First marathon ever this weekend. Need advice!

Don't worry about your easy pace. Likely it's just marathon training fatigue. The taper and race day magic should make everything all right again.

My advice: in the marathon, run to an effort level, not a pace. Based on your training, I'd guess this will be 6:00 to 6:15 (depending on how hard you were running in the LRs). But I would take the splits as they come as info to consider but would stick, more or less, to your effort level.

Are VFs better? Yes! Significantly (even statistically significantly so). But do try them for at least a run or two before the marathon.

Great memories of the SF Marathon. I ran it in 1987 and I still have the T-Shirt.

600 ish place with a 3:15ish finish.

Those where the times.

Enjoy your race!

With your training paces, you should expect to be in contention for the win. The top woman in 2019 won in 2:47, which is 6:22/mile.

Do try the Vaporflies a few times before you race in them. They feel different at pace then they do while you're walking or jogging in them. But they're worth it.

Sounds like you are talented. Your 10k time is slow for someone who can roll through long runs like that. Consider working on shorter speed before you go to slay that monster. )

Congrats on having your first marathon training cycle behind you! It looks like you worked really hard.

My advice:

- Go out slow enough that the first 10k feels slow.

- Easy is a feeling not a pace so you should not be nervous about your training pace on easy days.

- Do a couple of miles at marathon pace in the vaporflys sometime this week. If they feel good then wear them on race day.

- Have fun.

To be honest, I am not sure what pace you should be running... your long runs are fast. Your training volume is great. But, your recent race times of 37 min for a 10k translates to around 2:50 - 2:55 for the marathon. Maybe go out around 6:40 pace and see how it feels?

Thank you so much everyone for the responses so far! I should clarify that the 10k was the last 10k of a long run. I realize that it’s not fast haha, but I have definitely always been much better at longer distances. I don’t run in college, but in high school my mile and 2 mile times were basically the same pace.

Again, thank you! I appreciate it!

Good luck!

Those long runs look great! Why aren't you running in college?!

I'm in my late-20s and the best advice I could give to my younger self was to take my easy days easy. I would go out and do my "easy" runs at 6:30-6:40 pace and my long runs at that and race marathons at the same pace. Over time, I focused more on hitting faster times in workouts and let my easy days go from 7:00-8:00 pace, depending on how I was feeling. I put my ego aside and made big improvements. Maybe that pace is easy for you but maybe take a look at heart rate data when you go that fast. Maybe you're spending too much time in the grey area like I was.

I wouldn't worry about your easy days slowing down. That happens with more miles. If workouts are the same and/or improving then things are good. A 10k in 37 minutes projects to a 2:50-2:52 marathon. That's about what you're doing your long runs in. Wear the Vaporfly's do a workout in them and your last shakeout in them. Get your fueling and pacing strategy down. I wouldn't go out faster than 6:30 pace through the 1st half and make sure you're taking in as much fuel as your body allows.

I think you can run a really solid marathon. I also think you'll get a ton better and OTQ when you're doing your easy runs slower but have interval days where you're running 5:30-6:00 pace with good volume and do long runs that average 6:30ish pace but 10 of those miles are at 6-flat. Stuff like that is right around the corner but it's hard to run fast when you run relatively fast every day.

Your training looks great as do your paces. You're going to run well.

The Vaporfly's are great shoes and yes, they're significantly better than non-super shoes. Ideally, you want to have tried your race day shoes during at least one of those 20 mile, race simulation runs. If you wear them for the race, definitely try them during at least one or two runs of decent length. You won't wear them out in one or two days. Don't wear them on race day, without road testing them first. If you're not sure, stick with what you know works. You can always use them in a future race.

The sluggish feeling is normal. Everyone I know feels like crap during their taper. It's hard to know the exact reason this happens other than fatigue from the training, combined with a temporary mental letdown as you have no more challenging runs left. Your brain is begging to race now, but you can't. I can't stand the marathon taper, but I know I have to do it.

Think of it like this: Your body knows it's preparing to save energy for race day, so that's what it's doing. It would be terrible to go out and crush your fastest paces of the whole training cycle on progressively shorter runs, so, your body isn't letting you. It's making you save it. But it's nerve racking and makes everyone freak out during last last couple of weeks. It's called Taper Madness, it's normal and lessons with each progressive marathon you run.

You might even not feel that great the morning of the race. But if you've done the training (which you have) it doesn't matter. Once the adrenaline starts pumping and the blood is flowing, the pace will seem surprisingly easy. Which is why...you need to hold back a little bit in the early miles, especially in your first marathon. Whatever you do, don't let that adrenaline make you go faster than planned, until at least mile 13-16, preferably not until mile 20. Know your goal pace going in and stick to the plan. You want to pass the human wreckage crashing into the Wall during mile 20-26. You don't want to be crashing.

You're going to kick butt in this race.

I agree with everyone else that you appear to have done a great job of training for this race and given that this is mostly a hobbyjoggers' race, you should be in contention for a high finish.

The one thing to potentially worry about is the terrain. If it's the same course they used in 2019 (and it looks like it is based on the 2021 course map), yes it's hilly. No long grinding climbs, but a bunch of short steep ones. The sections climbing up and down from the Golden Gate bridge in particular were really tough--quite steep in places and rough footing. Hopefully the crowding will be much less for you as you'll be much closer to the front of the race than I was. And the bridge itself was slippery and had lots of pillars and other obstacles to dodge while also dodging all of your fellow runners. Try to stay relaxed and keep your effort under control on that section.

Good luck!

My mistake. If the 10k was the end of a long run -- wow! You're in great shape and will do fantastic. Just need a good taper. Please let us know how it goes.

Do you do drills and strides and short hill sprints? Helps improve your mobility and bounce. And mechanical efficiency at all paces. Not suggesting to add anything now, but later?

Tldr

But, run the first 20 like your best long run. If you tapered properly the last 6 will feel very very hard. Try not to slow down and then try to pick up the pace the last mile.

If you feel any slow down by mile 13 you are toast.

I think you are definitely capable of running around 2:45 (definitely sub 2:48). However, since this is your first marathon, I would try to just enjoy it and learn from it. It sounds like you have some talent and could definitely chase some very fast marathons down the road since you're still so young! My PR is 2:42, and I definitely did not train as hard as you have been leading up to it. However, it was my third marathon so I knew what to expect/how to pace and fuel correctly. I'd go out in somewhere around 1:23 or 1:24 and see what you can do after that. Also, yes, the VFs definitely help. Try them out first, though! Let us know how it goes! Good luck!

Report back in after your race and let us know how you did. Don't go out too fast. You can't steal any time in the first few miles. Breathe deep and remain calm within. Make sure you have some miles on your shoes.

Simple advice:

-don't do anything you haven't done in training, that means gear, hydration, gels/nutrition.

- negative split is the way to go. Don't worry about banking time, get to half way feeling good then start bearing down and pulling people in.

- do your carbo loading at breakfast and lunch the day before, get in some thing the night before that you know you can eat w/o having stomach issues. Don't ignore this, and try some new place because you are out of town, or it's easy to get a seat... do not leave anything up to chance. Just saying the night before your race is NOT the time to get adventurous and try Moroccan for the first time.

- pray for good weather. If you get bad weather (i.e. hot) do NOT stick your pre planned time goal. You have to adjust if it's going to be a really hot day.

Good luck

Agree with the people that say it looks like you're in great shape! Now for the advice...

1. Mentally split the race into two halves - the first 20 miles, and the last 6.2 miles. You know the effort level you've felt halfway through shorter races? That's how you should feel when you roll through the 20-mile mark - like you're working, but have a lot left in you, because you'll need it.

2. Make sure the first 10 miles feels like a comfortable effort and almost infinitely sustainable. Resist the temptation to squeeze to what feels like more of a "race effort" too early. Since this is your first marathon and you've probably raced shorter distances before, chances are what you perceive to be race intensity will be too fast. There will be plenty of time to squeeze the pace down in the latter miles if you do in fact go out too easy!

3. Understand that some of what holds you back in a marathon is different from what holds you back in shorter races. If you ran in high school (so race distances 5k and down), "blood chemistry" was the main source of discomfort in your races. In the marathon, you're not going to get that same feeling. Instead, it is going to hurt differently - you will feel like you're disintegrating as you pound your running muscles over and over. What was easy before will become absurdly difficult as your body runs out of easily accessible fuel. You can handle it, just know it will get hard.

How did it go?

Saw the winning female ran 2:34:25 this year!

Partake of all the water stations. Go out very slowly. It should still feel very easy at Mile 15. Trust me, it'll get hard after Mile 20.