Where should I be at 30K in my Marathon time

RunnaKK wrote:

Hoping to run a sub 2:50 Marathon,

Recently ran a 1:20:30 half, so I know I am right around that time, (do you think that is a reasonable time to hit?) (or should I be faster/slower)

When running the full, what time do you think I should aim to hit 30k at? Im usually a pretty consistent pace runner, but have never ran a full.

As slow as possible. Over 2 hours.

I ran a 1:25:13 half marathon around 6 weeks before my marathon on December. My goal for my marathon was 2:48. I shared my training logs here and most of the replies said that in a perfect day I could probably run 2:50. The replies also mentioned that if I could pull 2:53 I should be happy. The argument was my 1:25 HM and the time in my workouts, people mentioned that I was training very slow for a 2:48, that 2:53 was more realistic.

The day of the race I went out very focus and ready to enjoy myself while giving my best. I ended up running 2:42.

As a novice with just 2 marathons under the belt and no collegiate or high school experience the best advice I can give you is don't think too much about the time, go out and try your best, be smart in pacing yourself and be determined.

Once you get close to the race if you have a good taper you will be faster than you might think you are. For me something that helped a lot was the tapering. Before starting my taper I was feeling very tired and heavy I started to doubt myself, once the taper started it was a 360 degree change. I got excited and confident. I told to myself man you never know there's no rules saying that you can't run faster than 2:50 just go and try your best.

I ran 2:49 in the past year. Essentially I had even splits on 2:48:00 pace until the last 5K when I had some trouble and lost about 80 seconds to end up at 2:49:19.

Half - 1:23:58

20 miles - 2:07:54

So 30K must have been about 1:59:30?

I also did a 30K long run in the build-up to the race and ran a negative split 2:00:10.

When I did 2:48:03 I had the following splits:

10k: 39:38

10mi: 6318

Half: 1:23:24

20mi: 2:07:21

42,2k: 2:48:03

Probably went through 30k at 1:59:20-ish. At the time my half PR was 1:21:22, but if I would've ran a half on the day of the marathon I'd probably be around your 1:20:30.

Ended up with a 1min 10sec positive split on the marathon, which shows me I executed perfectly within my abilities.

Good luck! If you have a 1:20:30 half and are an endurance runner, it's solid if the weather is with you. Don't go out too fast!

Good luck

That's impressive! Congrats, what was your running history prior to achieving those times. Weight? Age? I see you did not train in HS or College.

First timers often struggle a bit towards the end even when running a pace that's consistent with times from other distances. Your half time suggests 2:48-2:51 is achievable, but I'd tend to be a bit conservative in your pacing over the first 30km - maybe 2:53-2:55 pace?... the last 10km is where it really happens in the marathon - push on if you're feeling good with 10km to go.

It's a risk-reward thing. If you go out fast you're giving yourself the possibility of a fast time, but you also risk blowing up spectacularly and a slow time.

Once you've got a couple of marathons under your belt you'll have a better idea of how you cope with the distance.

You should be at 18.6 miles.

Your welcome.

Man, noone has commented about the 360 degree change yet...