Late 30s male. Ran my first marathon today and I hit my A goal of going sub 3:45. My chip time was 3:44xx!
The Race
I ran the Flying Pig in Cincy. It was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t recommend the marathon enough. Cincy is an awesome city and the logistics for the marathon were very smooth. Nice swag, nice starting line logistics, fun post run celebration. Extremely friendly runners. Along the road, there was very strong crowd support and water / Gatorade stations at nearly all mile markers.
Me / My training
I played sports as a kid and ran a bit to stay in shape for many years. About 4-5 years ago, I ran my first half marathon but didn’t have an official training plan. I’ve run a few half marathons since then. My times were all low 1:40s.
Late 2025, I decided to sign up for the Flying Pig. I used Hal Higdon’s novice 2 plan. I followed it as closely as I possibly could. I missed only 5 or 6 runs throughout the training.
The biggest mistake that I made during training was running on a pair of sneakers that were slightly too old. It caused a bunch of Achilles soreness and I had to skip / cut short a few runs. (I’m usually pretty good about switching my shoes usually, but the miles add up fast when training for a marathon!) After I bought new shoes, the soreness went away quickly.
Overall, I really liked the plan. I came into the training with a strong cardio base. I thought it scaled up nicely.
Race Report
The marathon went nearly as well as I could possibly hope for!
I felt totally prepared for the first 19-20 miles and those miles were fairly easy. I had carb loaded well, followed the tapering plan and entered the race with really fresh legs. My pace was pretty steady and significantly under my goal pace during that time.
Around mile 20, the back of my knees / my legs really started to tighten up. It was a little nerve wracking in the moment since I had never run over 20 miles and knew I had 6 more miles to go. I took 2 super quick pit stops to stretch my legs. My pace slowed by about a minute per mile, but I was able to push through and empty the tank in the home stretch.
Shout Outs / Random Tips.
- Strava pretty much nailed my race prediction. They had me hovering around 3:45 for the last few months.
- I used the Nike Run Club Marathon class while running the marathon. It helped to keep my mind active and stay positive. Check it out!
- Shout out to U2’s greatest hits, Rumours, Miseducation of LH, Haim, and Let it Be. Perfect energy for a very very long race.
- Big shout out to this / all the other Reddit marathon groups. I learned tons of little tricks and got the confidence to run this race. Excited to pay it forward to others in the future.
- I never run early in the morning, but got a pretty solid night’s sleep for the marathon. I woke up early on Saturday, had a huge and extremely carby dinner, and then took 2 melatonin / gaba gummies. I was asleep by 11!
- Shout out Janji. Their running shorts are absolutely awesome. I bought their double lined shorts a few months ago. Perfect for long runs. I was able to easily carry my phone and like 8 GUs / honeystinger chews. No chafing, highly recommend!