How hard does Marathon pace feel?

Steady

Just how you felt today is how it feels; it's not that easy and you ask yourself how you will keep it up for a full marathon. OTOH I don't think 40 mpw runners really have a "marathon pace".

For some people, MP feels easy. But for me, it's a pace range I hadn't worked in before, and during my first buildup I wondered how I could possibly hold that pace for a run longer than anything I had ever done before. The pace felt more familiar after several more long MP tempos, but they were still challenging workouts.

The other thing to keep in mind is that if all goes well, MP will feel ridiculously easy on race day, but only for the first 15-20 miles. Don't get overconfident, because the race hasn't even started yet.

If your goal is to run a marathon as fast as possible then marathon pace is easy for the first 10-15 miles.

It's terribly difficult from mile 22 to the finish.

something like this wrote:

Just how you felt today is how it feels; it's not that easy and you ask yourself how you will keep it up for a full marathon. OTOH I don't think 40 mpw runners really have a "marathon pace".

We have a winner

To the OP I would suggest 8:20 pace for the first 20 miles and assess how u feel at that point and adjust accordingly

Ding ding ding wrote:

something like this wrote:

Just how you felt today is how it feels; it's not that easy and you ask yourself how you will keep it up for a full marathon. OTOH I don't think 40 mpw runners really have a "marathon pace".

We have a winner

To the OP I would suggest 8:20 pace for the first 20 miles and assess how u feel at that point and adjust accordingly

Thinking back maybe that sounded harsh but I didn't mean it to be. I run more than 40 mpw but not that much more (like in the 50s). My training would be pretty bare bones for a marathon and I would slow down some time after 20 no matter what pace I started at.

There is so much variation in how people "feel" that it's a worthless question. Plug in your half time into Daniels VDOT tables and it tells you what your marathon pace is. Go run it, and you tell us how it feels. I will say this, if you can't do a 12-mile easy run and then cap it off with 5 miles of MP pretty comfortably in the middle of heavy training, then your goal pace is too fast. The 12+5MP should be invigorating and confidence boosting. If it's a struggle, you're over your head.

something like this wrote:

Ding ding ding wrote:

We have a winner

To the OP I would suggest 8:20 pace for the first 20 miles and assess how u feel at that point and adjust accordingly

Thinking back maybe that sounded harsh but I didn't mean it to be. I run more than 40 mpw but not that much more (like in the 50s). My training would be pretty bare bones for a marathon and I would slow down some time after 20 no matter what pace I started at.

I didn’t think it sounded harsh or even cynical. It’s an accurate statement, particularly for someone training for their first marathon.

At 40mpw the bonk is most likely to happen regardless of pace. Hence the absence of marathon pace.

7:50 sounds like the OP’s natural pace, and all I did was suggest half a minute slower

Ding ding ding wrote:

something like this wrote:

Thinking back maybe that sounded harsh but I didn't mean it to be. I run more than 40 mpw but not that much more (like in the 50s). My training would be pretty bare bones for a marathon and I would slow down some time after 20 no matter what pace I started at.

I didn’t think it sounded harsh or even cynical. It’s an accurate statement, particularly for someone training for their first marathon.

At 40mpw the bonk is most likely to happen regardless of pace. Hence the absence of marathon pace.

7:50 sounds like the OP’s natural pace, and all I did was suggest half a minute slower

I think we're on the same page here.

Everyone on here talks about bonking on such “low” mileage as 45 mpw but in reality tons of older runners with families only have the time and energy to train that much and plenty of them I know personally have run 3:20-3:40 marathons without hitting a wall or bonking beyond just inevitable slight slowdown during the last 5 miles.

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

Everyone on here talks about bonking on such “low” mileage as 45 mpw but in reality tons of older runners with families only have the time and energy to train that much and plenty of them I know personally have run 3:20-3:40 marathons without hitting a wall or bonking beyond just inevitable slight slowdown during the last 5 miles.

In other words, no bonking except the inevitable bonking.

The last half of a marathon starts at mile 20.

You’ll be fine. Have a great race.

I would consider a normal marathon slowdown to be around 5-15 seconds a mile slower over the last 6 miles. A “bonk” is when people have been cruising along at a 7:10 pace and then suddenly are run/walking 8:30-9 miles the last 4 or so. This happened to my friend. She finished in 3:16, but up to mile 20 was on pace for a 3:05.

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

I would consider a normal marathon slowdown to be around 5-15 seconds a mile slower over the last 6 miles. A “bonk” is when people have been cruising along at a 7:10 pace and then suddenly are run/walking 8:30-9 miles the last 4 or so. This happened to my friend. She finished in 3:16, but up to mile 20 was on pace for a 3:05.

There is no such thing as a normal marathon slowdown of 15 seconds per mile

You seem awful sure of things for someone who has never run a marathon

I average 50 mpw and did not bonk when I qualified for Boston. My last 2 miles were my fastest.

However, last year, using same training method, I tried to trim 10 minutes off of that time, and struggled after mile 19. I still beat my previous PR by 5+ minutes, but the last 3-4 miles were really miserable.

something like this wrote:

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

Everyone on here talks about bonking on such “low” mileage as 45 mpw but in reality tons of older runners with families only have the time and energy to train that much and plenty of them I know personally have run 3:20-3:40 marathons without hitting a wall or bonking beyond just inevitable slight slowdown during the last 5 miles.

In other words, no bonking except the inevitable bonking.

Says the person who doesn't know what bonking is.

There is always one smart guy on this forum who latches on to mileage. 40-45 is fine, and if planned properly is more than enough to run a decent marathon. Of course the OP will most likely not get a OTQ but I feel that isn't his aim in life right now.

From my experience on my 2 road marathons , both done on

You get it.

A lot of the younger runners on here with stud times are probably in school or have more free time to double and get it done, so they can focus 100% on running great times.

I only run 50 but am hoping to get to 70 even with other commitments. People with families--I give them tons of credit for being able to get what they can done.

It cut the rest of my post off -

From my experience on my 2 road marathons , both done on ~45mpw, my MP felt really easy on both training runs and on the day - up to about 17 miles. After which it gets gradually harder, the last 5K being very hard.

Hard part I think, even harder than the race itself is determining the correct MP to shoot for, especially for 'low' mileage runners such as ourselves.

Marathoner knows wrote:

Icouldbeyourmom wrote:

I would consider a normal marathon slowdown to be around 5-15 seconds a mile slower over the last 6 miles. A “bonk” is when people have been cruising along at a 7:10 pace and then suddenly are run/walking 8:30-9 miles the last 4 or so. This happened to my friend. She finished in 3:16, but up to mile 20 was on pace for a 3:05.

There is no such thing as a normal marathon slowdown of 15 seconds per mile

You seem awful sure of things for someone who has never run a marathon

"Bonk" isn't a clearly defined term. Some would only use it to describe glycogen depletion, whereas they might just refer to a 15 second slowdown as "the wall." But I fully agree that there's no "normal marathon slowdown" in the last 6 miles. It may be common, but it's not how it's supposed to go if you've trained right and paced yourself well.

In any event, I agree with the posters above that low mileage runners don't run "MP" as that term is usually defined. For a well trained runner, MP is a hard pace that you would never hit by accident on a daily run. For low mileage marathoners, MP is often pretty similar to a steady long run pace.