Run Your First Marathon

Finish So, you want to run a marathon. What are you, some kind of masochist? I don't mean that, but I got your attention. Most of us who run find meaning in testing ourselves and finding out what we are capable of and the marathon provides a pretty formidable challenge. It helps us understand and define who we are. Only about 0.1%, or 1 in a thousand people in the USA can run 26.2 miles. It takes training, motivation, and determination. It is not something you are going to wake up one morning and decide to do today. It takes months of preparation.

If you want to do it, the first step is to assess where you are now. When I ran my first marathon, I had been a competitive runner for 10 years. It was a decision to run more, but I was on the intermediate plan, trying to (and successfully) qualifying for Boston. Most people that decide to run a marathon start at a different level. Here are some options.

Step 1: Assess Where You Are

Just Starting: If you are a new runner, you need to graduate past the "How To Start Running" phase as described in an article by that name on this website. You don't want to even start working towards a marathon training program until you at least have spent 20 miles per week running for 3 months. You also need to be able to run 8 miles on a long run once per week before even starting this training. Our recommendation would be to try running for at least 6 months, with 3 months at 20 miles per week or more before even starting a marathon training program. A few programs tell you otherwise, but they often have two kinds of graduates: those who drop out with injuries and those who enter a marathon but struggle horribly ending in a DNF (did not finish) or a very slow and agonizing finish. Many drop out of running and never run again. Please don't be a casualty. Be patient and work up to it. You can do it, but it doesn't happen overnight.

Running Pretty Steadily: You run about 20 to 30 miles per week (average) and have for at least 3 months. You also need to be doing a long run of not less than 7 or 8 miles once a week. If you have the mileage, but not the long runs, spend a few weeks building up to 8 miles for a long run and then start this program. Once you meet these requirements, you are in pretty good shape and ready to start a training program for a marathon. Congratulations! If you are motivated enough, in about 4 months you are going to successfully run a marathon. You have a lot of hard work to do along the way, but you are capable of doing it. Understand that there is some chance you will still get injured along the way. However, you have enough of a base that your chances are good of completing the marathon training and then finishing the race. We did not say winning or qualifying for Boston; we said finishing. If you follow this program, you will be able to run it and finish knowing that you have become one of the elite, a marathon runner. Unless you think your level of fitness is well above this, skip to the next section, "step 2".

Strong Competitive Runner: If you are running over 30 miles per week and competing regularly, you may need to skip ahead to the next level. "Marathon Training - Intermediate" provides a pretty good plan for anyone who is ready for it and trying to run for time, like qualifying for Boston or maybe even making it to the Olympic Trials. This is not your article. You may need to read that article or even find a coach and start really training. However, if you are doing over 30 miles per week and just want to bump it up a level you are welcome to try this program on how to move the mileage and the long runs up a level in order to finish a marathon.

Step 2: Assess Your Motivation and Time

If you are going to run a marathon, you will have to run at least 40 miles per week at your peak and do long runs, probably on the weekend. Are you willing and able to spend hours training every week and to get up early on the weekend (depending on climate and time of year - I live in Florida)? If you really want it and can make the time, we can show you how.

Step 3: Start Training

Here is a training program to complete a marathon. It focuses mostly on just doing the miles and building up your long run. However, it incorporates a few of the training techniques described in "Training Basics". These additions will significantly raise your level of fitness and make running at your race pace feel easier. The added workouts are worth it. Don't skip them. Include them in your training plan. Most training plans don't do this for a first marathon, but they also leave the runner struggling to run more than they walk. With this plan, hopefully, you will run most if not all of the way.

The following plan assumes you are already running 20 or more miles per week. Please don't start it otherwise. We don't want to see you frustrated or injured and you don't either. Sometimes a little bit of patience pays off great dividends. Build up to that level and then start.

Four month plan:

Week	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Total Miles
1	8 miles easy	3 miles easy	Day Off	4 miles	3 miles easy	4 miles	Day Off	22
2	10 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	5 miles including 1 mile steady	3 miles easy	4 miles	Day Off	25
3	11 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	5 miles including 1 mile tempo	3 miles easy	5 miles	Day Off	27
4	12 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 2 miles steady	3 miles easy	5 miles	Day Off	29
5	13 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 2 miles tempo	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	31
6	14 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 3 x 3 minutes fast	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	33
7	15 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 2 miles tempo	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	34
8	16 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 3 x 4 minutes fast	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	35
9	15 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 2 miles tempo	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	34
10	17.5 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 3 x 4 minutes fast	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	37
11	15 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	8 miles with 2 miles steady	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	36
12	19 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	8 miles including 3 x 4 minutes fast	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	40
13	15 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	8 miles including 2 miles tempo	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	38
14	20 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	8 miles including 3 x 4 minutes fast	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	43
15	15 miles easy	4 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 2 miles tempo	3 miles easy	6 miles	Day Off	34
16	12 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	6 miles including 3 x 3 minutes fast	3 miles easy	4 miles	Day Off	28
17	10 miles easy	3 miles easy (strides)	Day Off	3 miles (strides)	Day Off	2 miles easy	Day Off	18
18	Target Marathon

In applying this, you need to understand what the paces are. You do not need to run hard on every run. In fact, if you do you will run yourself into the ground if it is too hard or fail to improve if it is too slow. The key is to run easy when it says easy, either so you can recover on the short days or so you can just finish on the long days. This plan makes for very long and probably hard long runs, but they are getting you ready for the marathon, which is even longer. This plan focuses on pushing the long run, while throwing in just a little bit of quality running to get you more fit. Both of these are key in getting you ready to run a satisfying marathon. You need to be in the best shape of your life.

If you have run a 5K recently at a pace that felt very hard by the end, you have a good basis to estimate the paces. When we say hard or tempo, here is what we mean:

Easy: This is about 1:20 per mile to 2:00 per mile slower than your current 5K pace or even slower. This is either a long run where you need to just finish the distance or a recovery run where you ran hard the day before. Even slower is OK. Take these runs easy!

Steady: This is about 50 seconds to 1 minute per mile slower than 5K race pace. It feels a little fast, but is very much aerobic. You can still breath well and could talk while running, but it is not slow.

Tempo: This is about 20 to 30 seconds per mile slower than your 5K race pace. It is aerobic, but it is fast. This is pushing your limits on aerobic running (running without going into oxygen debt).

Fast: This is about 10 seconds per mile faster than 5K race pace. It is hard but controlled. You are only going to do it for 3 or 4 minutes, so it is not going to get as hard as a 5K.

No Pace Specified: Start these runs off easy. If you feel really good, you can bump it up to steady pace or somewhere in between by the end, but don't get too carried away. These add quite a few training miles and some include fast segments. Make them a good training effort, but don't race them.

However, for precise paces, based on your current 5K race pace, see our Training Pace Tables.

Strides: These are just "stretching it out" after an easy run. They are less than 100 yards. Start out gently and then build up to about 90% of top speed for 30 yards or so, then slow down gradually. Do this about 5 times with a minute of walking between. The idea is to build up some flexibility and leg speed. The idea is not to wind yourself or get in a major workout. It is just a drill on your easy day that helps with leg speed and running economy.

You can swap out days of the week to make this fit your schedule. If Wednesday is a bad day to run, do it Tuesday and take Wednesday off. However, this program leaves you well rested going into Sunday and Wednesday, which are your hardest days, so follow it if you can. Just make sure you stick with the hard day / easy day program.

When you train hard, like a long run or a tempo run, make sure the next day is an easy day or a day off. It is possible to do 2 hard days in a row followed by an easy day or two, but you may not be ready for that level of stress. Err on the side of taking easy days, but just keep on running. If you want to run 6 days a week and add a few miles, you can, but take it easy. Your focus should be on the hard days. You want to get in 3 hard days if you can: 1 long run (Sunday), 1 quality day (Wednesday), and 1 other fairly hard training day (Friday). Anything else should be easy, focusing on recovery before your next hard day, and you should take at least one day off per week to let your body really recover.

The long runs accelerate pretty quickly. If you struggle a little and have to take a short walk break, do so, but start running again as soon as you can, and don't feel like a failure. These will be very challenging. The same option exists in the race. You could walk at each aid station for about 50 yards or so to get some fluids down and then start running again. These breaks don't cost much time, but can make a race feel easier by breaking up the effort.

Step 4: Taper

If you follow this plan, you will notice that it gets easier the last 2 weeks. You need to recover the last two weeks. This is partly because you need to be rested and ready for the marathon. It is also because there is about a 2 week lag in training effect, meaning if you train hard in the last 2 weeks, it won't help you with your marathon anyway. This doesn't mean to take it off completely. If you do, you will lose fitness. The main key is to train a little in the last 2 weeks and to keep a little bit of quality training. Two weeks is long enough to lose leg speed if you don't.

Drop your mileage progressively while keeping a little bit of fast running in the plan.

Step 5: Race Time

Leading up to the race, the main thing the last couple of days is rest. If you are traveling, you may want to do it 2 days ahead. Don't be tempted to site-see and spend a lot of time on your feet the day before the race. You also need to read info on a runner's diet. You need to eat complex carbohydrates like your running life depends on it; it does. Carbohydrates are the fuel you need and you need a lot in the last 3 days before the race. If you eat bread and pasta every meal, good for you. That is the fuel that keeps you running. Good nutrition is more complicated than this, but the focus should be carbs, both for training and for racing. You are burning glycogen, which is produced by carbs, at a rate that you are not used to.

As a famous ultra-runner once said, "Make sure the tank is full when you start". You are not going to be able to take in enough during the race. You need to start fueled and hydrated. Drink a lot of water before the race too. (Notice all of the people at the expo with a water bottle in their hand).

Get as much sleep as you can the second night before the race. It may be hard to sleep the last night. You may be nervous, but that is OK. If you get enough sleep on Friday night (for a Sunday race), you will be OK Sunday.

When race day comes, if you can get up at least 2 or 3 hours before race time do so and eat a good breakfast. Remember, start with a full tank. Drink water too.

When you start the race, hold back the adrenaline. Start slowly, maybe even slower than "easy". Sometimes giving up a couple of minutes on a slow start can save tens of minutes later by not fading before the finish line. Go out more slowly than you hope to finish. This slow start is in place of a warm up. After about 5 miles you can speed up to "easy". Don't get too aggressive. If you followed this plan you will probably be able to run "easy" for 26.2 miles, or at the worst take a few walk breaks late and then run some more, but you are not ready to go out there at tempo pace like the pros do. They run 100 to 150 miles per week, including quite a bit of quality work (speed work). You are here to finish the race, not win it.

During the race, if you can tolerate gels or "shot blocks" you will thank yourself later. A marathon is pushing the limits on the energy your body can store. If you can get these or even Gatorade down it will help. There are other options on sports drinks. Some that contain protein and more calories are even better options, like Accelerade or Heed, but don't try anything in the race you haven't tried (and tolerated) before.

If it gets really tough in the later miles, remember that your goal is to finish. If you have to walk the last few miles, do it and get the finish and the medal! If you are struggling but can run a little, walk a little, do that. As someone once said, run when you can, walk when you must, crawl if you have to. Your goal is to get to the finish line. Relentless forward motion is the key. You have done the hard training. You can get to the finish line. If you have a good day, you will run all the way. If you have a "not so good" day, you will walk some of it. But you are going to cross that finish line and be a marathoner!

Step 6: Celebrate and Recover

You have finished a marathon! You will always feel a little bit differently about yourself. You are a marathoner. You are someone special. Enjoy, maybe go out for ice cream or some other treat you didn't allow yourself while training.

As far as running in the days to come, we suggest going out for a short easy run the day after, maybe a mile or two. You will be very stiff, but this is almost like a massage to your muscles. Then take a couple of days off and start back very gently. No speed work or racing for a couple of weeks! That is the path to injury. You need recovery and are very susceptible to injury for a week or two, due to muscle fatigue. The days after should look like the reverse of the taper headed into the marathon, maybe easier.

You will probably be pretty charged up initially, but you are also a pretty tired person. You need sleep and nutrition. You may not want to eat in the hour after the race, but in the days to come you need to replenish fluids, carbs, and protein. Get your rest and eat! Celebrate a little too if you want to! You did it!

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