u/Artistic_Distance954

Finished the Twin Cities Marathon under my 3:30 goal thanks in no small part because of tips and advice from this subreddit! Im absolutely wrecked right now with both legs feeling terrible in ways I didnt know was possible, but I beat the time goal.

Thanks to the folks who have run multiple marathons and who continue to support and interact here!

Im fairly certain I will be running another marathon in 27, but no idea where to set my goal yet. I guess time will tell.

Anyways, good luck to all of you other first timers who have a race coming up in the near future!

I ran my first half marathon last weekend and surpassed my expectations pretty significantly (1:45 goal but ended up running 1:39). Im coming to you all for a bit of a reality check.

Some background. Ive been running for roughly 9 months with specific marathon training planning starting about 6 months ago. Outside of missing about 2 weeks in March due to an injury that we dealt with via PT I have been pretty religious about my training plan.

6 foot 2 and 185 lbs. 40 years old.

Weekly runs:

• 2 easy runs at about 830-845 pace
• 1 interval session with 4-6 5k or lower blocks
• 1 tempo run around HM pace
• 1 long run ( max of 14 miles so far). For the HM training I added increasing blocks of HM pace at the last half of this run

PBs:

• 5k- 21:01
• 10k- 46:21 (set during my HM and have never specifically tried to set a PB time at this distance)
• HM- 1:39

I now have roughly 14 weeks until my first marathon and with the progress I've made so far im looking to possibly set a 3:30 goal for the marathon.

My long runs will peak around 22-24 miles in the coming block, and I anticipate running about 55-60 miles in my peak training weeks.

The marathon is a completely different animal than the half, im very much aware of this. With all of this background how feasible do you believe a 3:30 would be for a first time marathoner?

Thanks in advance!