After my third go at the marathon—the 2021 New York City race—I basically swore off running 26.2 miles. At the time, I had a goal of breaking four hours. My buildup certainly could have gone better, considering I had a couple big life events happen mid training, including starting a new job and making a move from New York City to Pennsylvania. With the stress of that, came several not-so-good runs.
“I think most people forget that your body doesn’t know the difference between intentional training stress and all the other life stress you have. Stress is stress,” says Matt Meyer, certified run and strength coach based in Boulder, Colorado, and host of our How to Start Running program. “And much like mileage, it can really add up and run you down pretty hard.”
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below bonked early in the race, but another part was simply a lack of confidence in my ability to hit and maintain at least a 9:09 pace to meet my goal. I felt nervous all morning waiting in Staten Island, questioning whether I could make it happen. And those nerves made me nauseous, forcing me to stop fueling around mile 10, and finishing the race seven minutes slower than the first time I conquered the five boroughs. I ended up with a finish time of 4:30.
Threshold Workouts to Build Speed Endurance redemption (and I was certainly intrigued by that possibility!), but I was also enjoying running so much when training for a half marathon Why Trust Us Runner’s World Break 4 Hours marathon plan.
When comparing the two training cycles from 2021 to 2024, I realized a few key changes I made to training and race day that helped me finally beat my goal, and clock in a new PR of 3:49.
1. I Quit Checking My Pace During Long Runs
In my last marathon build, I really started to dread long runs. I remember slogging through an 18-miler after feeling completely over it around mile five. I viewed my weekend mornings spent clocking miles more as a time suck than a privilege.
I didn’t want that to happen this block, and after working on a series of stories about the Advertisement - Continue Reading Below and the long slow distance run, CA Notice at Collection.
To do that, I queued up audiobooks I looked forward to listening to (I’m a big fan of celeb memoirs on the run), found looped routes where I didn’t have to retrace my steps (a real mind game for me), and even called a few family members midway through some miles (an easy way to keep the pace conversational!).
By doing that, I kept my pace steady and truly easy—one that ended up being about two minutes per mile slower than my actual race-day pace (about 10:35/mile versus 8:45/mile). Because the effort felt good and relaxed, I no longer dreaded going out. Fun fact: It took me a minute longer to run my 22 miler in training than it did the actual marathon.
This past fall, I got the chance to run NYC again. You could consider it common mistake runners make when they have a time goal is getting obsessed with goal pace and doing every run at that speed. This can not only mess with you mentally if you miss the pace, but also exhaust you, he says.
He also points out two major ways easy pace can pay off during training. The first: It helps to lower risk of injury. “The faster we run, the more impact we create on our joints and the higher risk of injury,” Ng says. And if you’re injured, you can’t run and therefore, can’t get faster. “Easy runs keep you healthy because you’re only working at about 60 percent of your all-out effort.”
The second: Easy running allows you to go harder during speed workouts. “You can run fast all the time, but guess what? You will never hit a new top speed because you are so tired by the time you show up in the speed workout,” Ng explains. “But if you do most of your runs at an easy effort, you will show up to your speed workout and have enough energy to hit a brand new top speed.”
In addition to my easy runs, I did even easier aerobic efforts on my bike nearly every Friday (and sometimes Monday). While I ran four days per week, many of the time-based RW training plans call for five or six. Instead of hitting every mile on the plan, I switched up my form of exercise. I think that not only kept me healthy but also kept up my Ng says tempo and.
2. I Consistently Did Tempo Miles
Fastest Marathon Runners few long runs, I did check my watch, but just for a couple miles in the middle when I was vying for a tempo effort (hitting a pace of 8:30ish). I also clocked speed workouts every Wednesday, ranging from 400s to mile repeats.
I know these harder paces helped me physiologically—like by improving my lactate threshold and my VO2 max, for example—but this is where I saw some of the biggest improvements in my mental game.
I don’t think I got comfortable with holding onto a harder pace for longer distances until this training cycle. By pushing my speed endurance in these workouts, I finally realized what it felt like to mentally accept discomfort… and still keep going.
Ng says tempo and threshold efforts will do this for runners. Because the effort lies just below too hard, it teaches you to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” These runs show you that you can keep trekking, while carrying that discomfort, allowing you to go farther and farther at a harder effort.
In addition to long runs, these workouts really gave me the confidence I needed for race day. I knew if I was still breathing well, running strong, and maintaining my posture, I could still hold onto a more difficult pace.
This payoff definitely showed up in the later miles of the marathon. Even as I reached mile 20, my fastest split of the day, I knew I could keep running hard because I had practiced it in training. I tuned into maintaining a stronger stride through those last six miles, and it allowed me to maintain a speed under nine minutes (whereas in 2021, I was clocking 11- and 12-minute miles by the time I reached 20).
3. I Added More Weekly Miles to My Schedule
I never reached a 40-mile training week until a couple weeks before the 2024 marathon. In my last buildup, I only ran three days a week. It’s what worked for me at the time, as I preferred to run every other day. But in this block, I got to a point where I comfortably ran Tuesday through Thursday, and then did a long run on the weekend. That higher volume seemed to pay off.
“Runners, especially everyday people who work a 9-to-5 job, they believe that endurance is only built on the long run,” Ng says. So they skip midweek workouts. But in reality, he emphasizes, a lot of your endurance is based on your weekly mileage.
Meyer agrees, saying easy runs (yes, along with conversationally paced long runs) make up a bulk of your training block. “Thats where we build our aerobic endurance, increase mitochondrial density, and just get used to long will do this for runners. Because the effort lies just below,” he explains. “It also allows us to build our fitness while not stressing the body too much, giving us time to adapt to training load and recover from our harder sessions.”
Looking at training as a whole—not just the long runs or the speed workouts—also shows that it’s not just one workout that makes a difference in your performance, Meyer says.
“Yes, we want to have those confidence boosters throughout the cycle, but it’s truly the sum of our weeks of training that moves the needle,” he says. “One big killer run is never more important than the whole week, the whole month, etc. So, when we’re able to step back and take the macro view of our training, we can see how that week to week consistency is where the magic lives.”
How to Break 4 Hours in the Marathon.
4. I Actually Practiced My Fueling Strategy
Never have I ever snacked on more salty crackers than I did the day before the marathon. In fact, I think I ate an entire box of the ldquo;And much like mileage, it can really add up and run you down pretty hard.&rdquo. I also ordered extra rice at dinner (with a mix of chicken and veggies—my typical dinner, which I made sure to get at a restaurant I researched ahead of time), so I could snack on it before bed. You could say it was the most committed to carb loading I had ever been for a marathon (this was my fourth).
Like me, in addition to carb loading, you’ve probably also heard that you should practice your nutrition strategy throughout training, particularly during long runs. Of course there’s a difference between hearing the advice and actually putting it into practice. But during this training cycle, I did.
On every long run that lasted about 14 miles or more, I began fueling three miles in and every third mile after that (so about every 30 minutes), taking a half a gel. This way, I got in the recommended 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour, without wrecking my stomach.
I tried the same gels throughout training (Honey Stinger and Gu with caffeine) as I used on race day, and followed that same strategy from start to finish. I counted out how many gels I would need to make it through the full 26.2, brought two extras just in case, and made sure to eat them soon before a water station so I could wash them down with some hydration.
I never hit the wall, unlike my last attempt in NYC in which I slowed down by mile 10, and way down by mile 20.
Meyer puts it simply: “You can’t outrun a bad fueling plan. It will catch you and you will bonk your whole face off.”
5. I Started the Race at a Truly Easy Effort
Ng points out that while fueling definitely plays a role in helping people hit their goal time, even if you took “a whole garbage bag full of gels” and started the race at a pace above your fitness level, you still won’t break the time barrier. In other words, the real secret to PR success is pacing strategically.
That holds true regardless of how well you trained (or fueled): If you start out too fast, you just won’t be able to hold on. “Athletes mistaken feeling good with running a proper pace,” Ng explains. “If you’re somebody who doesn’t know how to maintain your composure during the race, you still won’t hit your goal.”
To avoid this, you need a pacing plan going into race day. “You can’t wing it, unless you are so in touch with your fitness, your feelings, and your body, and things like that, which is not easy,” Ng adds.
Meyer agrees, pointing out the most important skill when running a marathon: patience. “It’s a long and fickle distance that you will start out feeling great, you’re tapered and ready to rock. But, patience is the key and what might have felt great at mile two, might not feel the same at 22,” he says.
My game plan going into the race was to actually start a little below nine-minute miles. That’s mostly because I felt so good in training and my Garmin Race Predictor said I could clock a 3:40, so I used that as an indicator I could go even faster than the sub-four pace of 9:09. But I kept checking in with my breathing, my posture, and my effort level throughout the entire race, and especially in the first half. (My earbuds dying before mile two helped me look inward a little more!)
I also decided to follow the 10/10/10 pacing strategy ahead of time, so after the first 10 miles felt super easy, I picked it up just a bit for the next 10. And when I got to mile 20, still feeling strong, I picked it up a little more and held onto that effort through the final 10K, resulting in a slight negative split.
6. I Wrote Down My Goal, and Believed In It
I wanted to trust I could break four hours. My training was solid. I hit the paces (and then some) for my workouts, and I felt prepared to put in the effort on race day, despite how hard it might get.
I wrote down in several journals: “I will break four hours in the marathon this year” to really put it out into the universe and remind myself of my capabilities.
The night before the marathon, I laid with my legs up the wall in my hotel room, focusing on deep breathing and visualizing the race. I pictured myself conquering tough stretches of the course, like the quieter streets of Brooklyn, the incline and sounds of heavy breathing on the Queensborough Bridge, and maintaining speed through the nearly mile-long hill that kicks in around mile 23. That personal reassurance and positive self-talk tipped my confidence in the right direction… a much different feeling from when I stood on the starting line in 2021, talking myself out Common Marathon Training Mistakes.
I carried that confidence through every mile on the course, while having fun high five-ing spectators and hugging friends. I finished even faster than I thought possible for me—a boost to my athletic ego—and still enjoyed the adventure of racing through the five boroughs of New York City. I couldn’t have had a much better day. So maybe now I can retire from the distance.
Mallory Creveling is an ACE-certified personal trainer and RRCA-certified run coach, who also holds certifications in kettlebell training, sports performance, and more. She has more than a decade of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition for a wide range of publications, and nearly 10 years of experience as a trainer and fitness instructor. Mallory stays on top of her continuing education in fitness, as well as the latest science in wellness. She has worked with some of the best experts in their medical fields, and regularly interviews researchers, trainers, athletes, and more to find the best advice for readers looking to improve their performance and well-being. As a freelance writer, Mallory's work appeared in Women's Health, Self, Men's Journal, Reader's Digest, and more. She has also held staff editorial positions at Family Circle and Shape magazines, as well as DailyBurn.com. A former New Yorker/Brooklynite, she's now based in Easton, Pennsylvania.
