First time Marathon Goals?

You don't mention your HM time, but here's a suggested goal: Try to break 3:10, the rough equivalent of your 5K time, or close to 7:15 pace. Normally that's too far a reach for first-time marathoners, but you're already completing 16-mile runs at 7:37 pace just in regular training and running 70-100 mile weeks. There's a chance that goal is too fast for you, and a chance that it's too slow.

If you're going to read just one book about marathon training, I'd look at Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning. You can get it used for $4 and save yourself $96.

My HM time was around 1:46 but that was well over a year ago (much longer than the 5ks), I just finished an 11 Mile run with a few miles warming up from 8:30s-8:16 then would alternative between 2-3 miles enjoying the morning air (it was beautiful outside and in the low 50's!) and then going for 2 miles around 7:22-7:16s and then finished with a 1 mile cooldown.

I'd be happy to pay $4 for a book considering I've just finished paying off hundreds for textbooks this semester.

I agree that trying to break 3:10 for a first time might be too far of a reach, but I figure I've got nothing to lose if I don't get that time either.

Back in college many years ago a friend of mine who was a senior had just completed his college XC eligibility. He decided to try for a US Olympic Marathon qualifying time so he could run in the US trials. He had never raced further than 10km prior to this. Went down to Houston and ran their marathon and popped off a 2:16 from pretty much just XC training in his first marathon. His only real addition to his training was a few long runs.

So there you go. Shoot for a US OMQT if you're an American!

Trying to get under 3:40-3:30 seems realistic.

Trying to get under 3:40 sounds much more realistic than doing what the amazing 10km runner from XC in college did. I'm not near that caliber at all.

I think ill shoot for under 3:40 then, the race is in Columbus in late October so I have plenty of time to follow and look at Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning.

I do know from watching the race and exploring the city during it that there are plenty of pacers and people to follow, nutrition and all is provided along the course and it is incredibly flat.

thank you all so far for the heads up and pointers

My daughter will be doing her first marathon soon.

We are targeting sub 3

Breaking 3:40 is not a goal for you. It's what happens after you get bad weather, diarrhea, and blisters on both feet. If that's what actually happens on race day, fine, but it's not a serious training goal for your level of fitness. It's the equivalent level of fitness from your 1:46 HM from last year, not your current fitness and not where you'll be by race day.

How far off is your goal marathon? If you have time for an all-out 10K race, that would give you a better sense of your current fitness.

I have about 12 weeks out from the marathon and am sure I can find a local 10km race to sign up for

Take absolute zero advice from anyone on this.

There's no harm in having a finish time in mind but most importantly just enjoy it and stay in the moment. Walk for parts of the race if you feel you need to, there's no shame in it.

When (if you choose to) run your second marathon, aim for a quicker finish time and so on.

To guage where I'm at training wise, I decided to just jump into a Hanson plan at the corresponding week before my goal marathon and did the workout for the day. some warmup and 8 miles at goal pace, I ended up running those paces between 7:28 and 7:14, having a higher medium effort and needing to breathe every 4 steps or so.

I don't know my heart rate but I felt pretty good with the workout going on for about 10.5 miles and think the suggestion of going for a 7:15 pace would be very hard, but maybe something to strive for in the next 8 weeks? My plan based on this is to stick around with the 7:30 pace group and see what happens. There isn't any local 10ks around me to use as a race to see where my current fitness is at, and although I could go out by myself and run hard, I don't think mentally it would be the same for me and I wouldn't give my best effort I possibly could.

I'm hoping this marathon goes well then, no injuries leading up to it and taking the suggestions given so far on just having fun with it above all.

I would say to start the marathon out at roughly 3:30 pace (about 8:00/mile) for the first 14-16 miles, then from there see what you can do in the last 10-12. Doing this will most likely give you a negative split making you feel good about the race and give you a great idea of how the marathon distance feels. It will also give you a good picture as to what you think you can do in a future marathon which should be faster.

You seem similar to my training level so check this out. Also someone does a course report on Cbus.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=9563615

You weren't kidding, we are very similar. I've never ran at Three Creeks yet, I've mainly stuck to the Olengtangy Trail but looking at your thread gave me alot of insight on what to shoot for and what to expect of the race. I'd almost forgotten that it initially starts at a bit of a grade but since my route even on my shorter runs has about 200 feet of elevation change right at the start I'm feeling a bit relieved that I've played around with some of that. Especially when running down High St. and going up and around the area.

I'm more than happy to start out at about 8:00/mile and stick with that group for the first half, what tips do you have for the later half of the race? Especially in regards to the pace groups later on in the race and people spreading out? I've never gotten to run with a group or see pacers before so that concept is still new to me.

Mile 11 in the Marathon/Half is challenging. It's a long, slow grade that gets you a bit (Angel Mile) and you have to be patient.

Olentangy Trail is good; there is a section that makes you go onto streets for a few hundred yards and is tricky. It just re-opened 8/12 from Antrim down to Park of Roses.

I ended up taking a left at that bridge when you take it from OSU campus to old north and went past the highschool track because I didn't know if the route to the Park of Roses was open yet. Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks Average!

I did a 20 last week and I'm supposed to taper 9/21 (a month out). I'll try to get 3-4 20s and the remainders are 18s. I may get a 21 or 22 in as well.

Columbus is a great place to run. It's no Boulder or Flagstaff or Austin but it's solid.

You seem to be doing a lot of mileage for the kind of marathon time you're shooting for if you were 70-100 range all summer with a 20ish 5k. I think a lot of us rush to the marathon (myself included). Anybody can get in some long runs and finish one but if you want to set a time goal as low as 3:10 like others suggested you might want to think about quality in terms of workouts and long runs. You probably don't need to do all the doubles. Hit some intervals, get the long runs going with some faster running mixed in. Instead of the marathon, or after it, work on your 5k/10k, then build to a half. It'll be a lot easier to run 26.2 miles if you knock some time off of those distances.

The insane mileage wasn't anything other than easy paced mileage all around 140-150 bpm heart rate (atleast that is what it was when I checked it at the gym). I was free all summer to do nothing but work before school so I'd run outside once and indoors once for about an hour each. The high mileage was just a bucketlist thing for me to do before I die, no reason and was probably all junk mileage but it was one of those things for me like skydiving is for others. Same for this marathon, its something I've dreamed of doing but would probably be better off focusing on speed and a 5k/10k instead.

I think after this I will focus on those instead, get in more quality and less quantity. But even with a mediocre (by letsrun standards) goal its still something I just have to do.

I'm used to training for lots of hours since I did lots of triathlon and training there as well, used to have massive legs for riding but kind of just went strictly to running once my bike got stolen.