how far can I go in the marathon

Hey Basque I am familiar with your part of Spain and a band that I play with performed at the Askena Rock Festival in 2010. Yes I think that you could possibly break 2:30 but you're going need to run at least 150K and possibly up to 200K a week. You'll also need to do long marathon pace runs. So yes I think it's possible but it may take 6-12 months of training from where you are now. Obviously what you've been doing has been working you just need to do a little more. Run more often and do longer marathon (goal) pace runs.

With all your experience, I guess you should know.

The difference between 2:37 and 2:30 is pretty big. If the weather was really horrible in Rotterdam, or your training was worse than usual, then yes, you might have a chance. What was the trend for your last marathons?

You can go about 26.2 miles

No hablo euskera, haha.

Thank you for the advice, 150K a week is what I did in 2008 for the 2:32, now I find that I have less time (with a wife and a son) to train and to rest as I should. I will try to run 130-140K but only if I find that I can hold the pace of my runs.

Marathon pace runs are my strong point, I will try to take advantage from it.

And I am determined to try even more seriously next year and aim for the 2:30, but the years go by, the marathons are risky business (many things can go wrong), and I want to try my luck this year also.

Hey grox.

I have experience, yes, and I agree that 2:37 and 2:30 are worlds apart.

In Rotterdam the wind was strong, and I spent some energy as I moved from one group to another as I started too far behind. Besides, I ran the first half in nearly 1:20 and the second in 1:17:1x, finishing strong. Too strong I fear. I went home with the feeling that I had 2:35 in me that day.

Rotterdam is in April and in the winter months here the weather is very rainy, the training for that one was not as good as it could have.

My last marathons were a fiasco. Last year in October I dropped out of the race when I was going for a 2:45 (night marathon and humid and hot conditions), in 2013 I was training for a 2:40 but I spent a week sick in bed until three days off the race (I finished the race but at a much slower pace). Since 2009 I don't go sub 2:40 (until this april in Rotterdam, that was my sixth sub 2:40). But then, I didn' train consistently, always bellow 70 miles a week and without much concentration.

I know that a realistic goal should be a sub 2:35, but I have time yet to lower my expectations, don't you think? Training for a PB is always motivating.

So, if these last years you went from 2:40 to 2:37 (and finishing well) and you think you can handle a little more mileage in training, yes it looks like there is a chance. I guess targeting a 1:16-1:17 first half would be slightly safer than going for even splits, though.

And I understand the motivation of aiming at a PB. Except for a few `tune-up' 10 km races, I have always started my races thinking I could break my PB. Often foolishly. And, frankly, a decent marathon-specific training is more than I would enjoy, I also need to believe I can smash my PB to go through it.

Also, about adjusting the target time. Maybe you have some training run you can use to gauge your fitness?

I did so few real marathon trainings, I don't know yet how to do that. I guess I would try to use very long runs finished fast to try to get an idea (like: 30km slowly, then 15km fast-ish).

All the way wrote:

You can go about 26.2 miles

Unless you run in PA, then you can go about 300 yards to your car and drive to 300 yards from the finish. Look out boston, here you come!!