Marathon Training

A way too detailed journey training for a sub 4-hour marathon from someone who hates running

Intro

You know those unfortunate but true sayings like how you know you’re well into your 30s when you start preparing for bed by 10 p.m., spend more time talking about mortgage rates, and suddenly feel the urge to run a marathon.

Every year, my friends and I would talk about running a marathon, but we never actually committed. I hate running. I’ll play any other sport - basketball, football and even pickleball, but the one thing I’ll never do for fun is just run. Then that mystical thing about getting older in your mid-thirties, plus the magical feeling of making a New Year’s resolution, and I just knew this was the time to sign up for a marathon. 

There were plenty of marathons to choose from, mostly in the spring or late fall. Not wanting to wait until the second half of the year, I knew we’d need to find a marathon in the spring. This was also good timing because, during the winter, the days get shorter, I can’t do many things outside, and I’ll have plenty of time to occupy myself with running. 

I want to preface this and say that I am not a total couch potato. I don’t want to give anyone false hope or contribute to any injuries if anybody unknowingly decides to follow my very unprofessional marathon training regime. I stay active by playing basketball and pickleball pretty much every other day. I even reluctantly signed up for a half marathon two years ago, where I surprised myself with a 1:55 finish time. I swore I would never run another marathon in my life.

New Years New You

It was January 1st, and my friend had just moved to St. Louis for a year, and there was the St. Louis GO! Marathon on April 26, 2025. That was the perfect date, and it gave us a good four months of training. We signed up and began training for the next four months.

I highly recommend training or running with a friend. This does not mean you must necessarily run together side by side, but that you follow each other on Strava and hold each other responsible for keeping up with whatever running regime you’ve decided to put together. For us, because we all lived in a different state (and country), we trained independently on our own. But again, we tracked each other’s runs on Strava.

I had no idea how to train for a marathon, but I sure know how to use the internet. I searched “marathon training plan” on Google and scoured through the Reddit marathon training subreddit, and got a good idea of what I needed to do for training. While I didn’t really follow a specific marathon plan, I got the gist of what I needed to do: start slow, practice eating different foods, do a long run, then taper down. Easy, right?

Oh, did I mention that I also gave myself a goal of running a sub 4-hour marathon? I mean, I ran a half under 2 hours, what’s another half after that?

By no means is this anything anybody should follow, but I documented my entire 16 weeks of marathon training by highlighting when I ran, biked, or played a sport. 

Follow at your own risk...

Marathon Training - 4 months to train

• Weeks 1 to 5 - It was way too cold to run outside, so I decided to check out my local community center, which, to my surprise, offered a free gym membership! That was just enough motivation to kickstart my marathon prep. My first couple of runs were on a treadmill. 

  • I had only 5 runs in the first 5 weeks

    • This was dead in the middle of winter, and it was way too cold to run outside. I probably should have run more, but I absolutely hated running on a treadmill. I couldn’t figure out how to keep myself entertained while running in place. Bouncing up and down trying to watch a movie on a tiny screen so close to my face gave me a mini headache each time I tried.

• Week 6 was when I truly started ‘training’ for this marathon. Temperatures were also getting warmer, so I could enjoy running outside.

  • I  also learned that I should probably eat before running. On one of my 6-mile runs, I totally died from starvation since I ran on an empty stomach. I also learned what the word 'bonk' meant. 

• At week 8, another friend recommended I sign up for a half marathon in 3 weeks' time. I reluctantly agreed, but this time, it was because I figured it would be a good tuneup for the real marathon 3 weeks after.

• As my runs got longer during weeks 9–10, I needed to refuel during them, and I was fortunate to have an extremely supportive girlfriend who biked alongside me carrying water and snacks.

• The half marathon was in week 11. This time, I ran it in 1:52! Again, how hard will it be to run another half marathon?

• Week 12 is when one of my training partners recommended I take a look at my heart rate and try to keep it between 130 - 150. This was interesting to me, since my heart rate was typically always in the 168–175 range. That’s when I started focusing on bringing it down.

• Week 13 was my long run. I did 20 miles, but I made 2 mistakes here:

  • I had an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ the night before where I ate a baby cow’s worth of meat.

  • I didn’t plan any nutrition accordingly and totally bonked from miles 13-20.

• Even though I should have been tapering down, I wanted to redeem myself in week 14 with another long run of 16 miles. My body died again at miles 13-16.

  • Probably not the healthiest thing, but I did pee blood after this run. Also probably not the smartest move, as I kept it to myself and relied on my own online research, but I read that if it persisted for more than 72 hours, I should see a doctor. Fortunately, that was the only time I experienced this, and I definitely recommend asking an expert what to do if it ever happens to you.

• In week 15, a week before the actual marathon, I finally gave in and decided to test out those energy waffles, gels, and chews. I definitely should have tried these sooner...

  • I figured my body could handle the waffles well since my diet consisted of eating way too many desserts. These worked fine.

  • I had no idea how my body would react to gels or chews.

    • Gels -  I tried this during one of my runs, and my stomach did not like it at all. I ended up throwing up immediately after.

    • Chews - I never used these because I was scarred for life by the gels.

• During the final marathon week on week 16, I decided to purchase energy bars that my body was fine with. Ultimately, I decided at this time that I would carry two items during the run:

  • Energy waffles

  • Energy bars

Nutrition

The one thing I did not plan at all during the training period was nutrition. I just ate whatever, whenever and never counted calories or anything. I just did my usual eating. Probably not the best idea. I would recommend following some type of nutrition guide while training for a marathon.

Days Before Marathon

I arrived in St. Louis two days before the marathon, getting in on Thursday night ahead of the Saturday morning race. That gave me a whole day Friday to “relax” my body. My girlfriend also came with me to St. Louis, as neither of us had ever been to this great city in Missouri. First time in the entire state, too.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend this or not, but we had planned an entire day of touristy events on Friday, which involved a lot of walking. I’m not sure if it’s possible to rest too much during the final week of marathon training, but I definitely started to worry about overtiring my body. All the touristy stuff started to get to me a bit. Maybe I was overthinking, but I was spending a lot of time on my feet.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but never introduce new foods close to or during a marathon and I yet ended up breaking this rule. I ate way too much pizza with new toppings for lunch, loaded with crushed red pepper flakes. This turned out to be a terrible decision, as I ended up with an upset stomach for almost the entire day.

After that, still feeling sick from the food, we went to the top of the St. Louis Arch. Riding the tram up caused even more uneasiness. By the time we came down, I ran to the nearest bathroom and threw up. I’m not 100% sure what caused the stomach issues, but you know how when you throw up, you can taste the thing that caused it? I’m pretty sure it was the half-jar of crushed red pepper flakes burning a hole in my stomach.

At this point, I seriously started wondering if all my training was going to go to waste since I couldn’t even walk without feeling nauseous.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I needed water and food back in my system, so for dinner, I went all in with a nice juicy BBQ burger, fries, and an ice cream float. I’m not sure if it was a sign or not, but that meal saved my stomach. It instantly cured the stomach ache, and I was finally ready for the marathon the next day.

Asking Chat GPT about my marathon day run and estimated finish time

This was fun. I entered in a couple runs into ChatGPT and it came back with this suggested race plan

• Start at 9:20-9:30/mi for the first half

• Hold steady through mile 18

• If feeling good at mile 20, drop to 9:00-9:20/mi

• Goal: Negative split for a strong finish

It also estimated that I would finish between 4:05 to 4:15. Time to prove ChatGPT wrong

Morning of Marathon

The marathon started at 7 a.m. I woke up at 4:22 a.m. to start my day. There were many things that needed to happen in order for me to run a sub 4-hour marathon, and one of them was the incredibly important pre-race poop.

This had to happen. If it didn’t, it would mean carrying around an additional 5 pounds (My editors pointed out that this is not how much poop weighs), plus dealing with the psychological downside of not being fully optimized for running.

Fortunately, this happened with ease and allowed me to concentrate on the other more important tasks at hand.

Pre-Race Food

While I was nowhere near following a proper marathon training diet, I did have my pre-run mornings down pat during my long runs, half marathons, and now this full marathon. This consisted of:

• A bagel (made from scratch by my GF!), peanut butter, and a banana

• A smoothie with wild berries, banana, milk, kale/spinach, and peanut butter

Gear

The weather was going to be between 48–62°F for the day, which was perfect for running. Though I’ll admit, I was conflicted about whether or not to wear a long sleeve since I get cold easily. Ultimately, I decided to go with a T-shirt and shorts. My friend ended up providing us with throwaway blankets, which I used to stay warm before the race and tossed at the starting line.

I ran with a Fitbit Inspire 3, which doesn’t have built-in GPS, so I had to carry my phone (more on the Fitbit below). I bought compression shorts with pockets so I could carry my phone without it bouncing up and down.

I also had no idea which shorts to wear, so I strategically weighed the five athletic shorts I owned and picked the lightest one. Surely the 2g difference in short weight was going to be the deciding factor between finishing strong and collapsing mid-race.

I’m farsighted, so I typically wear glasses. During training, I’d run with my running goggles. For the race, I decided to wear contacts because losing another 30g (glasses) might be what gets me across the finish line.

As for shoes, I don’t know much, but I ended up running in a new pair of Adidas Ultra Boost 5X.

To summarize my gear:

• T shirt - Uniqlo DRY-EX T-Shirt - https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/products/E467145-000 

• Shorts - Uniqlo Ultra Stretch DRY-EX Shorts - https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/products/E467610-000 

• Compression shorts - random compression shorts with pockets for phone - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09P77PZM7 

• Socks - Adidas Athletic Cushioned Crew Socks - https://www.adidas.com/us/athletic-cushioned-crew-socks-6-pairs/Q10386.html 

• Shoes - Adidas Ultraboost 5X - https://www.adidas.com/us/ultraboost-5x-shoes/JI3385.html 

• Smart Watch - Fitbit Inspire 3 - https://store.google.com/product/fitbit_inspire_3 

• Cheap blanket to throw away at the starting line to stay warm. 

• Cheap bluetooth wired headphones for music

Fitbit Issues

I’ve been a lifelong Fitbit user. It’s been my first and only smartwatch, and I’ve owned three different versions from the Alta 2, to the Charge 4, to now the Inspire 3. It’s always been great and worked as expected, but ever since the latest firmware (or some update) early 2025, I could never get the GPS to work properly for running only.  GPS worked fine for biking, but never for running.

I’ve contacted support, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, logged out and logged back in, changed my stride settings, turned strides off entirely, contacted support again…but I could never figure it out. The GPS distance was always 60–80% shorter than the actual distance I ran.

How do I know? I checked physical mile markers, calculated routes on Google Maps, and ran with the Strava app at the same time. When running with both Strava and Fitbit simultaneously, the Fitbit data was wildly inaccurate, while Strava matched mile markers and Google Maps almost perfectly.

It actually got a bit confusing because FitBit would push its version of the run into Strava, resulting in two entries with the same GPS map but totally different distances.

I personally (ego) don’t think it’s user error (editors not: probably was his fault), because of the following:

• When I start and end a Fitbit Run, I get an accurate map, but the distance is incorrect.

• When I start and end a Fitbit Bike, I get both an accurate map and accurate distance.

The workaround I found was to start my Fitbit activity as a Bike activity. That way, I’d get the correct GPS map, distance, and time. Once it synced over to Strava, I would reclassify the Bike activity as a Run activity, which would then automatically recalculate everything correctly.

I’d highly recommend using a smartwatch that accurately tracks both distance and pace because this helps tremendously during training.

Music

I have Apple AirPods, but no matter how amazing they are, I would never want to run with them. My fear of them falling out of my ears is way too high for me to run comfortably. I opted for cheap $5 no-name knockoff Bluetooth wired headphones with in-ear hooks. They worked perfectly as intended. I had the peace of mind to not worry about them during an already way too stressful event.

As for music, the night before the marathon, I found an old email from 13 years ago where I started tracking music I liked to listen to back in my college school days. Some (most) of the songs were absolutely terrible for my taste today, but I put them on anyway to bring back old memories. I used my free Spotify account, so I had to listen to ads, but I didn’t mind it one bit. I mixed those songs with some current ones and filled out 5.5 hours of music time. 

Tip - I also purposely did not train with music during the last two weeks of training so I wouldn’t get bored and could keep it fresh and entertaining.

Food to Carry During Race

So you’d think I’d learn my lesson about not introducing new foods into my system but I broke that rule again, this time for a good reason.

My friend said he eats a ton of gummy bears since they have high amounts of carbohydrates and sugars. He also had dates, and I’d been eating dried fruits throughout the past weeks, so I thought about it for a split second. Since I knew my stomach was already used to sugary candies and dried fruits, I figured these would be perfectly fine.

By the time we were out the door, I was carrying 

• 2 RXBAR Protein Bars

  • 1 Blueberry - https://shop.rxbar.com/shop/blueberry-protein-bars-box-of-12.html 

  • 1 Chocolate Sea Salt - https://shop.rxbar.com/shop/chocolate-sea-salt-box-of-12-bars.html 

• 3 Honey Stinger Energy Waffles - https://honeystinger.com/collections/all-waffles/products/honey 

• A ziploc bag of gummies bears and dates

No spoilers but I ended up only utilizing 1 RXBAR and 2.5 Energy Waffles, 8 gummy bears and 0 dates. The uneaten foods were thrown away throughout the tailend of the marathon. I also picked up an orange and banana along the way of the race itself. 

Warm Up

My warm-up consisted of walking to the porta-potty, to the starting line, back to the porta-potty, and then back to the starting line. I did a quick quad stretch, calf stretch, and that was it. I needed as much energy as possible to complete this marathon.

Marathon Starting Line

For us, a simple Uber/Lyft ride got us to the marathon starting line, where I visited the porta-potty multiple times to get the last drops out of me. I have an annoying habit of needing to pee every last bit before any event, before boarding an airplane, before leaving the house, or before playing any sport. I'll go to the bathroom at the last possible second before heading to the event.

This marathon also had a “hub” where you could grab last-second snacks, water, and swag. I almost grabbed a running belt and tried it on to see if I could hold some snacks I was carrying for the run, but the belt couldn’t get tight enough to be comfortable. Those belts bounced up and down way too much for my liking, so I put it back.

Eventually, after my last bathroom break, I made my way to my corral at the starting line. When signing up for the marathon, I ambitiously listed my time as a 3:59 marathoner, so I was placed relatively near the 4-hour pacer. My goal was to follow this pacer for as long as I could, and if I still had them in sight within the last 3 miles, I’d overtake and break the sub 4-hour mark. I personally knew that in all my runs, I typically had a strong kick at the end, so I was feeling confident in this plan. Otherwise, if I fell too far behind the pacer, my goal was just to finish the marathon and be satisfied that I’d completed a lifelong goal of running one.

I lined up near the 4-hour pacers, wrapped in my blanket, and patiently nervously waited for the start of the race.

Mile 1

And so we begin. I tossed my blanket to the side and crossed the starting line while starting both my Fitbit bike* and Strava run. Music was blasting, people were cheering, and adrenaline was high.

I actually started with my headphones and music but eventually realized that the first mile was filled with so much adrenaline that I didn’t want to bore myself out by listening to music too early in the run. I then made the executive decision to turn off my headphones and save the music for after mile 13.1, the half marathon point, when morale was low and I would need an easy energy boost.

This first mile was a breeze. The pacer was perfectly on pace for a sub 4-hour marathon, running an exact 9-minute first mile. For those breaking out calculators, you’d need to maintain about a 9:09 mile pace throughout the entire marathon to break 4 hours.

Mile 2
This is where I knew something was off. My smartwatch was telling me one thing, but the pacers were doing something different. I wanted to start slow with a 9-9:30 mile pace so I’d have enough energy during the middle and end of the marathon, but the pacers had other plans. The second mile ended at a blistering 8:28.

For some reason, I expected the pacers to stick perfectly to a 9:09 mile pace, but I guess that wasn’t really possible. I decided to drop back and run at my own pace, as calculated by my watch.

Mile 3
I tend to overdrink water pre-race and anticipated my first bathroom break around the 3-mile mark. I didn’t need to go, but I would have liked to. The first couple of miles had ridiculously long bathroom lines, probably because too many people didn’t have great control of their bowels. I ended up continuing to run in search for an empty porta-potty.

Mile 4
This is where I broke out my first snack. I chose an energy waffle first because that was what my stomach was most used to. Lowest risk of upsetting my stomach since I had trained with it the longest (two weeks). I slowly chewed it perfectly, timing finishing right when I arrived at my first water station.

I quickly discovered that I had zero ability to run and drink water from those paper cups, so I decided to pause briefly at each water break to drink. My plan was to drink only water in the early miles, and only switch to Gatorade near the end when my body needed it most.

This would also be roughly the last time I saw the 4-hour pacers for a while. They were far ahead, only visible during the out-and-back sections of the race.

Miles 5 to 8
These miles were highlighted by my urgent need to pee. Every porta-potty had lines up until this point, and it got to the point where I even thought about running into the trees for a quick pee in the shrubs. Luckily, the better half of me prevailed, and I powered through without resorting to public urination.

At this point, I was running an 8:45 mile pace, which was still way too fast for me, but it was better than the 4-hour pacer who was nowhere to be found up front.

Miles 9 to 10
Weeeeee, I finally got to my first bathroom break around mile 9. Pee took roughly 31 seconds. I also started taking bites from my first RXBAR. I pulled the first one from my pocket, and it ended up being the chocolate sea salt flavor. I broke off pieces and slowly ate them over the next 10 miles.

Miles 11 to 12
I had my first boost of energy as my girlfriend and friends found me during our planned orange drop-off! I purposely asked for an unpeeled orange during this section so I could preoccupy myself by peeling it while running. This was a much needed boost, as I was starting to slow down a bit at this point.

I also started my second energy waffle here.

Mile 13.1
This mile marker was important for two reasons. First, my goal was to be just slightly under a 2-hour half marathon so I could just “do another half” at a teeny bit slower pace. I crossed it at 1:58:02, which was exactly where I wanted to be. Keep in mind, the 4-hour pacer was still nowhere to be found well ahead of me.

Second, this marker was important because it was my self-imposed signal to start using my headphones and music again. I also went to the bathroom a second time here.

Miles 14 to 20
These miles were a blur and also my worst miles. I was stuck in the middle of feeling “tired because I was well into the race” and “not excited because I wasn’t close enough to finish”.

During this time, I started my third energy waffle and began sucking on gummy bears. I pretty much ate one gummy bear per mile from miles 14 to 21. I also threw away all my dried dates somewhere along the trail here, shedding some unnecessary weight from my pockets.

My third and final bathroom break came around mile 17. I switched to Gatorade around mile 20.

Mile 21
Another much-needed energy boost. My girlfriend and friends met me again at mile 21 with a planned banana in hand! They caught me at the circular part of the trail, and I joked that they just had to stand on the outside of the circle, forcing me to take unnecessary extra steps along the outer loop…

But nonetheless, the excitement of seeing them, plus the banana was worth the extra steps. I couldn’t finish the banana in one go, so I stuffed the remaining banana into my pocket. At this point, that was pretty disgusting on any normal day, but desperate times call for desperate measures as my pockets were a filthy mix of partially eaten waffles, bars, and now a banana.

Miles 22 to 23
All I remember during this section was realizing I had under an hour left to run my sub 4-hour marathon, and I was doing a lot of math in my head to figure out if I had any chance of making it.

I also finished my banana and proceeded to throw away all remaining food in my pockets which consisted of gummies, and an unopened RXBAR, freeing myself of any more dead weight.

Miles 24 to 25
I finally saw the 4-hour pacer ahead of me! Seeing the pacer and knowing I was about to finish the marathon gave me a whole new level of motivation. I had an extra kick and kept closing the distance until I could finally pass the pacer!

Mile 26
I was feeling good about myself until I hit the last hill, where the pacer actually caught back up to me. I remember the pacer telling us this was the last and final hill and to keep pushing ourselves to the finish. Those small words of motivation gave me one last push toward the finish line!

Finish Marathon
The final 100 meters or so to the finish line was a feeling I will never forget, a mix of excitement, emotion, bittersweetness, tiredness, and a sense of accomplishment. I crossed the finish line in 3:59, feeling a huge sense of achievement as I broke the sub 4-hour marathon goal I’d been dreaming of for my entire life (...past four months). Some may say I even had a tear in my eye.

I don’t remember much after crossing the line, as my body was completely broken at that point. Race organizers were handing out things left and right from participation medals, water, Gatorade, pretzels, bananas, and even some fried ravioli. I vaguely remember dropping my bag of pretzels along the way and being way too dead to pick it up, but the fried ravioli guy stepped up and picked it up for me. Thank you, ravioli guy.

Post Marathon
I spent the next 30 minutes looking for my friends, as we all finished within about 30 minutes of each other. My girlfriend and her friends found us, and we quickly took some photos near the finish line. We probably should have spent more time with the post-race activities, but I was too tired to think about anything other than sitting down and eating.

First Meal After Marathon

All I wanted was any kind of food and a place to sit down and eat. We stumbled upon a pho place that gave us a quick, fulfilling meal for the time being. I have no idea what the ideal post-race meal is, but I think anything food-related should be good for anybody!

Afternoon Activities

My body was too dead to do anything for the rest of the day. My girlfriend and her friends ended up exploring the city, while us marathon runners decided to part ways and go back to the apartment to just vegetate. After taking 40,000+ steps during the marathon, I think I had less than 1,000 steps for the rest of the day. My body was completely shut down. Sitting down and getting up was painful. I had soreness in muscles I didn’t even know I had. It was a slow and painful rest of the day.

I remember one time, walking back to the apartment, an 80+ year old man was walking faster than I was. Every step was a numb-taking experience. Once we got back, I pretty much just sat on the couch and didn’t move again. We ended up watching three NBA playoff games, plus three random (terrible) movies where I totally didn’t follow along at any point because I kept falling in and out of sleep.

Dinner Meal
I think our bodies were just dying for food and fuel. I was eating and drinking nonstop during the afternoon and was now super hungry for dinner. We ordered an unusually high number of sushi rolls where when we went to pick it up from the resturant, the front desk lady thought we were ordering for a family of 10. 

Sleep

I’m not sure if this is usual or not (my doctor friends say it was unusual), but I had hot and cold flashes throughout the night. At times, I woke up freezing; at others, I was drenched in a puddle of sweat. I think my body was just out of sync and was stabilizing back to normal.

Next Day
Waking up the next day was a breeze. My body felt completely back to normal, minus some general soreness. I was able to tour the rest of the city, visiting various parks, zoos, and tourist spots, without ever slowing down.

Looking Back (What I Wish I Had Done Differently) and Random Thoughts

• Having a longer training timeline. While my 'training plan' was 16 weeks total, I really only trained for 11 weeks.

• Have friends to train with. I had a friend who couldn’t make it to our specific race, but he signed up for another marathon closer to him around the same time as our marathon. Even though we weren’t running the same race, we could hold each other accountable by checking each other’s data on Strava. Get on Strava.

• Running more mileage per week. My average mileage was only 15.3 total miles per week.

• Nutrition - I had no game plan here. I think any plan would have been better than no plan at all.

  • Not eating all-you-can-eat barbecue before my long runs.

• Don’t carry too much equipment or food. Every extra ounce can feel magnified during a marathon. There are plenty of water stations along the course to help you stay hydrated. 

  • If possible, convince friends or a supportive GF to meet you at certain mile markers with snacks.

  • If possible, memorize where those water stations and hills are so you can strategize your run.

• Trying out different energy gels, chews, or running foods.

• Investing in another smartwatch. The Fitbit GPS for running was terrible.

• Better shoes? I’m not sure about this, but everyone told me my shoes weren’t great. I thought they were fine, but who knows? Maybe it could have been better.

• I was fortunate enough to avoid injury at any point during training.
  
  

While everything above are all great ideas, in reality, I wouldn’t change a single thing about my marathon experience. I had a goal of running a sub 4-hour marathon and I did it. I had friends who encouraged me along the way, a girlfriend who supported me throughout my training, and I completed my first marathon in under 4 hours!

Now, what is one supposed to do with their life after completing a marathon?