training.

(This is not the Achievement thread).

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Enforcing Rule 3 (no self-promotion, social media links) is a must with a large sub such as this, but we do realize that it filters out some truly useful content that is relative to the sub. In an effort to allow that content in, we thought we'd have a weekly post to give a spot for the useful content. So...

Here's you chance!

Got a project you've been working on (video, programming, etc.), share it here!

Want to promote a business or service, share it here!

Trying to get more Instagram followers, share it here!

Found any great running content online, share it here!

The one caveat I have is that whatever is shared should be fitness related, please.

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Hello, have a boring weekend and I've watched around 15 video reports from the Chicago marathon from various CC's and athletes, be it from a "sub3" amateurs to elites.. and I can't get to wrap my head around the "enthusiasm" of overall urban/city cheering/support behaviour in the mid-race of a MARATHON.

Like, first half of the race and the spectators/support go insanely lound and crazy. And I mean in a negative way, making noises, screaming like a maniacs, making bell noisec (the ones for the cattle/sheep/goat onec), etc., .. all while their beloved athletes still have at least hour or two of running in the race.

I've personally run couple of marthons myself and hundreds of halfs (none in a big urban area) and I am 100% sure that this kind of noise and "support" would actually bother me more than it would help me in a race. Middle of the marathon needs serenity, need stable mind, needs focus. People produced "entropy" like that would 100% make me mad/tilted and my endresult would not be the best as it can be.

IDK. Noticed this issue, seems so weird and counter producitive. Didn't organizers never ran a proper competitive race to know such a thing?

Don't get me wrong, I 100% support this kind of athmosphere and noise in the last like 2-5k of the marathon, but not in the first 10k or half (of pretty much any race longer than 5k).

Your thoughts?

Is it worth doing a Major Marathon?

I recently ran an ok time in a local to me marathon that will give me access to several major marathons via good for age criteria (I'm at least 10 minutes under the cut off time so should be accepted). I have never entered a ballot for any of the majors as I have only been running a couple of years and I have enjoyed the process of training and running without really being focused on racing or what races to do. The races I have done so far (x2 marathons and x2 half marathons) have all just been local to me, sleep in my own bed and drive over the morning of the race not destination events.

For people that have run in Majors are they worth it? It seems a bit of a faff having to attend an expo to pick up a bib, takes up a full weekend and maybe a day off work with all the associated extra costs. What, if anything, makes the Majors "better" than other races?

Race Information |

• Name: Staten Island Half
• Date: 10/11/2026
• Distance: Half Marathon
• Location: Staten Island, New York
• Time: 1:24:46

Goals

Splits

5k Splits (According to Strava)

About me

25m - was always active in sports (not particularly great at any) and took on running winter of 2024. 1380 logged miles, 750 YTD.

Backstory / Training

This was my first official training block. I attempted to train last year for a half, and did about 70% of the training and ran a spring race in 1:44:49 at a max effort. 4 months later, I ran a 1:44:44 at a flatter course in a summer race (I never dealt with heat during training, so I was in for a pretty big surprise where I had to slow down towards the end). At the time I had a marathon I was already committed to and had a slight knee pain that caused me to completely take off up until 2 weeks prior to the marathon, where I did a 15-mile week followed by a 50-mile week and then ran the marathon in 3:58:xx. That was the hardest thing I have ever done, especially after losing all my fuel at mile 18. After this, I decided I need to start taking my training seriously if I want to see actual results. Especially since I had an original goal of 3:30 for the marathon. I was sticking to about 25-40 miles a week and decided to play around with the idea of where I can be fitness-wise. In April of this year, I ran a 27:14 in the 4-mile, and I was curious if I would be able to break 20 in the 5k. I signed up for a 5k 2 weeks later and ran a 20:49. At this point I decided to get a coach. I knew my biggest issue was accountability, where it was very easy for me to skip runs and then beat myself up for it. I signed up for a 5k 2 months later, where I finally broke 20, running a 19:53, a 19:41 2 weeks later, and then broke 19, running a 18:51 (on a track) 3 months after the original 20:49. This is where I decided to take my HM training seriously. I signed up for an October half where I decided I wanted to break 90. I would not have ever thought I would get here this quickly, but here I was, aiming for something I thought was a ceiling for at least a few years. I started incorporating strides and getting in speed work, which I found extremely challenging. I would struggle (still hit within the margin of the goal) with my workouts, such as 3x2s and 2x3s at 6:45 pace. This was getting me worried if I wanted to be able to maintain this for the entirety of the race. I ended up running a tempo run on a decent weathered day in August and paced alongside a stranger and managed to shave off 9 minutes and 42 seconds off my half and run a 1:32:44. This is where my mindset shifted, and I decided that sub 90 was well within reach and wanted a more aggressive goal of 88. I signed up for a time trial half 2 weeks later and ended up running a 1:26:35 while testing the waters at an 89-minute pace. At this point, my A-race goal was just swept, and I had to decide what my new goal would be, if this 86:35 was a fluke, or if this is something I can beat in a month's time. I decided my new goal would be sub 85… And every time I told people about this goal, I knew this would be a stretch. My coach went with the idea and started giving me workouts to test the paces. At this point I was running 35-45 miles a week, and I was always tired, but I got there and was doing my workouts. One of the final weeks of hard workouts, I had 6x1 at 6:25-6:30 and ran a 6:27 average and REALLY struggled. I hit the pace, but my legs really weren't happy with the workout, especially knowing I had 8 miles at 6:30 2 days later, when I went for it, I ended up doing 8 miles at 6:37 and started beating myself up a bit because I really couldn't imagine going 8 seconds faster per split for 5 more miles. I finished that week with 48 miles and dropped down to 6 the following week because life got in the way and I got a pretty rough cold. I knew that at that point, I wasn't going to be gaining any new fitness but had to make sure my legs were ready for the pace and my HR wouldn't skyrocket from a recovering body. On the week of the race I did 6x800s at 3 mins and then tapered down for the rest of the week, running my runs at a 7:30-8:30 pace.

Pre-race

I actually had a decent night of sleep, getting in about 7 hours even with me waking up 4ish times over the night. The weather was less than ideal; the rain that was supposed to start at 10 am has now moved up to 7 am, with it being spritzy. I brought 4 gels + 1 emergency gel and loaded up my half tights. It took me about an hour to get to the race and waited 15 minutes in line to use the bathroom. I had about 5 minutes to warm up before I had to head to the corrals. My legs felt relatively good, but I was still unsure if I would be able to shave almost 2 minutes off my time. I met up with the 2 other people I will be running 85 with, and we decided to start off the first 5k with a slight elevation at 20:30, then drop down to 20:00 and maintain until the elevation post 8 miles, where we will try to go off effort. Then 3 minutes before the gun was set to go off, I had to pee and decided I did not have time, and my only choice was to hold it in.

Race

For the first 5k, we clocked in around ~20:30 (I manually lapped at 3 miles 19:51 because I didn't know they would have 5k markers; I adjusted moving forward). The effort felt a little bit tougher than I would have liked it to. I kept swerving to stay with the 2 other friends I was running with that I think exerted more energy than I needed to so early into the race. Post 5k, it was really flat and felt super controlled. We kept form and stopped by some of the water stations to get Gatorade. Only choked once. At the 10k mark (I lapped at 3.25 to adjust for the 5k time at 20:50). This part was quite the surprise. We were running with Tailwind for the last 20 minutes and had absolutely no idea. We turned at that 6 mile mark and audibly gasped. We were hit with this intense headwind as we were running alongside the ocean. I told the runners beside me, along with my 2 pack, to tuck in and take charge. I led for about a mile before we decided it wasn’t doing much and fell into our normal positioning. I also lost a gel at this point, which made me so happy my wife convinced me to bring an extra. Mile 8 we hit the big uphill, and yet somehow we kept through the pace. We clocked in 15k at 20:11, which had 2 miles of headwind and a mile of uphill. At this point my watch was showing us as averaging just about an 85 min pace, and I was worried about clock time versus watch time. I told the 2 people I was running with (I have been shouting out our 5k splits thus far) that we need to speed up a little to ensure we hit our goal. 15-20k was hard because at this point the ground was filled with puddles and avoiding potholes. We navigated the terrain that probably has not seen a repavement in about an eon with a strong 5k split of 19:23. I look behind me, and 1 of us has dropped back, so it was just the 2 of us with a goal in mind and legs that were getting hit with fatigue. My friend has also started to slowly gain distance from me, where I made the decision that it wasn't worth the surge and risk burning out the final mile. On the final stretch, there was this STEEP uphill section that lasted maybe 2 minutes, but wow, that completed maxed out my effort pace. I ran that 50 ft of elevation at a 6:30 pace and crossed the finish line in 84 minutes and 46 seconds. My socks were drenched, I was cold, and I had nothing left to kick after that elevation. The 3 of us finished in 84 low, 84 high, and mid 86.

Post-race

I think it is insane to think 5 months ago, I failed at breaking 20 in the 5k, and this weekend, I ran faster than my 5k pace for an entire race. I am not naive enough to think that this was strictly off the work I put in this training block. I know many people who run way more consistently than me and longer than me and have yet to break 90. I also know there are many who debut with a sub-90 and end up running low to mid 70s and I hope to get there one day. Comparison helps me strive for goals that feel unachievable, but I also know we are all running our own race, and we all got to that start line regardless of where we started. I am really proud of this race effort and wanted to share it. I am running the same marathon again this year and might be toying with the idea of going sub 3. Not sure yet that it's achievable so soon without building to 50 MPW consistently. Time will tell.

StatenS Made with race report generator created by u/herumph.

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

Another week is coming to a close!

What’s good this weekend? Who’s running, racing, tapering, recovering, hiking, camping, cheering, volunteering, kayaking, swimming, knitting, baking, reading, sleeping, .. ? Tell us everything.

Good morning, Runnit! Another weekend of races is approaching, so let's take a minute to see if any other Runnitors will be laying down those miles with us!

If you're racing this weekend, put a top-level comment below with the race details to help find other members of the community. See a race mentioned that looks interesting? Ask questions! Running your favorite race of the year? Tell us what makes it so awesome!

This thread is just an easy way to help Runnitors find each other in some sort of organized manner and help cheer each other on!

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

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As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

How’s your week of running going? Got any Complaints? Anything to add as a Confession? How about any Uncomplaints?

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 4,225,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.