Marathon FAQ

A marathon is 26.2 miles, or more exactly 26.219 miles / 42.195 km (26 miles and 385 yards), with that distance being agreed officially in 1921.

Most runners can complete a half marathon without running out of glycogen fuel in the muscles. Marathons are hard because they are long enough that runners risk running out of glycogen in the muscles, even if they eat during the race.

When this happens, glycogen comes directly from the liver which is a longer process, so the runner has to slow down.

Additionally, there is a substantial increase in  training time needed to successfully keep muscle fatigue at bay enough for a race of 2+ hours.

We recommend that beginner runners give themselves at least 18 months to prepare for a marathon. It’s possible to do a marathon sooner than this, but would likely be too challenging for most people to enjoy, and the risk of injury would be higher. Runners that have already recently trained for and completed a half marathon can train for a full marathon in 4 months and be in a good state of preparedness.

The length of one single training run does not determine your performance on marathon race day. The length of your long runs depends on how well you can recover from those runs. If your long training run is 15 miles in 3 hours and you recover well, then doing this a few times will be better than doing a single 22 mile run, that takes 4.5 hours and destroys the legs with only 3 weeks recovery time before marathon race day.

Many runners think they need to do a 20+ mile run in training so that they are mentally ready, but being mentally ready can’t overcome trashed legs that have been overtrained.

Faster runners will be able to do some easy 22 mile runs in training because it will take them less than 3 hours.

Interval Reps, like 200m reps with a 2 minute rest interval are good during marathon training. They build strength and resilience in the fascia which is important for preventing fatigue later in the marathon race. However, it can be difficult to incorporate these while recovering from the increasingly long runs during marathon training, so you might want to keep them to the early part of training, unless you are an experienced runner.

Tempo runs at or close to Lactate Threshold, as well as Fartlek runs above and below Lactate Threshold make ideal speed sessions throughout marathon training because they train your body to produce and use Lactate for fuelling. Your heart rate drifts up during a long race, even if your pace remains the same, so your body will need to be good at producing and using lactate as fuel as the effort level rises.

When you are four weeks away from race day, you should have assessed how your legs and body are feeling. If you are feeling well recovered, then you can continue training for couple of weeks and then do a 2 week taper before the race.

If you are feeling trashed with 4 weeks to go, you might consider a 3 or even 4 week taper so that you are properly recovered on race day. Turning up relatively fresh at the start line is more important than pushing another couple of high mileage weeks.

Experienced runners will likely need less taper, because they will have managed their marathon training properly and adjusted the plan according to how they feel each week.

First time marathon runners blindly following a generic marathon plan will be more likely to need a 3 or even 4 week taper.

You should only try carb loading before your marathon if you’ve tried it in training.

Carb loading is a tactic to top up glycogen in the muscles as much as possible before a marathon by reducing protein / fat intake and increasing carbohydrate intake. It does not mean stuffing yourself with more food than normal.

Additionally, carb loading might be more relevant to runners doing a 2-3hr marathon than those running a 5hr marathon. The latter slower runners will be able to eat enough calories during the run so that they don’t run out of glycogen.

Hydration should be a part of a runner’s normal everyday activity. In the days before a marathon make sure you are drinking a normal amount of water. It’s easy to forget water during a taper when you aren’t running much.

Do not drink more water than normal – this puts you are risk of hyponatremia during the race. If your pee is always totally clear, you are drinking too much water.

If it’s your first marathon, you should have done a 10K or half marathon race along the way, so use your time from that and plug it into the Runningversity race time predictor calculator to find out how fast a pace you might consider running in your marathon, assuming you’ve done an appropriate marathon training block.

During the race, you can check how long it takes to go past each mile marker to see if you are going too fast or too slow. If you reach half way and you are already feeling like it’s a lot of effort to run, you should slow down a bit to give yourself a better chance of finishing strong.

During the marathon you should take on some water at regular intervals. You should have practiced this in training.

Do not be tempted to guzzle more water than normal just because it’s a race – this puts you at risk of hyponatremia, which is far worse than dehydration. If you need to stop for a wee during the race, check the colour of your pee – if it’s totally clear, you are likely drinking a bit too much.

During a marathon, you should use running shoes that you have already tested in some training runs. Comfort of the shoes is most important given that you will be running for at least a couple of hours.

If your marathon is on trail, you’ll have to check the conditions before deciding if you need extra grippy shoes for the race.

Recovery after a marathon depends on how you dealt with the effort of the marathon.

If your legs and body were well prepared in training, you finished strong, and your legs feel good to walk up and down stairs easily the next day, you might do a few days of walks and then some gentle short runs after 5 days or so.

If you are having to walk down stairs backwards due to muscle fatigue, you are best off having a few days total rest and then doing walks only for a couple of weeks.

When starting to run again after your recovery, if you feel any tightness in the hips or your legs feel leaden, then delay the running for another week before trying again.

To recover after a marathon, eat your normal foods. If you don’t feel hungry, eat anyway.

After a few days, you might want to assess how much you are eating, especially if you aren’t doing any exercise. During marathon training, you’ll be eating more food, so if you continue eating the same amount during reduced training, you’ll put on weight.

Yes, many runners feel a bit deflated after a Marathon. You’ve spent a long time training for a specific goal which has been achieved., so mentally, your brain is wondering what to do. Plus your body is in a state of fatigue so you’ll physically down too.

So recover well, and book in another race.