r/firstmarathon

Finished my first marathon (Melbourne) yesterday, and what an incredible experience it was! The weather was close to perfect while I was out there (hardly any wind and stayed overcast until right near the end when the sun came out to light up the city), the crowd was super supportive and fun, lots of friends and family came out to cheer me on, and seeing Kipchoge run (fly) past after the turnaround was a huge highlight.

I was aiming for a 3:30 and was slightly ahead at the halfway mark, but got a bit of a stitch soon after and couldn't sustain the pace. Watch buzzed with about 10km to go to tell me I was behind, and I finished in 3:35. I'm not usually a "close enough is good enough" kind of person, but honestly, in this case, close enough really is good enough. Training was good, fuelling was perfect, and I had a fantastic day - wouldn't change a thing!

Hello everyone! Hope your race season goes great!

Today, I completed my first-ever marathon in Munich. Goals were: finishing with no walking breaks and doing a negative split. Bonus if sub-5. Shortly about myself: 29F, 164 cm/53kg (5'4"/118lbs). Latest HM: 2:11. I did not follow any training plan. My peak week was 5 weeks before the event and went up to only 63 km (38 miles). After that, due to the combination of sickness, niggles, and work trips, I averaged 30 km (18 miles)/week.

Result: 4:14.

I started very carefully with 6:30 min/km tempo and was able to ramp it to 6:15 min/km and hold it there to the km 30. As I still felt great there, I thought "okay girl just send it" and completed the last 12 km between 5:30 and 5:20 min/km. Not fast for the most, great for myself.

I fueled with 1 gel per 4 km with exception for km 40 when I started to feel some discomfort, took imodium before the run and carried my own electrolyte solution in the vest. I enjoyed the city and the crowds A LOT, and I am deeply grateful for this experience!

First time marathoner here. Just had my first 18 mile run yesterday (next week is 12, then 20, then taper). It was….ok. The last five miles were rough where I just felt so tired I had to take walk breaks. It was the first time I started doubting if I could finish the marathon in the time I was thinking, or even finish at all. For context: My average pace for the 18 miler was 2.5 minutes slower per mile than previous long runs.

My question for all you marathon finishers, how did you feel on those 18/19/20 milers before race day vs how did you feel on race day?

I’ve heard about the magic of taper, but how much of a gap do you all actually have between pre taper and race day?

I’m 18 and i just ran my first marathon ever. The old me in may would’ve heard that and gone absolutely crazy. at this very present moment though I regret my decision. even after all the training I’ve done the heat has caused me to push myself even harder to achieve this goal time. my legs are in excruciating pain and I hate everythin. right now i wish I never got into running because the physical pain is too much to bear and the adrenaline is wearing off. I had to be carried by medical workers and nurses and pushed in a wheel chair. I hate everything right now literally it hurts.

hopefully in due time I will appreciate the effort I made today but god fucking damn it why did I even sign up for this shit.

Finished my first marathon in melbourne yesterday!! Although I am so happy I finished, the way I was training I should have got a better time.

I was with rhe 4:45 hours pacer comfortably for 23km, then some bad nausea and indigestion hit for the next 17km which caused me to need 9 minutes worth of breaks and to lose my pacer. In the end my chip time was 5 hours and 10 minutes.

Trying to just be happy that I finished, even knowing I didn't get my sub 5 goal on the day!!!

I just ran my first marathon today. I finished in 3:46 with a pace of 5:18/km. Super happy with that, my goal was sub 4 hours. Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, some rolling hills at about 20km really kicked the shit out of my legs but I pushed on.

I started training about 6 months ago, I wasn’t sure if I’d be ready but I had a great time.

On to the next!

I set myself the goal of finishing sub-4, and honestly, it felt ambitious. My hardest training week was around 55 km, and I had about three months of dedicated marathon training, although I went into it with a decent base.

I reached my goal in 3:59, and I genuinely credit a lot of that to the advice and support I received along the way.

A few things that helped me and that I learned:

• Run with other people. Running alone started to make training feel like a chore. Running with friends and joining different run clubs made a massive difference for me. It made the long weeks much more enjoyable.
• Test everything. I tested a few gels during training and settled on one I thought would work. The problem was that I had not tested it properly on my longer runs. It was brutal on race day, so I learned the hard way that you should test nutrition under conditions as close to race day as possible.
• Get a pacer if you can. This might have been the biggest help on race day. A friend paced me for the entire marathon, which meant I could focus on following their rhythm rather than constantly worrying about my pace. That left me free to think about fueling and simply keep moving.
• Prepare for carb loading. Carb loading was difficult for me. Feeling very full and bloated made me nervous, but it was worth it. Trust the process and do your carb loading.

Massive respect to anyone who takes on a marathon, regardless of their time or goal. A marathon is no joke, but neither is what you get out of it. The impact of this experience has been powerful. I feel humbled and very proud.

My First Marathon 4:15, and I couldn't be happier (even though I missed my goal)

Ran my first ever marathon yesterday after only about 5 months of running. Goal was sub-4, which I knew going in was ambitious for a first-timer with that little base, but I wanted to chase it anyway.

Finished in 4:15. Missed the goal by about 15 minutes, and I'm genuinely thrilled with it.

Some context I ran a half marathon about a month out in under 2 hours, so I had some evidence the fitness was there. Held right around 8:50/mile for almost 19 miles on race day before my legs just gave out not a cardio thing, my heart rate actually dropped as I slowed down in the last 10K, which tells me the aerobic engine had more to give, my legs just weren't durable enough yet for the full distance. Makes sense 5 months isn't a ton of time to build that kind of mileage tolerance.

Honestly proud of how I paced it. In training, my two longest runs (a 20-miler and 22-miler) both fell apart way earlier than mile 19. So even with the slowdown at the end, this was a big step up in how far I could hold real pace before the wheels came off.

I used Runna for this training block and it worked well, but I've recently found TrainingPeaks and I'm planning to switch over for the next cycle.

Already plotting what's next some dedicated speed work, then back to marathon #2 eventually. But today I'm just sitting with this one. 5 months ago I wasn't a runner at all.

I completed my first marathon today and wow it was honestly amazing. I am so so proud of myself for getting through the training (even with 2 weeks off because of an injury) and crossing that finish line. This subreddit has been great for tips and tricks and just having a community of people going through the same thing. If you are feeling nervous about your first race, just go and enjoy it. You never know what you might achieve 🥹❤️ 3 hours 51 minutes and 23 seconds of JOY

28F who had done a handful of half-marathons before today.

My goal was sub 5 hours, stretch goal was 4:45, and I finished in 4:43:16! I probably could have finished closer to 4:30 but my knees started hurting around mile 22. I couldn’t run consistently without being in immense pain so had to run/walk the last 4 miles.

My body feels decent now but my knees are miserable. Been icing and resting but I know tomorrow is gonna be rough at work.

I've been marathon curious for a long time, and 3 weeks ago a friend offered to transfer their bib to me. I was not training for marathon at all, but I was just finished with a half marathon training block, and starting one to bring by HM time to 1:20.

Long story short, I didn't have long runs beyond 21km, but quite a lot in the 16-18 range (which I think was important, because they gave me a really good sense for what fresh feels like 18 km in).

I started at my base run pace, and felt really good, so I decided to bank a little bit of time over my planned finish of 3:40. My race plan was, more or less, run a mediocre 10k, run a decent HM, and finish with another mediocre 10k + cleanup. By the time I reached 30km, I was a little over 12 minutes ahead of schedule, and so I decided to use this as a buffer for when I would inevitably hit the wall (which I was fearing would be soon).

Turned out I didn't really bink until 34km, so I shifted my goal to finishing 10m ahead, and I used my 2 minutes advance to slow down, and pick up the pace in the descents. I was really surprised the wall came up that late given that I had 0 long runs past 21km. That was nice. By the time I reached 40km, cheers provided the last boost, and I finished with a truly unexpected 3:28.

Well done, me.

A few things that helped: I based my race decisions on HR over pace. I had a soft rule of not going above 150 until 15km, not going over 160 until 30km, and then trying to stay under 170 until the end (that's a bit below my HR). I setup my watch to have the graphic for the last 5 minutes of HR and pace, as well as distance / time / pace strategy info. Out of these, the graphics were more useful. I was able to catch a few unnecessary changes in pace, and a few situations where my HR started going up for no pace improvement (little bit of hydration, better breathing, little slowing down fixed it).

Was I miserable for the last 6km? Hell yeah. Can't wait to suffer again next year. But I think I was afraid of not having done long runs, so I've learned that a great HM training can do wonders!

I completed the twin cities marathon today. It was my first marathon.

I trained for a half until July, completed a practice half, decided that was too easy and then signed up for the marathon in late July.

I did an 11 week training program with Runna. That program is complete today with the finishing of the marathon.

I’m signed up for 3 more races already. Safe to say I’m a runner now.

Redditors told me no. My body told me yes.

Moral of the story: don’t worry about internet opinions, listen to your body instead.

🏅🏃

Hello everyone. I am running the NYC marathon Nov 1st. I just did my last long run, was supposed to be 22, but the rain gave me blisters so I cut it to 20 miles.

I just felt so weak throughout the whole thing. I had to walk a few times starting at like mile 13. Very short breaks, or bathroom breaks. But I pretty much walked a little bit from every mile very briefly(some of it from stop lights and crosswalks) I got it done, but now I’m very much doubting my ability to do a marathon. How in the world am I gonna do 6 more.

My moving time was 3:23:51, elapsed time 3:57:42.

I don’t know what happened but I was DRAGGING. And I’m someone who used to never have to stop when running. So it really has me felling like this run didn’t count and I’m doomed lol.

This entire training block has honestly felt like crap. I never really improved my fitness from taking a year off running. I have just felt awful and out of shape the whole time, despite doing the runs (only missing a few due to injury or illness/life)

I know pre-race doubt is normal. But I’m kinda spiraling lol.

I signed up for this marathon as a way to channel some of the negative energy I was carrying after my divorce into something positive and something I was just doing for myself. Today, I’m so incredibly proud and happy I chose that!
Before my divorce, I didn’t have the confidence to believe that I could do hard things. This journey has been such an incredible way to prove to myself that in fact, I absolutely can.

3 weeks out from the MCM in DC and I’ve developed Achilles tendinitis. Im in my taper phase but I can barely get over 5 miles. Any suggestions?

Time was 6:08. About an hour slower than I was hoping. I came through the half at 2:44, right where I wanted to be but then my stomach flipped and I puked twice shortly after the halfway.

At that point, I was thinking there's no chance I'm completing this. I walked the next half mile and then tried to run (albeit much slower) for the next .75 miles. I repeated this until I hit 22 miles. I couldn't take gels or fuel at that point so I relied on Gatorade and water from the aid stations.

From 22-25 I walked mostly as it was the big second climb up the Hoan Bridge. Once I hit the top, I ran the last 1.2 miles since it was all downhill.

I did not set myself up for success this race and I realize how much that cost me on my race day. I had gotten back from Spain only a week prior (I did run 4 days a week while over there) and had gotten sick on the way back and was stil sick the day of the race.

And the cherry on top. One of the neighbors at the hotel was throwing a wild party and the staff was slow to clear the room out so I hardly slept the night before.

Waking up my training readiness on my garmin which was 84 the day before dropped to 23 the day of the race and my body battery was in the 20s too.

All in all I'm so proud of myself for completing it. And now it has me itching to run a second when I can line up my training and travel better.

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!

time 5hrs 3 minutes..Target was 4:30 but ”wall” on 34 km changed everything 😅