Are you thinking about your 2025 running plans? Is a marathon something you’re considering? Maybe you’ve run a marathon before but it was a long time ago. Or you’re considering running it for the first time?
One of the athletes in my Run Strong half marathon training club reached out to me with this question: “I’m considering signing up for a full marathon next year. Can you tell me more about how the training will be different?”
This is an excellent question. Because marathon training in many ways isn’t that different than a half marathon. But in some ways its VERY different.
Let me be clear: If you have run a half marathon, you CAN run a marathon. The human body is resilient and incredible! The first time I ran 4 miles, I was training for my first half marathon. I couldn’t imagine how I could run 7 more miles…. but I worked up to it. The same goes for the marathon. If you can run 13.1, you CAN run 26.2, with enough time and patience!
If you’re a video person, check out the 90 second video version of my response .
The 3 Main Differences Between Half Marathon & Full Marathon Training:
1. The long run is longer and more important. You’ll want to expect to be gone from the house for multiple hours on Saturday or Sunday mornings. If your kids play soccer or have activities on Saturday mornings and/or you attend church on Sunday, you’ll either need to go early or consider how you will make it work.
If you travel, you’ll need to get your long run done – whether that’s making it work on the road or doing it before you leave. When I trained for my first marathon, I even used a PTO day at work to do a long run on a Friday because I couldn’t do it over the weekend.
To make the long run more enjoyable, I highly recommend training with a friend, group or training club OR investing in some audio books or podcasts to keep you company! I look forward to my long run – I almost always run with friends and it is my social time!
The perk of marathon training long runs if you feel pretty badass all day knowing you just ran 16 or 20 miles! And you can casually drop it in conversation, “Oh, I ran 20 miles today so I’m pretty tired.” (hah!)
2. Fueling is Crucial. While you can get away with underfueling during half marathon training (though I don’t recommend that), you cannot in marathon training. You will need to eat more food throughout the day AND you will need to eat before, during and after your long runs.
Trust me, you may actually be SICK of eating by the end of your peak training cycle. And while yes, the best time to eat a sugary treat is right after your long run, you want to still fuel your body most of the time with healthy, whole foods so that means you’ll be cooking more too.
3. You will have to run more miles overall. Ideally, your long run will never be more than 50% of your weekly mileage. That means that if you run 20 miles on a Saturday in peak training, you will need to run 20 miles during the week. (This is going to be VERY custom to you – you should follow a training plan or consider working with a coach for the mileage you should be running).
If you are only running 20 miles per week now, it’s going to take many weeks to build up to 40 per week. It also means you likely will need to run 4-5 days per week.
If you work full time and have small kids, you can anticipate that marathon training and fueling is taking up most of your free time in the 2 months before the marathon. Anticipate that and hopefully you *Mostly* enjoy it! There will be hard moments but the hard work is so worth it when you cross that finish line and did something you NEVER thought you could do!!!
Which Marathons is Best For Your First Marathon?!
When planning to run your first marathon, I highly recommend considering 3 things.
1. WHERE & WHEN it is. My first marathon was in my city – San Diego Rock n’ Roll. In retrospect the course as difficult, but it was nice to be able to sleep in my own bed and be familiar with the course. And when is important too – as I said, you’ll be mostly focusing on training for the 2-3 months before the race. If it’s a stressful time at work, the holiday season, or you’re traveling a lot, or it’ll be winter and you live in a place with lots of snow and you hate running on the treadmill, maybe find a race that is at a better time of year.
2. WHO is doing it. It can be fun to do your first marathon with friends or training partners or a group. Although that may not be important to everyone, that was certainly a huge factor for me (above are my now husband & friends who training for my first marathon with me!). And if you don’t have friends/family doing it, who will travel with you to the race? It won’t be very fun to go do your first marathon completely alone! Make sure your family or a friend is on board to come along! And if you can’t find an in person training buddy, consider joining a virtual group (like Run Strong!).
3. What kind of race. I highly recommend doing a marathon where the marathon is the ONLY event or it is the main event. Doing a marathon where the half marathon is the main focus and there are relatively few marathoners is kind of a downer. All world majors are only marathons (Chicago, New York & Boston) but also difficult to get into. Some marathons I recommend for first timers are California International (CIM), The Every Woman’s Marathon, or any from this list. But really, the two factors above are more important than this one.
Feel free to respond to this email to ask any other questions you have about this! It’s a big decision but I firmly believe it’ll be one of the best you ever make!
Happy Running!
Run Strong Training Club: Virtual Half or Full Marathon Training For Female Runners
If you’re looking for a run coach to help you get to the finish line of a marathon or half marathon this fall, consider joining the Run Strong training club! This female only training club combines a custom-to-you training plan with strength training to help you stay injury free & run faster, along with accountability & community to help you stay consistent and enjoy the process! Learn more & join Run Strong now!
Congrats to the finishers from the Fall Run Strong Training Club!
Amazing job marathoners, including first time marathoners Dorian, Kelsey and Monica!
Congrats to our half marathon finishers!
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