How to Run a Sub 4 Hour Marathon

I am thrilled to say that I achieved my goal of running a sub-4 hour marathon!! Y’all this was my first marathon in 10 years, first since being married, first since having children and first running in my thirties–yet, I was able to achieve a goal that I never did in my 20’s before having children!!

Was it super easy? No. Was it pretty? No. Am I ready to run another marathon? No. But do I feel accomplished and proud? Hell yes!

The feeling of showing my boys that with a lot of hard work and dedication, you can finish and achieve your goal is priceless! Seeing my boys at the finish line brought tears of joy to my eyes and hearing them tell people that “mommy ran 26.2 miles” is amazing.

As mentioned in a previous post, I used Hal Higdon’s novice one training schedule. I printed out the schedule and marked my actual milage on the calendar–I totally understand sticker charts for kids now, it is pretty fun to mark off what you do! Honestly, I followed the schedule pretty closely. The only thing I did differently was switch the days around to adjust to my schedule. Initially, I planned to do long runs on the weekdays when my boys were in school, but switched to early Saturday mornings so I could run with my friend. I was very surprised that this beginner schedule allowed me to finish under my goal.

When training for a race and wanting a particular time, most training schedules have speed work or tempo work in place. For me, I am not a fan of speed work, so I just ran as I normally do. When I ran alone, I averaged around 10 minute miles, but when I ran with a friend I was closer to 9 minute miles and when running on the treadmill, I averaged a 8:30 minute mile. While I didn’t intentionally do speed work, the changing of running with someone, alone and treadmill helped with variation.

It’s about time on your feet. Y’all a marathon is a marathon! I like to run slower and listen to podcasts which meant that I had a lot of time on my feet and built up endurance as I ran slower. I think this worked in my favor as a lot of marathon running is about time on your feet and not getting burned out.

Admittedly, I wanted to do cross training and add strength training with my schedule–but it didn’t happen. While both of these help you perform your best, not doing them seemed to not hurt me. Additionally, the time spent on off days and recovering probably helped me more than fatiguing my muscles with a different work out.

Mentality! Running a race, especially a marathon, takes mental toughness. Your mental state is what makes you or breaks you (as long as you put the training in!). I was excited about this race and while I had a sinus infection for 2 weeks leading up to the race, I was ready to get it done (and VERY thankful it wasn’t the week prior!). Being sick made me rest a lot and I was nervous that I did not put in enough miles the last 2 weeks before the race…but thankfully, I had completed all of the long runs and was in taper mode! The extra rest on my muscles along with the gratitude for feeling better, made me excited to race.

So how did I finish in under four hours without doing speed work, without really paying attention to my pace throughout training…I stayed with the 4 hour pace group, made friends and chatted with people along the way, I had fun hearing people’s stories and enjoyed the race!!

The leader of the pace group was an amazing ultra marathoner who had just completed a 100 mile race. I decided my strategy was to stick with the 4 hour pace group and see how I felt–being with a group with the same goal was an ideal situation. By mile 20, there were only about 3 of us that were still with the pacer (others had already went ahead or fell behind). Taking the advice of the pacer, at mile 22 I took off and by mile 24 I kicked it up even more which allowed me to shed about 3 minutes off within 4 miles! I highly suggest following the pace group, if you have a time goal (bonus: if the pacer is super energetic and personable :)).

Keys to success:

Following schedule to a T, especially with long runs
Switch up runs: hills, treadmill, speed, with people, by yourself, different weather conditions etc.
Stick with a pace group
Have fun and enjoy the race 🙂

Do you have any tips for reaching your running (or other goals)?