Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 3,775,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

##As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

####And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Enforcing Rule 3 (no self-promotion, social media links) is a must with a large sub such as this, but we do realize that it filters out some truly useful content that is relative to the sub. In an effort to allow that content in, we thought we'd have a weekly post to give a spot for the useful content. So...

Here's you chance!

Got a project you've been working on (video, programming, etc.), share it here!

Want to promote a business or service, share it here!

Trying to get more Instagram followers, share it here!

Found any great running content online, share it here!

The one caveat I have is that whatever is shared should be fitness related, please.

Happy weekend everyone!!!

What’s on the menu? Who’s running, racing, tapering, knitting, baking, cycling, reading, skiing, doing their last minute holiday shopping, steeling themselves for family visits, hibernating, bah humbug-ing, … ? Tell us all about it!

I got an email at 2PM saying my registration was confirmed and my card was charged.

Anyone else get in the lottery?

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 3,750,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

##As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

####And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Good morning, Runnit! Another weekend of races is approaching, so let's take a minute to see if any other Runnitors will be laying down those miles with us!

If you're racing this weekend, put a top-level comment below with the race details to help find other members of the community. See a race mentioned that looks interesting? Ask questions! Running your favorite race of the year? Tell us what makes it so awesome!

This thread is just an easy way to help Runnitors find each other in some sort of organized manner and help cheer each other on!

Hello athletes!

I am a member of a running club and we want to do a challenge - who can run more kilometers over the New Year holidays.

We used to do it through Strava (I made a website that parsed our club's Strava and summarized the results in a convenient way. It was necessary to parse exactly, API for these purposes did not fit...). But now Strava has strengthened protection against parsing and it is impossible to do it quickly.

Maybe there are similar online platforms where we could create a competition, which would support the main vendors of running watches (polar/garmin/suunto and so on) and be able to watch the results?

Ideally with a gender split.

Race Information

• Name: Maratón Málaga
• Date: 15 December 2024
• Distance: 42.2 km
• Location: Malaga
• Website: generalimaratonmalaga.com
• Strava: https://www.strava.com
• Time: 3:55:XX

Goals

Splits

About me

I'm a 29F and this was my first full marathon. I started to run relatively consistently two years ago and have run a few 10k races, one 5k and two half marathons during this time but not a lot.

Training

The training for this marathon has been very far from perfect and I had to adjust my initial goal from sub 3:45 to sub 4:00. My plan was to do a training block of 16 weeks following Runners World's training plans for sub 3:30/3:45 loosely (the volumes looked good for me and I've had success with their half marathon plans before). Maybe two weeks into the training plan I joined a running club and started doing my speed sessions with them instead of following the plan. This I think was a good idea. Everything was going well until one of my midweek easy medium long runs in week 6/16.

During my first kilometer of the run I stepped on a small apple on the ground (I think, it was under an apple tree) and rolled my ankle. It really hurt and I could barely walk but for some reason I kept running for a little more than an hour after that thinking that the pain would go away or something. The pain wasn't really located in my ankle or foot but higher up in the lower leg. I continued to run throughout the week and even did a 29k run at the weekend. The following week I did longer intervalls at the start of the week, but cut the sessions short because it didn't feel right in the leg. The day after I went for a jog but had to stop after the pain in the leg not going away after 20 minutes. Here I decides to take the rest of the week off running if the marathon should even be a possibility. Instead of running I did some swimming but mostly cycling since that still felt okay. The week after (8/16) I tried running again, but stopped after a kilometer and decided to keep cycling this week as well. The two weeks after this I decided to start running slowly with regular walking breaks. The week after this I ran without walking breaks but still didn't do any speed sessions. I did a long run during the weekend and it felt okay. I had some pain at the start but it went away as I got warm.

The week after (12/16) I added speed to my training again and it felt okay after the warmup. I also did my longest run this week (35k) and good and I started to feel certain that I could at least complete the marathon. I did feel unusually tired afterwards but thought it was due to me running longer than ever and not having trained properly for several weeks.

Alas, I had caught the sickness that everybody at the office also seemed to have had. I felt weak and had a sore throat for most of the week stopping me from training properly once again. I felt better in the weekend and attempted to do my last long run before the race (32k) but had to stop it after 28k and several stops during the run. This did not feel good for my confidence, but I figured I might still be recovering from my sickness since the long run the week before had felt good.

Even though my last long run didn't go well it was still my last long run during the training block and now tapering started. I continued to train pretty much as usual and do my speed work but I cut my running distances. Week 15/16 I started to do some running indoors on the treadmill to maybe adjust i bit better to the higher temperatures in Spain (14-16° might not sound hot, but where I live, Sweden, it was a lot colder and I don't handle running in the heat well). I also did some running at home before travelling to Malaga the week of the marathon.

Pre-race

I did two runs in Malaga before the marathon and felt some pain in my leg but hoped that it was just "maranoia". Otherwise I walked around the city a lot and walked up to a castle on a big hill, maybe not the best thing to do before a marathon but I wanted to do some tourist stuff as well. I didn't sleep very well the first days in Malaga but actually managed to sleep well the night before the marathon.

The day of the race I woke up early to to eat two sandwiches, have some coffee and braid my hair. I arrived at starting area 45-50 minutes before the race started and it was still dark. I left my stuff at the bag drop and then I joined one of the long queues to the portaloos. I stood in this queue for maybe half an hour before I had to give up and go to the start. It did not feel good to not have been able to go to the toilet just before a marathon...

Race

It was 8:30, the sun had started to rise and we were off! You could hear people everywhere around us shouting "vamos" and the atmosphere was incredible!

My plan as to start running the first 10k at maybe 5:35-5:38 pace but it felt way to easy. Then I tried to keep my pace around 5:30 since I realise that feeling great at kilometer 5 doesn't mean that I will feel great at kilometer 38. It still felt easy keeping a 5:30 pace after 20k. At halfway the half marathoners ran through their finish and the marathon ran to the left of them. I had imagined this moment to feel mentally hard, but it didn't. This just felt like the actual start of the marathon. The pace still felt good so I decides to keep it to 30k and re-evaluate then.

At 30k my legs and breathing still felt really good, but I some cramp or something in some abdominal muscle(?). I could still run and almost keep the same pace as before, but it hurt a lot. I thought that maybe this was it and that it from here would just be pain for remaining 12 kilometers. I decided to run to the next water stop and walk through it. At 31/32k the water stop came and I walked through it. The pain didn't go away completely but it got much better. I started to run and got back to my old pace (5:30) which felt good and the pain went away. At 39k I got cramps in my toes, but it also went away after just a few seconds of stretching and I could continue to run. I tried to push the pace since I didn't feel to bad but felt something in my calf (maybe more cramps on its way), so I decides to stay at 5:30 pace a little longer. But after I passed the 41k marker I decided that it was probably to little left of the race to not speed up so I did and continue to do so until I passed the finish line and probably passed 100 people in that last kilometer.

I was really happy to see that my time was just a little over 3:55 when I had had moments just a few weeks ago where I doubted this marathon was even possible after injuries and sickness.

Post-race

I drank plenty of water, ate oranges that they had at the finish line and got medal and the surprise finisher t-shirt that they had. Excepts for the cramps I got during the race (that also went away during the race) I felt great. I had imagined this feeling a lot harder than it did and I wonder if I ran too conservatively but at the same time this was my first marathon and the plan was to run relatively conservative. This was definitely one of my favourite races I've run. The course was flat, the weather was perfect and it was just a really nice race overall (except for the toilet situation at the start). I probably want to run this race again sometime in the future.

I will probably run more marathons, but in the short future I want to focus a little more on shorter distances and develop my speed more and also increase my volume. The plan was to run around 60-70 km during this training block and peak at just under 80, but it clearly didn't be like that this time so now I want to get back to consistency.

TLDR; I managed to run my first marathon with my worst training block ever due to injury and it went well.

Made with a new race report generator created by /u/herumph.

How’s your week of running going? Got any Complaints? Anything to add as a Confession? How about any Uncomplaints?

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 3,750,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

##As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

####And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

What are the best guided running apps that work well on the treadmill?

Hi there! All good? I'm doing some personal research on street racing circuits around the world...

I can think of World Marathon Majors, Mega Finisher, SuperHalfs, Dopey Challenge...

Is there any other circuit that you know of and can recommend to me?

Thank you in advance.

Race Information

• Name: San Diego Holiday Half Marathon

• Date: 12/14/2024

• Distance: 13.1 miles

• Pace: 8:17/mi (5:09/km)

• Location: San Diego, CA

• Website: https://www.sandiegoholidayhalf.com/

• Time: 1 hour 48 minutes

Goals

| Goal | Description | Completed? |

|------|-------------|------------|

| A | Finish First Half Marathon | Yes |

| B | Sub 1:45:00 time | No |

Splits

| Mile | Time |

|------|------|

| 1 | 8:09

| 2 | 7:45

| 3 | 8:12

| 4 | 7:27

| 5 | 7:45

| 6 | 7:50

| 7 | 8:17

| 8 | 7:50

| 9 | 7:45

| 10 | 8:34

| 11 | 8:37

| 12 | 9:23

| 13 | 8:43

| 13.1 | 8:18

Athletic Background

Early 30's male. Uncompetitive Cross Country runner in high school (25:00+ minute 5k). In my 20s, I casually played Ultimate Frisbee (1x a week) and lifted weights (2-3x a week). Prior to beginning training in mid 2024, I'd been living a sedentary lifestyle for 3 years due to a foot injury (<4,000 steps a day).

Training

Began running casually 6 months ago (June 2024). Usually around half a mile to 2 miles at a 12:00+/mi pace. I did not have a goal except to get some exercise but my foot injury seemed to actually bother me less the more I ran.

Since I was feeling better, my mileage increased significantly as a result going from 12 miles in June, to 30 miles in July to, to 70 miles in August.

At this point, I decided to start doing a structured running schedule but still didn't want to race since I was worried about injury again. That said, I was very consistent with running and a week ran 3-4x week including a long run and some speed work. At the peak in November, I ran 110 miles at an avg of 9:12/mi pace for the month and my longest run being 12 miles.

An average weekly running schedule would be:

Sunday: Long Run, +1 mile from previous week

Monday: 1 hour easy

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Norwegian 4x4 intervals +10 min warmup and cooldown

Thursday: 45 mins easy

Friday: 1 mile warm up, 2 miles tempo, 1 mile cooldown

At the end of November, I also ran a 10k race where I finished in 46:16 (7:26/mi pace).

In December, I ran two 13.1 mi long runs at around a 2 hour pace in the 2 weeks prior to the race. These were not easy but these runs gave me enough confidence that I could race a half marathon and at least finish. I looked up upcoming half marathons and saw the upcoming San Diego Holiday Half in a couple days. It was a net downhill course and might be my last chance for such an easy downhill course so I signed up 4 days before the race. Since it was such short notice, I did not have a chance to taper my training.

Pre-race

I ate 2 Honey Stinger Waffles and had a drank a latte before the race as I usually do for a long run. I had my wife drop me off at the starting line about 45 minutes before the race time. I had decided to dress light for the race since I tend to heat up during the run. I was very cold during this time, even with a warmup jog and I regretted not bringing a disposable outerwear layer.

Since this was my first half marathon race, I relied on external tools like Garmin and Runalyze to give me pacing suggestions. Garmin suggested 1:35:00 (7:15/mi) and Runalyze suggested 1:45:00 (8:01/mi). I decided to split the difference start at 8:01 pace then speed up.

Once the line up started, I ate a Huma gel and I got right behind the 1:45:00 pacers. I regret not bringing my own water because there was no water to wash down the Huma gel and my throat was a bit sticky.

Race

Once the race kicked off, I kind of regretted having headphones (Airpod Pros) as the pacers were yelling commentary and I had a hard time hearing. In hindsight, I think they were yelling something along the lines of "we're starting off slow on the uphill and we'll speed up later". Since I didn't quite catch this, I was surprised that we were going so slow, much slower than the 8:01/mi pace advertised.

I expected pacers to run even splits of 8:01/mi but they were definitely running much slower the first 2 miles (8:30+). Frustrated at the slower speed, I broke out of the pacing group and started running on my own after the first mile and a half. I had a really hard time pacing and alternated between chasing people down and recovering where those same people would zoom past me.

Another issue I had almost right away was that my Garmin Forerunner said my heart rate 205+ after mile 2 and then stayed 200+ for the rest of the race. This is definitely not correct from an effort measurement level as maximum is usually ~190. I think I have an irregular heart rate since this also happened often with my Apple Watch 6 when I went for harder runs. This was very unfortunate since I usually pace myself based on heart rate zones in training. Since the heart rate date was unreliable, I ignore the heart rate indicator which made pacing challenging.

As I saw the water station coming up at 3.5 miles, I ripped open a Huma gel and downed it quickly so I could wash it down with water. As I reached the water station, I grabbed the plastic cup and... promptly spilled the whole thing before any of it got in my mouth. "Guess I'll try again at the next station" I thought. This was my first time trying to grab a plastic cup on the move. The next couple stations went about the same - I could not seem to get any water up to my mouth despite slowing down. I later learned you need to squeeze the cup so it's more of a funnel to your mouth but I was getting pretty much no water for the first 6 miles.

At mile 6.5, I downed my 3rd gel (Maurten). This was significantly more enjoyable than the Huma gels since I could chew these a bit and didn't feel like I needed water afterwards. Discomfort was starting to set in a bit here but I was able to maintain the pace and keep up with those around me.

At Mile 9, I finished my final Maurten gel and decided I would try to race the remainder. I was around a 7:50/mi pace so I decided to speed up to a 7:45/mi pace. This did not go well. The course hit rolling hills around mile 10 and it just zapped me of all my energy. Between the poor pacing and lack of water, my legs felt like bricks after Mile 10. I just came to a dead stop at every water station so I would finally have a chance to drink water. At around 10.5 mi the 1:45:00 pacing group I started with passed me and I did not have the energy left to keep up.

I distinctly remember thinking this was the hardest run I had ever done as it was different from the 10k race I did a couple weeks prior where I was just trying to continue pushing through the pain. This felt like I had nothing left in the tank and just a test of willpower to continue running on empty.

It was extremely demoralizing watching so many people pass me in the final 3 miles but I was eventually able to push through to the finish line in 1 hour and 48 minutes.

My First Timer Learnings

Pacing: I wish I had been more conservative with my starting pace since I wasn't sure what pace I would be able to race at. That said, I think the Runalyze pacing suggestion was much better than Garmin.

I also think I could've done much better if I had simply stayed with my pacing group instead of going through my speed up/slow down racing strategy by feel. Also shouldn't rely as much on heart rate for pacing if I know that the heart rate monitor doesn't work consistently.

Water: I trained with a water bottle so I wish I also brought my water bottle instead of trying to learn to pick up water on the go. I thought that the abundance of water stops could save me the hassle of carrying a bottle but did not account for the skill required to drink from plastic cups while moving.

Gels: Maurten gels all the way since I didn't have to worry about timing the gels based on water stations.

Gear: I wish I brought a disposable outerwear layer for before the race due to the cold. Additionally, I wish I didn't bring headphones since I had a hard time hearing the pacer and overall didn't really notice the music.

-- Thanks for reading! Had a great time and very proud to have finished my first half marathon - even if it didn't exactly go as I expected. Learned a lot from the experience and think I'll be much better prepared for future races.

Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 3,750,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

##As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

####And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

It's that time of week already...the gear thread! What have you picked up lately? What's working for you now that it's whatever season you believe it to be in your particular location? What have you put through rigorous testing that's proved worthy of use? We want to know!

To clear up some confusion: We’re not actually asking what you’re wearing today. It’s just a catchy name for the thread. This is the weekly gear discussion thread, so discuss gear!

NOTE: For you Runnitors looking to sell/trade any running gear (as well as bib transfers), head over to /r/therunningrack.

#Would you rather not be a lurker?

Then what are you waiting for? Tell us all about yourself!

The LW thread is an invitation to get more involved with the /r/running community.

New to the sub in general? Welcome! Let us know more about yourself!

Back once again for everything you wanted to know about running but were afraid to ask.

Rules of the Road:

This is inspired by eric_twinge's fine work in r/fitness.

Upvote either good or stupid questions. Sort questions by new so that they get some love.

To the more experienced runnitors, if something is a good question or answer, add it to the FAQ.

Post your question -- stupid or otherwise -- here to get an answer -- stupid or otherwise. Anyone can post a question and the community as a whole is invited and encouraged to provide an answer. Many questions get submitted late each week that don't get a lot of action, so if your question didn't get answered, feel free to post it again.

As always, be sure to read the FAQ first. Also, there's a handy-dandy search bar to your right, and if you didn't know, you can also use Google to search runnit by using the limiter "site:reddit.com r/running".

Be sure to check back often as questions get posted throughout the day. Sort comments by "new" to be sure the newer questions get some love as well.

[Posting on behalf of /u/Percinho who is tangled in a mess of holiday lights on his roof. ]

Hey runners, it's another day and it is time to post your accomplishments you'd like to share - big or small.

Note: No need to preface YOUR accomplishments with something like, "this may not be an accomplishment to most of you...". Be proud of your achievement.

With over 3,750,000 subscribers, there are a lot of posts that come in everyday that are often repeats of questions previously asked or covered in the FAQ.

With that in mind, this post can be a place for any questions (especially those that may not deserve their own thread). Hopefully this is successful and helps to lower clutter and repeating posts here.

If you are new to the sub or to running, this Intro post is a good resource.

##As always don't forget to check the FAQ.

####And please take advantage of the search bar or Google's subreddit limited search.

Rules of the Road

1. Anyone is welcome to participate and share your ideas, plans, diet, and nutrition plans.

2. Promote good discussion. Simply downvoting because you disagree with someone's ideas is BAD. Instead, let them know why you disagree with them.

3. Provide sources if possible. However, anecdotes and "broscience" can lead to good discussion, and are welcome here as long as they are labeled as such.

4. Feel free to talk about anything diet or nutrition related.

5. Any suggestions/topic ideas?

Shoes are a big topic in this sub, so in an effort to condense and collect some of these posts, we're introducing Shoesday Tuesday! Similar to Wednesday's gear thread, but focusing on shoes.

What’ve you been wearing on your feet? Anything fun added to the rotation? Got a review of a new release? Questions about a pair that’s caught your eye? Here's the place to discuss.

NOTE: For you Runnitors looking to sell/trade any running gear (as well as bib transfers), head over to /r/therunningrack.

Race Information

• Name: Naked Nick 50k
• Date: December 15, 2024
• Distance: 50 km
• Location: Leesport, PA
• Website: https://www.uberendurancesports.com/Nakednick.html
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13124102819
• Time: 5:46:18

Goals

Splits

Training

Long story short, I really wanted to push myself this year. I more than doubled my miles to almost 1,600 as of today, ran more races, and hit more PR's than I ever had before, and I felt like I should end the year really challenging myself. Having never done a trail run or an ultra before this seemed like a good one to dive in head first. In hindsight, I should have done more hill workouts and more trail runs but my schedule makes it slightly difficult, and living in a city doesn't allow me the ability to get to trails as easily as I would like. So in the end, my preparation was not what I should have been, but I know my body and know that I should be able to finish the race, even if it took me to the cutoff time.

Pre-race

It was cold this morning, like 20 degrees F cold. I woke up about 3 hours before the start to make sure that I could eat something and get my brain together. Did some stretching and drove over to the starting area. Unfortunately, since this was a 25K and 50K, there were more people than I assumed would be there and I had to park slightly further away than I wanted to (nothing like a nice quarter-mile trek through the woods to warm up) and not sit in my car for an extra few minutes to keep myself warm. It also didn't help that I had trouble finding the starting line so I was one of the last people to park.

No real issues otherwise, Uber Endurance puts on a no-frills race that is missing from the multi-day events a lot of us see nowadays.

Race

I split up my mile times above because this really became a race of 3 parts for me.

Miles 1-10

I felt great coming out of the gate, despite the starting line being at the top of a hill we had to run down which made for a challenging start but after that, we were all just cruising. Some downhills lead to a few uphills and by mile 3 I was warm finally. I hit the first aid station and had a few bites to eat and some gatorade and continued on to the next station at mile 7, which you can subsequently stop at when you finish the lollipop section and can hit it again at mile 11 (im approximating here, there were no mile markers). A couple of big climbs that I hit with some struggle but no walking and I was back down and passed the 2nd aid station and made my way back to the first.

Miles 10-20

Hit the first station around mile 12 or 13 and was feeling great. In an awesome mood and just having fun which was the vibe i wanted for myself during this and didnt want to set expectations too high.

Since this was a 25K and 50K you hit your first lap at the top of an un-fun hill climb (unfun due to wet leaves and the course layout was kind of awkward here) and stop at the aid station at the top/finish line which was almost mile 16 for me. I spent a few minutes here, had some pickles and "ice" water and chatted with a few other runners before turning back down and honestly feeling good. Yelling good jobs and push its to the people who were on their way up or at the end of the race. The next 3 miles were relatively easy but I could feel my pace slowing slightly and i was getting bouts of cold that zapped my energy. Stopped at the aid station which I think put me at mile 19ish and by now I knew I had enough water in my stomach sloshing around that I didnt want to take in too much and puke it up when I'm back at the lollipop and far enough away from aid that it would have taken them longer to get to me than it would if i just continued to press on. By now, i'm walking up hill climbs to conserve energy. Made it to aid station #2 and popped a few chips in my mouth and a cookie to hopefully soak up some of the water and pressed on. I was slowing down but not to the point I was worried about my stretch goal.

Miles 20-30

I'm in the pain cave now and walking a good amount. The cold really getting to me and I realized the elevation gains were much larger than what was told in the race description (my garmin told me it was almost at 4,000 ft where the race website was about 2,700). I pressed on, watching my pace dip down to the 13:00s and saved as much energy as possible to walk almost every hill, unless i miraculously met someone on the trail and i ran with them for a few quarters of a mile.

I hit the marathon distance and thought oh cool only 5-6 more miles to go and laughed to myself. One other runner commented to me that Uber Endurance races are fun because they're basically held together by duct tape, which is great but also sometimes you just need an extra aid station to give you a small bit of relief.

Mile 30-finish

Made it back to the first aid station when I had a little over a 5k to go and was always reminded of Andy Glaze saying "your grandmother can do a 5k". Walked a few more hills, and attempted my best when it came to running up the final hill to the finish line to grab my trophy mug. Happy that I did the hardest race I could for myself to end my race season.

Post-race

I chugged 3 mugs of hot chocolate, ate some pasta, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a piece of cake, and drove almost 2 hours home. I felt sore but happy that I completed this. I found out today that I finished 63rd out of 144 which is better than I felt I did and gives me enough room to improve on my next ultra. All in all, a good way to end the 2024 race year.

Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.

Hey runners, I've been looking into running the Tokyo Marathon in 2026, and the charity fundraising option seems like the way to go. I like the idea of running a marathon for a cause, but I've never fundraised before and have a few questions for folks who have done this before, especially for Tokyo.

1. How far in advance do you start fundraising? It looks like the entry closes in August typically, but can I fundraise earlier and give myself a buffer (ie asking for gifts this winter to be donations to my selected charity)?

2. What's been an effective way of raising money for you? I barely use social media except LinkedIn, is it weird to fundraise for a marathon there? Do I just tell everyone I know in person?

For Tokyo specifically:

3. Does anyone have knowledge of or recommendations for the charity partners? I'm looking at Japan Committee, Vaccines for the World's Children or Japan Association for Refugees but it's hard to find information in English and few of the sponsors are on Charity Navigator. If anyone has specifics on any of the charities it would probably make it easier for me to get donations.

Also if anyone has general advice about fundraising or the Tokyo Marathon, that would help me a ton. Thanks so much!

6 weeks ago I couldn't run 1 full minute without feeling tired; yesterday (14/12/2024) I ran my first 5k ever, in 31:43 min. This is coming from someone who, until 6 weeks ago, had a 100% sedentary life from the past 2-3 years. Honestly I still have a sedentary life, but now I run :)

I have to clarify in advance that this is NO promotion and I'm not encouraging anybody to follow or not follow this plan, it is up to you; I'm sure every "Couch to 5k" (C25K) plan works if you stick to it. Just coming here to leave my personal and beginner's review to the free C25K training plan I used. This plan really worked for me, and I'll explain the reasons why I choose this particular plan over other free beginner plans (in case you're hesitating what plan suits best for you, just like I was at the beginning of this journey). So this is just me sharing my experience to fellow newbies, but also sharing a bit of "exposure" to this plan and the creator of the plan because I haven't seen it receiving attention or even being mentioned, for that matter.

Training plan's creator: TheMessyHappy (found in youtube).

Training plan: Beginner to 5k Training Plan (6-week version from 2022, it's really important to note that it is the 2022 version what I follwed)

Summary: I choose this plan because...

• The 6 week plan was the shortest and trust-worthy free beginner C25K plan I found in the internet. The reason why I wanted the shortest plan was a personal preference, but if you don't mind a longer training plan, or you just want to take it slower, I think the latest 9-week iteration of this plan is a best choice as an even more friendly approach; it's basically the same thing as the 6-week plan but EVEN MORE smooth (but again, I really think that 6 weeks is just enough for most).
• As a complete beginner, I didn't understand anything about concepts like "tempo runs" "base run" "HR zones" "pace" "cadence" etc etc, and I was not willing to learn about it, so having a plain training plan based only on time intervals was a MUST.
• The idea of having a plan that told me exactly what, when and how was exactly what I needed.

Overall review and my experience: If followed correctly, this training plan, like every beginner training plan (or C25K), adjusts to every individual's needs, capabilities and level of fitness, so that's the beauty of it because, even if our starting point is different for all of us, we all are beginners and will have kind of the same experiencie throughout the plan. Just make sure to follow it letter by letter, and you'll have a great experience with it.

Week 1: For someone with my background (healthy but with a sedentary life, really POOR endurance but likes to push himself), the first week or so felt pretty easy. Even though it's true that I couldn't run for 1 full minute without loosing my breath, the overall trainings from Week 1 felt pretty light at first, because there's a lot of walking and just a little bit of running, so this results in a few positive things: 1) Made me understand that walking it's also really important for building your base for running. 2) Consistency is key, and it helped me get into the routine of following a plan step-by-step without skipping any part of it. 3) Made my trainings enjoyable and I was even eager to train because I was not going all out and feeling misserable, like I thought it would be based on my past experience when trying to run. Week 2-3: By end of week 2 or start of week 3 I felt the training's intensity made a jump in difficulty, but still felt managable as the difficulty was increasing gradually but really smooth. It just felt correct on the rate of difficulty increase. Week 4: For me, this is the decisive week. The difficulty jump felt the greatest of them all, but Week 4 is also the first time in my running journey where I felt the "I'm not sure I can achieve that" by then become super impressed after achieving it; it's one of those moments where you see the milestone and you don't think you'll make it, but surprisingly you can! Because you've been trained for it, and this is where the results really start to show. The human body and its adaptation capabilities is just impressive. Week 5-6: By this time you're already used to the training routine, putting the mileage with no questions asked, just feeling as strong as you've never been (running-wise), and the most important thing of all: you now enjoy running!. By this time there's no milestone that makes you think you'll not be able to achieve; there're still hard trainings or days when you don't feel as strong as other days, but that's just normal. What is really relevant here is that you already have that "running mindset" you see other runners seem to have, that you have been missing your entire life. By end of week 6, it's your graduation day and you're up for running a 5k. Doesn't matter how fast or slow you do it, doesn't matter how hard or easy it feels for you, doesn't matter the circumstances around your final day, I 100% guarantee you that you will not believe how much you've improved since the Day 1 of this training plan. The difference is day and night, just impressive.

Conclusion: As I said at the start of my post, there are a LOT of beginner training plans, and I'm sure ALL of them work. For some reason this plan just felt right to me when I first saw it, and I'm completely sure it would work for most of you, but for me (a guy obsessed with reviews to figure out if something is worth it or not) it was a "leap of faith" when starting this plan because I didn't see any reviews of this plan in here, or any validation of it, and I didn't know A THING about running so I felt lost. If you, just like me 6 weeks ago, want to start running and you found this plan but are not sure, here's your validation! I can 100% recommend it. Go for it! You really got this.

Two weeks ago, I ran the València Marathon. What a day! This was my third marathon, and I loved every moment of it. I’m already thinking about the next one, where I’ll try to finish in under 3 hours and 30 minutes. I’ve enjoyed reading so many other people’s stories on this subreddit, so I thought I’d share mine. Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever posted something like this!

I started training in March of this year, averaging around 30km a week. On top of that, I was going to the gym twice a week. I’m prone to injuries, and this helped to prevent them. Training was good, but after a chat with a good mate of mine who’s an avid marathon runner, he suggested that his marathon time drastically improved once he started running more mileage. I think this was a subtle hint to pull my finger out and start running more, which I did.

In July, I started running more, racking up 50km a week while still going to the gym relentlessly to keep injuries at bay.

In August, I ran the Budapest Midnight Half Marathon. It was the height of summer and a scorching hot night. I had planned to complete it in under 1 hour 40 minutes, but instead, I finished in 1 hour 43 with a gruelling average heart rate of 179 bpm. I was a little discouraged and questioned my ability—I thought I was faster.

Although that didn’t stop me, and I entered a 10km race taking place in Barcelona, where I currently live, at the beginning of September. The summer temperatures had dropped, and it was a cool morning. I didn’t have any goal or plan in mind—I just wanted to run it. I set off and felt surprisingly good, so I pushed and finished in 40:07 minutes. Only seconds away from a sub-40. What a buzz. Marathon training was going well, but I had one issue: there was a small niggle in my knee. The following week, I went to Menorca for a long weekend. The island is beautiful, and I ended up going on two lovely runs. The terrain and elevation are challenging, but the views are breathtaking. After the second run, my knee felt sore again. I took six days off to give it a break and enjoyed the rest of my holiday.

I got back to Barcelona and was overdue for a long run. I ran 26km, and my knee ached the entire time. Uh oh. I should have not done that, I thought. I took another week off and saw a physiotherapist mid October. He provided me with three key exercises: wall sits (bodyweight and weights), assisted single-leg squats, and full-range leg extensions. He told me to perform these twice a week. I’m not going to lie—I went a little crazy. I was doing them more than twice a week, especially the wall sits. On top of that, I was indoor rowing 4–6km every session, foam rolling, and not running often. I wanted my knee to heal so badly. I tried to remain positive that strength training and rowing would prevail. I also had to run a half marathon in València at the end of the month with my girlfriend. We ended up getting her a personal best of 1 hour 54 minutes. My average heart rate was 150, too, but it crept up at the end. The pain in my knee was more like a constant dull ache—it was minor. Still, I didn’t want to overdo it. I continued to run mostly at an easy pace and performed strengthening exercises two to three times a week.

Now the marathon was only one month away, but running felt hard. As mentioned before, I was running at an easy pace and did some intervals at goal marathon pace. This spiked my heart rate above 170 bpm. Shit, had my fitness deteriorated? Maybe I didn’t know how to handle anything faster than my easy pace. My knee pain also lingered. I felt anxious. I went on two long runs before the big day—3 weeks prior, 26km, and then 22km just 2 weeks prior. Both felt terrible. But that’s life. I wasn’t going to get upset about it now.

Finally, I got to València two days before the race. On Saturday, I went for a shakeout run and saw some of the Kenyans. Seeing them run was magic. They made it look effortless as they glided past me. They looked confident and ready. This lifted my spirit. The atmosphere that surrounded me was buzzing. València was flowing with runners from all over the world. Tomorrow is going to be epic. One more day. Sunday, I woke up early and felt well-rested, getting around seven hours of sleep. Me and my friend headed to the starting line to see the pros set off. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to watch them due to the logistics and different zones. The area was very big, and the wardens and officials were quite strict about people trying to swap heats. My friend was scheduled to run earlier, but we started together. I was grateful—he’s considerably faster than me. There was around a kilometre of walking to the starting line from the entrance of the zone. All the runners were chanting, singing, and warming up before the race. Honestly, this bit was epic. Then we got there and waited. A few weeks prior, València had really bad flash floods, killing over 60 people. This felt like more than a race. I could feel the emotion rippling through the morning air. Tears trickled down a lot of faces. I looked over to my friend, who was also crying. I started to tear up too. There was a moment of silence. It was powerful. Then I heard the gun sound. Bang. We were off. The sun crept up, and it got really hot, really soon. I remember looking around at the 5km mark, and people were profusely sweating, some already had their tops off. I took a gel at 8km, 30g of carbs shovelled down my gob with water. I took another at 16km, except this time it was 50g of carbs. Then I had them sporadically, averaging one every 6–7km, trying not to bonk. Eventually, I started to get tired, and fatigue hit at 26km, and by 35km, I felt completely doomed. My body was aching, and my legs were like bricks, but I told myself to keep moving forward. 5km to go, and then 2 ‘easy’ kms. Lying to myself made it easier. Every water station, I poured water all over myself, soaking wet and determined to push on. People around me were dropping like flies, but I cheered them on—Vamosss! Finally, I could see the finish line. The final stretch was 400m of this kind of springy wood, covered in this blue material. My feet bounced along it, and I felt as light as a feather. It was a godsend. Crossing the line hurt, but I was so happy to have finished in 3 hours and 45 minutes!

Happy Monday everyone!

Another weekend gone in the blink of an eye. How was it? What's good this week? Let's chat about it!