Is it possible to run marathon pace twice a week?

I am literally in the exact same boat as you, that has been my milage and workouts the last 8 weeks and I am jumping in a marathon in 7 days last minute because every other event seems to get cancelled, allthough I know my training hasn't had specific sessions geared for a marathon I've been reading up in preparation for my next training block which will be for a marathon, and the general concensus seems to be that you want to run two long tempos and maybe an LT workout every week until your marathon time matches your 5k, 10k and half time, once that happens only then you start 'touching' on vo2/CV/speed again to keep well rounded and not neglect that energy system.

Never ran M pace... silly silly silly

Plenty of ultrarunners have run sub-2:45 w/out any “specific marathon work”. With huge aerobic engines, strength from hills & a decent stride - pretty doable. Just shows how soft roadies are with their Bieber haircuts, scrotal tucks & bleached anus’s

Confusing post... your 800 repeats were literally at 5-10k pace but you are asking if you can run at MP during training?

Does not compute...

I would suggest that subthreshold is going to be (or should be) slower than MP, especially in a marathon block with good volume. So if GMP is 6:18, tempo pace is ~6:00, a long run with a good portion at, like, 6:30-6:55 should be in the correct zone and feel like work but not take the risk of injury or burnout too high. I run sub-2:40 in my 40s and do a fair amount of steady or subthreshold miles. I also try to think of marathon effort rather than marathon pace—so if I want to run 6:00 pace in the marathon, I'm not going to get upset if I do the MP portion of a long run at 6:10-6:25 at the end of a 90-mile week. A steady run of 10 miles with an average pace of 6:45 or 6:50 for sub 2:45 also makes a lot of sense to me—I would generally use these as a bit of midweek quality in a week where I'm purposefully not running a tempo or interval workout.

I can't imagine two sub-T runs AND a workout AND a long run at a pace other than easy/relaxed....but I could see doing one in the week if the legs feel good after the earlier-in-the-week workout.

In a marathon buildup, I do as much marathon pace work as I can. It works for me. But it's just not true that MP is necessary. Lots of people have success with plans that touch MP very little or not at all.

Figure out what works for you. Do that. Figure out what your weaknesses are. Add workouts to address them.

Yes, I’ve never run marathon pace in training and have run 2:35-2:37 four times. Never ran faster than marathon pace except for strides either. I run 90 mpw. I think it depends a lot on the type of runner. Mileage works better for me. Some need more pace work. Would I have a better pr with some faster running? Probably. Most of my runs are done at a decent pace, though.