After finishing my first half marathon in 2 hours last year, I took a long break from running. Between traveling and taking time off, I didn't train much for a couple of months. But by January, I started to wonder: could I push myself to do a full marathon in the spring? The idea seemed feasible. I gave it a shot, followed a plan, and… it didn’t go well. The training volume felt too low, the long runs were too tough, and I ended up skipping several sessions due to more travel.
By April, I knew the spring marathon wasn’t going to happen, and I decided to reset my plan. I targeted the Munich marathon on October 13 (same place as my half marathon a year earlier). This time, I found another app (Kiprun Pacer) and I was ready to build up my volume and find a rhythm that worked, with 5 runs a week.
Training Journey
My focus was on building more volume. Compared to my half-marathon preparation, the difference was clear. By August, I was running over 300 km a month (my half-marathon plan peaked at 184 km / month), and my longest weeks were hitting 100 km.
I also wanted to lose weight during the marathon training. I went from 91,5 kg (June 1st) to 83 kg (Sept 1st), before gaining back 3 kg in the last month, to make sure I have enough energy during the race.
In the app, the long runs were ranging from 20 km to 27 km. The longest run was supposed to be 27 km, but I decided to push it to 30 km as I was feeling good. I finished it with energy to spare, no pain, and a massive boost in confidence.
The last weeks were quite messy, and the monthly graph above doesn’t show everything, so here’s another split:
- Week -6: 85 km – solid week of training
- Week -5: 30 km – travel cut my mileage
- Week -4: 27 km – still traveling, and another low-mileage week
- Week -3: 100 km – catching up on missed runs, including the 30 km run
- Week -2: 24 km – tapering more than planned
- Week -1: 12 km – this is getting super low
- Marathon week: 25 km (+ 42 km)
The mileage dropped a lot, but I wasn’t too concerned. The last month looks very messy, but I guess it was better to show up feeling rested rather than overtrained.
Race Day
My main goal was simple: finish and enjoy the race. With that in mind, I planned to be conservative. Aiming for around 4h15 felt both ambitious and achievable, especially since there were pacers for that exact time. I figured it would be a good balance between pushing myself and not risking hitting the wall.
The one thing I didn’t expect was how my heart rate would react. About 40 minutes before the race, while I was sitting in the metro, my watch vibrated with an "Abnormal Heart Rate Alert" as it reached 100 bpm (my resting heart rate is normally below 60). Two minutes before the race, I was standing still, doing nothing, and my heart rate hit 140 bpm. I looked at my watch 4 minutes after starting the race, and my heart rate had spiked to 190 bpm. I had to consciously slow down, take some deep breaths, and calm my body down. Eventually, it settled, and I maintained an average heart rate of 168 bpm for the rest of the race.
I knew I had to be careful with my pacing, especially in the first half. Each time I checked the watch, I couldn’t believe it — I was running at 5:45/km, but it felt as comfortable as my training pace of 6:15/km. I resisted the urge to speed up, knowing the real test would come in the second half. So I stuck with the 4h15 pacer for the first 21 km, even though my body felt like it wanted to go faster.
At the halfway point, I was still feeling strong. I decided it was time to leave the pacer and run my own race. It felt very pleasant. My legs were getting painful at kilometer 36, but it didn’t slow me down. In the last few kilometers, I managed to push even harder, increasing my pace to 5:13/km.
(it’s around 2h08 for the first half and 2h02 for the second half)
Nutrition: I had with me 6 gels, but used only 5. It was a gel every 45 minutes. I also carried 0.5 L of isotonic drink. On top of that, I stopped at every refreshment point (14 in total). I was always feeling full of energy, so I guess that worked well.
Conclusion
The marathon turned out to be a very rewarding experience. What surprised me the most was how manageable the race itself felt, especially compared to the training. I had spent months worrying about hitting the wall, pacing mistakes, or burning out halfway, but none of that happened. Instead, I found myself enjoying the process, running at a pace that felt surprisingly easy, and even finishing faster than hopped.
The hardest part for me wasn’t the marathon itself—it was the training. Increasing the volume, pushing through fatigue, and mentally preparing for the race were the real challenges. There were moments during training when I questioned whether I would even want to run another marathon after this. But on race day, everything worked well. I also know that I’ll be able to improve my time, so this is motivating for maybe running another 42km next year.
