u/Kaedamanoods

Ran my first marathon this weekend in Vancouver and despite non ideal conditions ( starting off around 15 C - mid 60s?, rising to mid 20s/70s by the end,), came away with 3:55:XX and I'm quite stoked on it.

Background:

early 30s M, I've run on and off since 2020 (<100km/year), but would say started being consistent in Mar/Apr 2025. At first around 5-10km/week, building to about ~15-20km/week in the summer (+ lots of 15-20km hikes, etc)
In September/October/November I got a little too earnest and built too quickly from 30km/week to 40-55km/week while doing speedwork too. Got really fit but also started to have early shin splints and knee stuff
End of November/into December/January I cut volume significantly and have seen my physio regularly and working on things, overall feeling a lot more robust now.

Initial goals:

main goal is to complete
bonus goal is to go sub 4
bonus bonus is to go "solidly" sub 4, i.e. say 3:50 or below

Above is pasted from a thread where I'd posted my training plan looking for critiques. As training progressed and my paces improved, my goals shifted a little -

Updated goals:

3:40 became a pipe dream, everything going perfectly / great conditions goal
3:45 became a reasonable but difficult goal
3:50-55 became my "safety" goal
as the forecast became clearer and clearer that it was going to be warm, mentally I braced to add 5-10 minutes to all of those times

Training:

General training outline was here, I initially posted asking for feedback on my plan loosely based on Higdon novice, but adapted around some vacations I had, including a two week vacation about a month out from the race. I reworked the plan a few times since this initial post but the rough bones are there.
Starting in Jan, ran 4 days a week
over the full block I averaged 40km/week, with a peak week of 64km
I had a two week vacation from 6 to 4 weeks out from race day
My physio was key. I was relatively shin pain free when I started the block, it would flare up as I increased mileage, but as I hit my physio more and it would subside in time for me to take on the next mileage increase. Sometime after vacation I felt like I finally "outpaced" my shins and was able to keep pushing and not aggravate it
on my vacation, I did about 40ish km a week - 2x 8-12's and a 21 each week
I got 3 proper long runs in - a 28km, a 31km, and a 30km. Each had 10-12km at MP, I think I had an earlier 25km with 3x5 MP and the longest 3 were all just solid MP at the last bit
I would do a longer (10-15km) easy run and a shorter 5-6km easy run mid week and then speed sessions at the end of the week
Speed sessions were adjusted from the initial plan to be more longer steady state threshold runs for the most part, slowly becoming longer sustained threshold runs and MP efforts
Last long run was two weeks out and then did a sharp taper from there, keeping one session of 6x500m on/off at MP-30s / MP +30s

Fueling:

maple syrup with salt, worked out to 26g carbs/160mg salt per 20 minutes
water at aid stations

Pre Race:

felt good, taper went well, carb load went well - just tried to shift proportion of carbs. By rough estimation I probably had about 4-500g of carbs/day when my body weight would call for 6-700 but I think I carbed up as much as I could without feeling bloated
did NOT sleep well the night before, only got around 4.5 hours of sleep although I went to bed at 10 and the sleep I did get was deep. I expected this though as I've never been able to sleep well before a big event all my life so it didnt phase me too much
2x bowel movements on the day of, blessed
lining up for the corrals, when we were out of the shade and in the sun it definitely felt warm already which I tried to ignore

Race time:

Ran with a buddy who, from training, seemed like we'd have quite similar paces; he's a touch faster but close enough that it felt good to start together
km 1-10, just easing into it and spacing out, especially as km ~2-9 were downhill - goal was just to get moving and not let the downhill carry us away
Camosun hill is the big nemesis of the course so I trained on a lot of hills; two of my long runs had hills that were twice the elevation gain in half the distance so Camosun itself felt pretty mellow, just a touch long but not as bad as I'd feared
after Camosun, however, I was a little surprised by how many more rolling hills there were, and that started to tax me a little
I think around km 13-15 I was feeling that I was maybe working a little harder than I'd wanted to at this point
By KM 16-18 I went for a quick pit stop and let my friend pull ahead so I could pace myself more comfortably. Although funnily enough we later realized we maintained the same gap for the next ~12-14km anyways, roughly
Km 19-22ish, nice sweeping downhill. I was careful to maintain pace and not overcook it. I think I crossed halfway mark maybe 2 minutes behind schedule for a 3:45 which, even maintaining that would've been amazing so I didn't push, just kept at it
Km 23-24ish, I had completely forgotten about another decent size hill to exit out of Jericho beach and that wounded the morale quite a bit, although I was still feeling strong and passing people at this point. Just after the hill there was a guy fully down for the count, with paramedics giving IV/ice packs. Hope you're doing okay!
KM 24-28 was tough. I was starting to chafe in my under arms as I hadn't worn a tank top this long before, this section of the course was in full sun with less shade and less breeze than before, and the crowd was incredibly energetic... at times almost even a little much for me, although I super appreciated how many people showed up. I had planned to go off race vibes for the first 3/4 and had made a playlist for the last 10-12km but was starting to crave some music. I was struggling to maintain pace and just focussed on getting to the bridge at km 30 before letting myself put a headphone in
Around km 29 there's a very slight hill that, in training, I wouldn't have even considered and it felt properly hard at this point. I was also getting the beginnings of some crampy flutters in my hamstrings which I was nervous about. Said screw it and put my music in and that gave me a huge boost
Km 30-32, Burrard bridge and into downtown. Going up the bridge was a slog, down the bridge was chill with great vibes, although looking at my splits I was going quicker than I felt so that was nice. Between music, the vibes, and seeing a number of friends around the bridge it kept me going decently
Kms 32-35, entering the seawall, I know a lot of people find this part lonely and tough but I found it a nice change of pace from the clamour of the crowds - as appreciated as that was. Vibing to the playlist and having to work really hard to maintain my pace, but getting it done and passing some folks. I was thinking if I can even hold 5:30-5:40, I'm golden. I think at this point a 3:51-52 was still on the cards
Kms 36-37, entering the internal wall, lol. Especially around 37, you exit the shade and re-enter full sun, which felt pretty rough at this point. This would've been around 12-12:30 or so. Never fully cramped up but had to stop at a few water stations from here to the end to stretch out pre emptively. I figured better 10 seconds preventatively than a minute or two reactively.
Kms 38-41 were similarly rough and hobbling in full sun, managed to not let my splits drop below 6:00/km too much. The internal dialogue went from 3:52 is still on the cards, to just get me to the damn finish. I don't think 3:52 was on the cards at this point anyways and I didn't have the energy to check my watch and do the math. I was getting side stitches but didn't have the energy to breathe deeply enough to fully keep them at bay. I kept telling myself 4km, 3km to go - this wouldn't even count as a run during training
Km 42, final home stretch. the last ~6-800m or so you can see the finish line looming ahead the whole time and I just sent it. A good song came on and I just went for it went everything I had left, keeping maybe like 5% in reserve as I didn't want to trigger a cramp. My last split was 4:47; my rolling pace by the finish line (30 second average) was like 4:20 lol. so perhaps I had more to give in kms 38-41 than I had thought

Post race:

3:55:XX. What a rush of emotions. So glad it was over, so glad it was done. I was very proud of still going sub 4 on my first marathon despite the heat. I was very proud of the fact that I felt like I pushed as hard as I could've and left it all out there. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that there was a part of me that, based on the paces I was able to hit seemingly easily in training, I was hoping for a little quicker. Reading more accounts of how the heat affected everyone else though helped calm down the overachiever part of my mind
Despite expecting to sleep poorly I do wonder how much my short sleep affected things. I was debating taking melatonin beforehand but wasn't sure if that would lead to a more sluggish start.
Tactically, I do think I should have self paced/broken off from my friend a little earlier, although maybe that wouldn't have made as much of a difference as I think given we were only a minute apart until the seawall (based on videos our friends had taken)
Fueling, hydration wise I felt pretty good. By the end I couldn't stand the taste of anything remotely sweet. The fact that I never fully cramped up despite the heat and being a heavy, salty sweater validated my strategy here, I think. Tastewise I might need to use gels next race though just to get some flavour variety.
I'd also be lying if I didn't think about some of the borderline troll-y feedback I got on my initial training plan post, lol. I did get some good useable feedback which I did incorporate into my training - upped the mileage somewhat and shed some of the long run mileage more onto the weekly mileage, lowered intensity/increased duration of speed work to be more threshold/steady-state oriented. But I did have to chuckle at some of the standard internet snark I got. It made for good fuel, in any case.

Overall, felt like I had a good opportunity to battle hard, felt like I did as well as I could've, and ended up with a result that felt in line with the work I put in to get to this point. Can't ask for much more than that! Thanks for making it through my word vomit.

plan for running a half six weeks after running a full