How do the last few miles of a well executed marathon feel

Painful. Like you're going to start positive splitting any minute. Maybe your legs won't hold up and you'll have to limp jog in. You tell yourself whatever you can to keep going. Then the line is in site, you muster one final effort even though its destroying you, and end with the last mile.2 being slightly negative.

Exactly. You have no idea how you might run another mile at this pace, but you do it and your pace holds. The last few miles pass and you start to believe it, holding back tears. It's fun!

I'm not sure I'd use the word painful. I'd certainly say that's the case for a marathon NOT well executed. But a well run marathon will have you very uncomfortable in the last few miles. That feeling that you're reaching maximum effort but your legs simply won't go any faster. It's almost comical how slow you're running but you're body is still allowing complete expenditure of energy. Which I think is the key distinction between a great race and a not great race.

But in the handful of marathons I've felt have gone very well, I could have run more after a brief break. Like a cooldown after any other race. The ones that didn't go well? I didn't want to run for a week. That's pain.

When everything else goes well, you eventually start breathing hard like you would at the end of a 5k race, although you are moving at a much slower pace. (Usually, something else goes off first, so you won't get to that stage.)

Me too. My last few miles were a horrible 9 minute paced shuffle.

I would not call it painful. More like just total exhaustion. I knew I was still running fine because I was maintaining my pace, but it seemed to take a maximum effort just to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I also discovered that I had zero competitive fire at the end of a marathon. I could not chase the runner ahead of me even if prize money was at stake. And these were my GOOD marathons!

Sounds like my last 10k, lol. Isn’t that how most good races go? You’re completely empty and not sure if you’ll die - but the goal pace is somehow still there.

For those of you who have experienced both good and bad marathons, in what ways does the pain feel different between them?

My only well executed marathon felt oddly emotional at the end. My body was pushing at the absolute limit, I was still managing to hit my goal pace although it felt like an all-out sprint, I had dedicated a lot to the day, and could barely hold myself together as I was running it in knowing that I was going to hit my goal. Didn't help that I had slept like garbage the night before and was literally running on NOTHING by that point. I crossed the finish line, pounded some Gatorade then puked it all up while my legs could barely move.

Yes. It goes from “Maybe I can still hold this pace a while longer” around mile 20 or so to trying to banish the “there’s no way I can do this” thought from your head: my “tell yourself whatever you can” involves a change across a couple of miles from “Just hold this pace for another half mile. You can hang in for another half mile” to “Just one more minute … just get through this minute” and eventually nearing mile 25 to “just one foot in front of the other, just keep moving.” You look at your watch expecting to see your pace falling off because you feel like you’re slowing down, but you’re still holding pace.

For me, the difference between that and a hard fade is that if you really fade pretty badly at some point in the last 10K, you go through the same process of feeling like you’re falling off, then digging in and trying to demand more effort from your body, but the body doesn’t respond. In the well executed race, your body does respond, even if it doesn’t really seem like it’s going to.

Finished 10th in the Milwaukee marathon two years ago, finished 447th in Chicago this year for a PR.

Milwaukee was elation and 'runner's high' which I don't believe in, but am pretty sure I felt. My mind and body were exhausted, and I was ready to be done. The pain was more so joint-based (knees and ankles).

In Chicago this year, a few fast early miles and a too-fast first half had me hitting the wall at 24 miles. I went from 5:5x/mile to 6:30s. Those 6:30s felt like every cell in my body bursting. My joints didn't hurt because I couldn't feel them. I was losing vision and hearing as I turned up Mt. Washington into the home straight. I have not suffered whole-body electrocution, but I'm guessing the last 1000m felt something like that.

I saw the last mile through pinholes, and my only thoughts were to slow down enough where I don't black out while still salvaging a PR (which I did!).

My brother got a video of me saying "Thank F--- that's over"

There's a spectrum of pain. The course probably has a lot to do with it, as does the atmosphere. I've only felt muscular pain, never gut/stomach which may be worse

Depends how you define good and bad.

If you set off too fast you will feel terrible in the last few miles, slowing down whilst fighting harder and harder. But is that really a bad marathon if you still get the time you deserve?

Someone in 3:05 shape who goes through the half mark at 1:30 won't get their 3:05. They'll finish in like 3:10 or maybe even slower and talk about how they were "on pace" for sub 3 until mile 18, which of course they weren't really, but they still finished slower than they were in shape for

I don't agree with the first part, but I sort of agree with the second part.

I've run enough marathons to know that doesn't make that big a difference. If the 3.05 guy goes through halfway in 1.30, he will slow in the last 6 miles and it will be painful but he can still average 7.20s

6:52-6:54 is that guy’s 30k to 20 mile race pace. If he were to go at that pace through 18 and could still run 7:20s after mile 20, it just turns out he was in better than 3:05 shape.

I would say I've only had the feeling myself a couple of times. But I think of it as just sitting right on the edge, like it's hardest thing you can possibly do but you are able to do it. The goal is in sight but you still aren't sure you are going to make it until you see the clock with your own eyes. You are able to keep pushing but not sprint but still finish strong.

Typically, I feel quite confident that I'm going to make it, but I also feel physically incapable of picking up the pace. I may have the occasional bad step where my knee slightly buckles (once or twice in the last few miles), which serves as a warning that I'm close to the edge. If you're really at the limit, your heart rate will also start to really climb, even if your pace is constant. Usually the excitement of realizing it's coming together helps my wring a few seconds per mile of extra speed out of my legs, but that's about it. Like if my average pace had been 5:39, I might drop a few 5:34s.

I wouldn't say it hurts less than a positive split race, but the emotional impact is different. Physical pain in your legs just doesn't hit the same way when you're running well. Conversely, when you're running badly, you dwell on the pain, even though you may not actually be pushing yourself as hard. This is also true at other distances. I thought that I left something on the table in my 5k PR, but I came across an old video of it on Flotrack a few years back, and I actually looked like someone shot me in the back 30 meters before the finish; I had nothing left, but I felt good because I was so stoked.

This is all different than a tactical race, though. My best marathon was probably one that I won, where I ignored the clock and kicked hard 10k out as I moved into the lead. That felt totally different than my evenly paced maximal efforts. It was more like doubling back to run the 5k a day after a hard 10k--solidly over lactate threshold, on tired, but not shredded legs.

In my two fastest marathons (2:33), one was a 30 second negative split and one was a dead even split. The last 10k of both felt great. Not easy. But no wall. No cramps. Just consistent miles. The limitation was that I could only go so fast. Running 5:47-5:52 pace, I couldn’t have dropped a 5:35, but I could maintain.

I get the feeling that some of you are projecting your own coulda woulda shoulda fantasies.