One Year to 26.2: A Marathon Training Story

This is the first in a 4-part series on my journey to training and completing my first marathon. I’ll cover (1) my ‘why’ and training, (2) nutrition, (3) mental preparation, and (4) the stories from race day. For anyone thinking about training for their first marathon, I hope this can inspire you and provide some understanding of what you might experience in your own training journey.

Motivation

My life has had many fitness chapters, and I started running during graduate school around 2004. I didn’t really take it too seriously for a long time, and I was in and out of running while pursuing other fitness activities which included weightlifting and cycling. After some personal challenges during the end of 2024, I knew I needed to start a new life chapter and prioritize myself, and I made running a marathon a serious goal. Running a marathon had been on my radar for several years, and it just felt like the right time for it. Personally, I knew it would be more difficult to train entirely on my own, so I called Lana Burl with LB Endurance Lab in February of 2025 and made the decision to work with her on a training plan. I chose the Kiawah Island Marathon in mid-December, primarily because I was very familiar with Kiawah and it’s also a super flat, fast course.

Weekly Training Structure

My training was a simple and effective plan: run three days, cross train and strength train three days, rest one day. This mix kept things interesting, strengthened muscles, and increased the probability of staying injury free. I took the rest days very, very seriously. In fact, I deliberately tried to stay off my feet a lot on the rest days. Proper rest is key, but if I could name one magical rule for success, it would be consistency. While there were times that I needed to take an unplanned rest day due to either unexpected schedule changes or just because I felt my body needed it, I was very adamant about consistently getting out and performing my training, even on days I didn’t feel motivated. Sometimes on those days, I performed 50-75% of the workout, but I got out there. That’s where the endurance and the mental game get iteratively built.

I credit much of my injury-free year to my cross training and strength routine. In fact, this is so critical to me, that I’ve taken the step this year to focus on a more robust strength training plan to complement my sports. For cycling, I sometimes would hop on rides with local groups, cycle around my neighborhood (which has some wicked climbs), or perform a bike routine in the spin room at the Y. In August, I pivoted to a small goal of doing a sprint triathlon and quickly got in some swim lessons with Coach Lana. Since then, I’ve been incorporating swimming into my cross-training routine. As an insider tip, if you have terrible eyesight like me, I highly recommend the prescription swim goggles at Swim Outlet. They come in differing strengths, and it was a real game changer to help my eyesight challenges in the pool. They were only around $20. Another note on gear is that I frequently changed shoes. After some trial and error, I wore Pumas for the majority of the year and went through 6 total pairs.

While doing the Super Duper Sprint Triathlon with Personal Best Racing was an unplanned event, I think it really helped me mix things up a bit as the marathon was getting close and my long runs were starting to get long. I’ll admit that at the time, my schedule was starting to feel monotonous, and while this wasn’t deliberate, I think having a small thing to focus on that was different and still complimented my marathon training was strategic. Further, I incorporated KTC events into the plan to keep things interesting. It wasn’t unusual for my long run or a short speed work session to be a KTC half or a 5K. In fact, the Regal Turkey Trot this year for me was actually a planned speed work session.

Like many, I spend my weekdays at a desk, eyes glued to a screen. About midway into the year, I made a commitment to take daily lunch walks. I blocked off my calendar during lunch, changed out of my suit quickly, and walked typically for 1 hour. Then back to work. I think adding this in has really helped my overall fitness.

Progression from September, Tapering, and Race Day

By late September, I hit a major milestone: running beyond 13.1 miles (a half marathon) in a single session. It was really at this point that several other things started coming into play that I will discuss in subsequent newsletters, namely fueling and mental prep. I recall one long run of 20 miles where I hit a MAJOR wall around mile 16. I couldn’t go any further. I had to review my sleep and fuel at this point. I think these moments are inevitable and important-failure is the best teacher, and in my view, you really must get to that point of failure to know how you need to improve and how your body feels. I adjusted my fueling strategy and continued the plan.

With just a few weeks to go, I started the taper—a gradual reduction in mileage from a max of about 18.1 miles to let my body recover before race day. Tapering felt strange-my total milage decreased very rapidly, and it’s easy to feel a sense that you aren’t ‘ready’ when race day arrives. But I was amazed at how prepared I really felt that morning of the race.

Training Reflections

Consistency matters more than perfection, and my training theme this year has been consistency.It’s helped me build a very strong fitness foundation. While my primary focus has been simply completing the marathon, in 2025 I PR’d each race of every length marathon and below and shaved 4-5 minutes off my fastest mile. My overall health, including body weight and strength, has improved significantly. If you’re considering a marathon, the first step and settling into the routine for the first 2 months or so is often the hardest part. Once you consistently work the plan for a while, you begin to become very grateful for what your body can do and increasingly, I looked forward to being present in my daily process of fitness and performance. I hope my story and yearlong journey inspires you if you are considering your first 26.2! Will I do it again? Yes. I already registered before I got back home from the event.

In part 2, we’ll deep dive into fueling. Stay tuned!