Sub-4hr marathon support and celebration thread
177 watchers
15 May
2:15pm, 15 May 2024
68,936 posts
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Velociraptor
Welcome, JEB  I shall pop you on the sidebar. You've got a nice length of time to build up your training without burning out. I find Tanda far too optimistic. It suggested 3:53:54 for Belfast, which is baffling because it's been well over a year since I ran that average pace for longer than 10km, and over the years even for the marathons I've targeted and trained for and run well it's quoted me times that are 15-25 minutes faster than I've actually run. But other people find that it's accurate for them. |
15 May
2:23pm, 15 May 2024
24,151 posts
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larkim
Tanda will be a big friend of yours if 4 weeks is predicting 4:14 already! Though it will look back over the last 9 weeks. The basic formula would mean that if you average 40 miles per week at 10:59 per mile average it would predict 4:00 30 miles per week / 10m30 per mile average, predicts 4:00 20 miles per week / 10m00 per mile average, predicts 4:00 But obviously these aren't causative; it doesn't mean that if you pick a plan which means you only do 20 miles, but do it all quickly, you'll head for a sub 4:00, but more to give you a headsup about how the calc may skew. Looking at your log (well, the 4 weeks I can see) I'd say that Tanda is leveraging your relatively quick pace against relatively low mileage and coming up with a figure. At those volumes I'd be hesitant to trust it!! But you're at a very early stage, and would definitely think that sub 4 is on the cards for you if you can steadily build up volume whilst keeping similar paces going. |
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15 May
2:42pm, 15 May 2024
68,939 posts
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Velociraptor
Plucking stuff out of the air in a right-brained sort of way, I'd say that if you ran 3:26 ten years ago, and that was your first and only marathon, and you have no challenges now apart from being ten years older, and you don't get ill or injured between now and race day, sub-4 is well within your reach
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15 May
3:03pm, 15 May 2024
895 posts
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Wezza
Cheeky’s Dad wrote: I’d run 3 marathons (spread over many years) all around 4hrs 20 but with a 1:45 HM pb I thought I should have sub 4 in me. I’d always done 6 months of training but equally always building up from nothing and crashed and burned on the day. Covid got me running consistently and I did 100+ mile months every month from May 2020 till Chester in Oct 2022 when I got 3:56. I truly believe that it was the consistency which allowed me to build successfully to the marathon I wanted. Chester is also a brilliant race for a fast time. Big enough that you get a lift from the support, but small enough that you can run your own race (unlike London) pretty flat, good pacers and generally a fair few Fetchies 😁 Good luck Wezza I’ll hope to see you there Thanks Cheeky’s Dad sounds like consistency is the name of the game. Something I have yet to get into - though hopefully that's changing now. Ooh! Chester. Now there's a thought. Almost certain that next one will be Milton Keynes next May. Maybe Chester after that? Btw, went for first run of the week last night for an hour and got full on "who am I kidding" humbled. But I did see it through and looking forward to the next. 😃 |
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15 May
3:05pm, 15 May 2024
24,153 posts
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larkim
I don't know about MK, but Chester is a very, very well run race and not a bad place to visit if you're not from round those parts (my stomping ground is about 10 miles away from there). A lovely course, though plenty of fields and country lanes so support is focussed on the towns / villages as you pass through. Highly recommended though!
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15 May
3:26pm, 15 May 2024
896 posts
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Wezza
Cheers larkim
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15 May
3:46pm, 15 May 2024
68,940 posts
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Velociraptor
Also recommend Chester as one of the best.
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15 May
3:56pm, 15 May 2024
897 posts
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Wezza
Nice one Velociraptor. I'll definitely consider that one. Mk first because that's my local.
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15 May
7:30pm, 15 May 2024
1,567 posts
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roberton
My only sub-4:00:00 was Chester. And it is Chester I’m doing again this October. Now the reason I got my PB was mostly my training, not the course! However I agree with comments. It is flat, it is a Goldilocks one in terms of enough people to feel supported but few enough not to be crowded, there’s some lovely green scenery and Chester itself is a lovely place. It is also an Autumn one and I’ve decided it suits me to “train” (term used loosely!) in the Spring and Summer
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16 May
9:26am, 16 May 2024
3,498 posts
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Big_G
Velociraptor, thanks for the welcome. I’ve packed my stuff, and I’ll think I’ll basically be deciding on Sunday. If the foot is sore first thing, after sightseeing Saturday, that will be a deciding factor. Looking forward to the trip regardless of if I run or not. I do need to go to the expo which is Friday and Saturday so I’ll hopefully get that done Friday although it may be tight as we land at 3pm and expo closes at 8pm. It’ll be nice if we can free up Saturday not having to worry about that though, especially as my mate I’m going with isn’t a runner. We’ve got an Airbnb which is really handy for if I do the race as fridge, milk, porridge, fruit etc is so much easier. We’re 20mins from the race start/finish. I’ve packed my own coffee and tea Perusing the start list there’s about 2200 in the marathon, 166 Brits, so quite a big event. |
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