Buckle up, kids, it's a long one.

Race Information

• Name: Jersey City Marathon
• Date: April 19, 2026
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Jersey City, NJ
• Website: https://jerseycitymarathon.com
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18173599017
• Time: 3:28:23

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	3:26	No
B	3:30	Yes
C	PR (3:37:35)	Yes
D	Get to the start healthy	Yes

Splits

Mile	Time
1	8:04
2	7:53
3	7:57
4	7:55
5	7:54
6	7:55
7	7:55
8	7:59
9	7:48
10	7:42
11	7:46
12	7:43
13	7:44
14	7:48
15	7:46
16	7:41
17	7:49
18	7:48
19	7:49
20	7:58
21	7:52
22	7:59
23	8:04
24	7:47
25	8:06
26	7:54
27	3:34

Training

I’m a 42 year-old dad, and I’ve been running as an adult for about 15 years. My last three and a half years have been increasingly serious, trying to improve my speed while staving-off the inevitable age-related declines.

This was my second marathon, and my second attempt at 3:30. My first marathon build was in spring 2024, and culminated in a 3:37:35 at Grandma’s that year. It was a great day. I learned a ton, but with some rookie problems, like getting stuck in the bathroom lines when I should have been in the corral, it did not go as planned.

In retrospect, I was under-trained for 3:30 and probably was fit for a 3:35 if all had gone well that day. No bad vibes, though. Lessons learned and motivation for the future.

I stuck with my coach after that, and have done a series of either speed-specific blocks or half marathon blocks over the last few years. The notable wins in the last two years were a 20:20 5K on the track (that I ran solo at a hot afternoon track meet…and considered close enough to breaking 20 that I turned my attention elsewhere), and a 1:37:21 at the Richmond Half in 2025.

This training block was a bit of a breakthrough. Over the course of 17 weeks, we built from the average of 33-35 miles per week I’d maintained since August 2025 (a period that included the Richmond Half build, and therefore some bigger weeks). This build included some big changes from previous work:

• Five weeks over 50 miles per week
• Fun January and February trail races (including my first podium at the Little River Trail Race 7K)
• More-dialed in strength training, including weekly Barre classes (there is no better way to hit your glutes or calves)
• More workouts at the track with the Bull City Track Club (y’all rock)
• Cut out drinking all but once per week until the late stages of the build, when I cut it out entirely
• Focused on fueling properly, making sure not to run fasted, and to eat enough (I’d lost weight in my previous build)

Some key workouts included:

• 6 mi @ MP (7:45-7:55) w/ 30-second surges at 5K-10K pace at the start of each mile
• 3 x 3 mi @ MP w/ 0.5mi recovery (in a long run)
• 2 x 20:00 minutes @ MP w/ 20:00 easy (8:45-9:30/mi) (in a long run)
• 2x 1 mi @ MP straight into 1 mi @ HMP (7:25-7:35/mi), 3:00 jog recovery

I managed to stay injury-free all the way through the block, and I overall felt a lot fitter than the last build. All in all, a great training block. Shout out to Coach Lindsey!

Pre-race

I targeted a 600 gram per day carb load for three days. Versus previous loads, I concentrated on eating realer foods, drinking as many of the carbs as I could, and not feeling terribly bloated. Sorta worked.

We flew up to New York on Thursday from NC. We stayed downtown in the financial district as a family, and had a great city day of carb loading, museums and walking on Friday. After another morning of easy-going city stuff, I called it quits to get off my feet as much as I could.

After a quick stop at Paragon for some backup gels, I went back to our hotel, gathered up my stuff and took the PATH to Jersey City. I had booked a hotel near the start, so I checked in, then grabbed lunch on the way up to the expo. Got my bib, stopped at Whole Foods for some final carbs and then was at the hotel by 3:00 with my feet up. Door dashed dinner and was in bed at 7:00, when at 7:01 I heard the BRIDE AND GROOM BEING ANNOUNCED right above my head. 15 minutes later I was in a room on a lower floor. Melatonin’d myself and was asleep by 8:30 or so.

Woke up at 4:40. Coffee, some focaccia, a banana. Some pre-run foam rolling on my water bottle, and it was time to put on the kit. I left the hotel at about 5:50 and walked to the start. I was at the start area by 6:10, and got in line for the porta potties. Quickly realized that it wasn’t moving fast enough to make it to the bag check by 6:25 (it closed at 6:27 they said), so I pulled out and hit bag check instead. Since I just had to pee, I found a convenient tree, then headed to the corral. I was seeded in corral 5, which had the 3:30 pace group right at the front. Found the group and got ready. Hit a gel 15 minutes before; ditched my extra layer at 5 before.

Race

The “gun” went off right on time and it took a couple of minutes for all the runners ahead of us to reach the line. Started my watch as I crossed, and tried to settle in. The first thing I noticed was, “hey it’s crowded!” Being at the front of the corral, where the fastest time was right in my pace range, meant that there were a lot of people around running the same pace. In the first couple of miles, there were some definite narrow spots where you felt the crowding, but it was nice to have such a big group to run with all the way to the end.

First miles run through the city, then go into a long outbound leg by Liberty State Park. We settled into a pretty good rhythm with our pacer (shout out to Bruce — you’re a legend and a madman for running an entire marathon holding a sign, a bluetooth speaker, and having your long hair down). These miles felt controlled. Not super easy, but pretty solidly MP effort. Uneventful other than accidentally stepping on the guts of what I later saw was a roadkill possum. I thought it was vomit. Not sure what’s worse.

Saw my family for the first time just before the half, which was a super fun boost. The entire middle section was pretty solid. My “best case” plan was to stay with the pace group until the half and then speed up 5-7 seconds per mile. I tried to stick with that, hitting the 13.1 at 1:44:xx. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the pace group was running a little hot in that section too. Running faster felt unwise, so I decided to just stick with the group until 20. (I kept saying “Get to 20, then go”). Saw the fam again at 15 after a loop through downtown, and we were back out on the second big out-and-back loop.

I made it to 20 with the wheels still on (woohooo!), feeling much stronger than I did at 20 at Grandma’s two years ago. By this time I’d figured out we were ahead of schedule, but wasn’t sure how far ahead. I pulled past the group around then, running the longest uphill on the course on effort, then trying to bring down the pace. The effort had mixed results. I managed to stay ahead of the pace group, and pull even further ahead, but I was not running the 7:45s I hoped. As you’ll see in the splits, I waffled between 7:50s and 8:05s for the 20-25 range. I remember tackling the last three miles like a 5K, just trying to inch up the effort till I was really uncomfortable and stay there.

Somewhere in Mile 24 or 25 a CRAZY headwind hit us. It must have funneled between buildings as we came back into town, because I remember having to grab my hat and lean forward like I was running a huge hill. Not sure how much it cost us, but thank goodness we had a turn coming up.

I managed to find my legs again in Mile 26, putting down a more respectable on-pace mile, before kicking the last 800 at a much more respectable 7:07/mi pace. Saw my kids right before the finish which was a fun thing.

Chip time was 3:28:23, and my watch showed a total distance covered of 26.5 miles (so I gave up 3/10ths in not hitting the tangents perfectly). Fueling was pretty spot on. Downed a Maurten 100 15 minutes before, then alternated (3) caf and (5) non-caf Precision Fuel 30g gels every three miles. Looking toward the future, progress looks like more strength, more miles.

Post-race

The race organizers had set up a blocks-long chute to control finishers. It worked to move folks along, but it was LONG. I heard someone scream “let me out of here!” I grabbed my drop bag, their snack bag, and a space blanket. Talked with the family, and planned to meet up back at the hotel. Found a CitiBike station on the way back and snagged a bike. Wow moving my legs in a different way felt good!

Quick shower and it was time to hit the PATH so we could get to the airport. No post-race celebrations for us, since Spirit Airlines had shifted the time of our flight home up by three hours.

Sore, pretty happy with my effort, and writing this as I watch the Boston Marathon. I’m gonna have to wait to get both a lot older and a lot faster before that dream can come true.

Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.