The Last 10K of a Marathon

I did it in my first marathon off of about 50 MPW. All about pacing. I went out cautiously, and ran the 2nd half about 3 minutes faster than the first. Was rolling over the last 10K until the uphill on the final mile.

Except for my first marathon, I was.

I had always accelerated from the 30k mark and ran negative splits. However, The last 2.2k were almost identical to the pace from 35k-40k.

My weekly mileage varried from marathon to marathon, depending on my health and time availability, but in avg. I never went under 90 miles/w for the last 15 weeks before the race, including 3 week taper (although not drastic- never went below 65% of peak mileage in the last week, 70-80% the 2 previous weeks).

Be careful though when u hit 18 miles, in my first marathon, i was avg'ing 5:50's and got excited with 8 miles to go, dropped about 4 5:30's and found myself running a 7:04 and 8:03 last 2 miles. Pacing is crucial

In one of my first 5 marathons (off of about 80mpw) I totally bagged the "serious" mentality and had the mindset that I was going to "feel good at 20--no matter what", even if it meant going very slowly. Well, I started out just over 6s, got into a really good rhythm, felt AWESOME at 20, and started laying down 5:45s. The last 1/4 was on a track and I ran like a 75s. To this day, this is the best I have EVER felt in a marathon ( have run 2:33, but didn't feel as good as this one), and it wasn't too bad of a time either. I ran 2:35 and WON the damn thing. This was 5wk after a miserable performance at Boston, so I'm sure the Boston training effect didn't hurt.

Feeling this way for the last 10k of a marathon is the "holy grail" for me.

Go-Go wrote:

Has any one been able to keep pace (or run faster) during the last 10K of a marathon? If so, also interested to know your weekly mileage.

I've only been close once. I averaged 5:25's. My weekly mileage average was in the mid 90's.

It is very simple. Yes you need high mileage for the marathon. You really need to average 100 miles a week or more except for the last 2-3 weeks. As far as keeping pace or going faster the last 10k of the race, you need to practice it in training. Long progressive tempos are certainly required for the marathon. I would say a 15 mile marathon pace run with 2 mile warmup and cooldown 6 weeks out from the race will give you a great idea of whether the pace you have selected is too fast or not. On the rest of your long runs start easily and then progress to marathon pace by the second half of the run and then try finishing on the track at about half marathon pace for the last mile or two. Doing this type of long runs is hard and doing them should be limited to every other week. You simply need to practice running negative splits. Don't just think you can go into a marathon without practice and do it.

For what it's worth, in my last marathon, the last 10k was the fastest running I did in the race. While not nearly as fast as what some people have been talking about, here's what happened. Wanted to run even 7:15 pace to run sub 3:10 and qualify for Boston, which would have been about a 10-minute PR. Was running mostly around 7:20 pace through the first 20 miles. Not because I couldn't run 7:15's, but because it felt just hard enough at the start that I worried that I'd bonk badly, the way I had the year before when I couldn't sustain the pace and died in the last 10k. So I hit the 20 mile mark something like 2-3 minutes in the hole (a crowded first mile also contributed to the overall deficit, and I don't remember the exact numbers.). At this point I got mad, thinking that I hadn't worked as hard as I had all year to run entirely in my comfort zone, so I picked it up, found it was ok, and ran something like 6:50 or 6:55 pace till the end, running 3:09:something. It felt great because most other people were fading, so I think I must have passed 100 people for every 1 who passed me after mile 20. It was also nice not to feel miserable at the end. Maybe I could have run harder throughout and had a better time overall, but it's hard to judge. To some extent. I decided to be conservative and sacrifice achieving the best possible time for at least getting my most immediate goal.

I'd been running 45-50 mpw most of the year, though in the 3 months before the race this was closer to 60-65. I also did a bit of what Coach that doesn't coach mentioned: running harder towards the end of long runs. Not at the end of the longest runs, but in the medium 15-16 mile runs. Usually would run pretty even until the last mile or so, and then pick it up.

bump

My first marathon my last 10K was the fastest

3:26 final 10 K about 10 seconds a mile faster than other miles (before you laugh and call me slow I am a woman and had only been running 2 years)

last 1/2 3 minutes fater than 1st half.

Milage about 25-30 miles a week with some gym stuff.

My last marathon at Chicago where I ran a 2:56, my last 10K was the fastest. My splits:

6.2 0:41:51

12.4 0:42:26

18.6 0:41:27

24.8 0:41:18

22-26.2 0:40:42

I average right around 40 miles per week in training.

I think it is all about pace. I clearly ran well below what I was capable of that day. If I ran max-out, I probably could have run closer to 2:52-2:53, but not much faster.

I took it easy because a)I was undertrained (not a peak race for me) b) I spent 3 hours walking around Chicago the day before and c) My legs felt heavy the first half.

This was more of a glorified training run - but a good one.

I am hoping to run 2:45 at Houston if my ankle I just tweaked recovers in time.

Learn what pace you can handle. Your 10-12 mile MP runs at below 85% HR should be a strong indicator run. If you don't have a HRM, then ask yourself if you had to, could you run that 10-12 mile loop again at that pace? If yes, you are ready to run at that pace for the full marathon. You have to be honest with yourself here.

Notwithstanding wrote:

22-26.2 0:40:42

Supposed to read 20-26.2

Go-Go wrote:

Has any one been able to keep pace (or run faster) during the last 10K of a marathon? If so, also interested to know your weekly mileage.

I know it's an old thread, but I'm bumping for info, this is my weak spot and LRC is actually useful in helping me improve.

The only marathon that I felt like Superman the last 6 miles, was my first. That's because I ran it with the goal to only finish. I had no time goal in mind. The first half I jogged at easy pace, far below what I now would be able to say was my optimal "marathon pace," back then. Then, around mile 20 I thought to myself, "This is stupid. Why am I going so slow?" I accelerated each mile the last 6 and sprinted the last portion, passing dozens, maybe hundreds of people.

I've run much better times since then, but my beginner's dumb-luck, not having any time goal in mind, worked wonders. It also didn't hurt that I was 26. Ever since then I've had a "time to beat." Pushing yourself to the limit, and sometimes over it, is painful, but also gratifying, in a different way.

I've run 6 marathons. I've finished 4 of them very strong.

My honest opinion is that it has very little to do with training, and everything to do with being honest about your fitness. Go out too fast, pay the price. This happened on my 2 marathons where I bonked. I swung for the fences and paid for it. I've averaged between 60 and 90 miles a week in buildups, I've bonked on 90, finished strong on 60. Just don't go out too hard. You'll be fine.

My marathons:

#1 Completely fell apart the last 10K

#2 Big negative split, flew past lots of runners last 10K.

#3 Boston 2018. Went hypothermic, probably went out too fast for conditions, huge positive split.

#4 Slight positive split(by a few seconds), but the second half was much harder. Probably passed 100 people the last 10K despite running slightly slower.

#5 Negative Split Boston 2019 by 20 seconds.

#6 Negative Split

I’ve ran three marathons, and the last two were negative splits. The last two miles of each of those races were the fastest miles of my entire race.

I averaged 50 mpw for each race.

The most important factor in a great race comes with proper pacing and precisely even splits. The second most important thing is enough 22 mile runs in your training, and finishing those on the fast side.

Anyone with a bit of innate speed can actually get by doing very little speed workouts during the week. The long run is the one that matters.

Just a hobbyjogger here but the best race I've ever run (not my PR, though) was faster 10Ks towards the end of the race. Terrible race conditions (monsoon rain/winds) so I threw time goals out the window. I went out pretty relaxed, just trying to conserve energy and then, having gotten used to the wind and rain, got into a nice groove. The going out relaxed, I think, is what everyone should do in all conditions. I rarely heeded that advice though. I was running a 52week average of 65MPW for maybe 3 years before this one. I also did a whole lot of 5K and 10K racing all year. 5'9" 150lbs at the time. 10day taper. Ran a 10K road race in 37:53 10 days out from the marathon as my last workout.

How time flies ... nowadays, I couldn't even run a 42:20 10K - and I still 'train'!

10K - 41:54

20K - 42:20

30K - 41:03

40K - 41:14

I've done it a couple of times on the way to good times.

For me it was not weekly mileage that made the difference but hardish running on tired legs. Progressive long runs when your legs already feel tired. Double session days e.g. am: 6 mile threshold or 8-10x1km, pm: MP fartlek (maybe 6ish miles 3 min MP, 1 min steady rec).

The feeling of running MP on legs that were toast became familiar.

Generally I divided a marathon into several parts (not a recommendation for beginner elites):

1st 10k, warmup, 13.1 gathering all systems, 20 mi race starts (where you think "pick it up" in order to maintain a decent pace. Never have actually gone neg. split. Once did a 20 with a faster 2nd half.

*."..or elites."