How I ran 3 marathons in 9 months

In late 2023, I took up running as a way to decompress from the stresses of college. I went into it with what little experience I had from middle school cross-country and a few sporadic runs during the pandemic. It was after college that I decided to spend my funemployed free time signing up and training for my first half marathon.

In hindsight, training for my first half marathon was about as disorganized as solving a Rubik's Cube for the first time. I used carbon-plated race shoes as my daily trainers. I ran a 14-miler without any build-up, which gave me my first knee injury. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Somehow, I still pulled off a time of 1hr 42min (7:48/mi pace). Not bad!

A year and some change later, I knew I had to cross a full marathon off my bucket list, so I signed up for the Long Beach Marathon. This was the race where I knew I had to make some serious changes to my training regimen. After 18 weeks of training, I finished in 3hr 18min (7:34/mi pace).

I had caught the marathon bug. Since then, I've run the LA Marathon in 3hr 1min (6:54/mi pace) and the SF Marathon in 2hr 56min (6:44/mi pace), my personal best so far. My goal here is to share my biggest lessons from running 3 marathons in 9 months and logging over 2,000 miles.

1. Fatigue over fitness

I saw this as the clearest indicator of whether my running fitness was improving. For this, I used a tool called Intervals.icu, which tracks your fitness (your average training load over the last six weeks) against your fatigue (your training load over the last week). Keeping my fatigue level above my fitness level told me I was pushing hard enough, meaning I was accumulating enough fatigue to push my fitness higher than it was before. If I wasn't working hard enough, I knew to bump it up a notch. If I was working too hard, I knew to take my foot off the gas a bit.

2. Training the mind

In a way, running marathons is more about the journey than the destination. The key to achieving the performance you want is showing up when you least want to. Running in the rain, waking up at 5am, running 14 miles on a treadmill, and running up and down hills were all things I wanted to do least, but they turned out to be the most influential in building the mental resilience I needed on race day.

3. Learning about your body

As time-consuming as training for a race is, I found it worthwhile to use the 5–8 hours a week I spent running to try new things and learn what my body liked and disliked. During training blocks, I'm constantly trying new gel brands, diets, and supplements, then sticking with whatever works best for the weeks leading up to race day.

4. Finding a daily out-and-back route

This was probably the best running hack I found for making training feel easier. For months, I ran the exact same street every day, from my apartment to Golden Gate Park. I've probably run down Hayes St. in SF 300+ times. Seeing the same restaurants, stores, and parks on every run took away the mental strain of counting down a specific number of miles. I knew that running to a particular statue in GGP and back would cross off 5 miles without my having to think about it. Reaching Ocean Beach and turning back meant an easy 10 miles. This was even something I researched before moving to my new apartment!

5. The tempo long run

This is the type of run I tried my best not to skip, because it's the best mirror of what you'll feel on race day. Instead of keeping the whole long run easy, I'd run a solid block of it at or near goal marathon pace. Two weeks out from SF, I ran 22 miles: 10 at 6:52/mi, then 11 easier, hillier miles to finish. Before LA, I did a 20-miler with 7 miles at 6:57/mi in the middle. Other times, I saved the fast miles for the end, like a 16-miler where miles 11–15 were right at marathon pace (6:43/mi).

These runs are the best rehearsal you get for race day: holding pace on tired legs, practicing your fueling, and learning what goal pace actually feels like once the fatigue sets in. I didn't start doing them until halfway through my Long Beach build. Looking back, I wish I'd started sooner.

6. Embracing zone 4 heart rate

Contrary to the popular 80/20 rule of marathon training (80% of your running easy, in zone 2, and 20% hard), I spent a lot more time working hard. Only about a third of my running time during my SF build was at an easy zone 2 effort. Most of it was in zones 3 and 4, and my tempo long runs sat right in zone 4. That's also where my heart rate averaged in all three of my marathons.

7. The 3-day carb load

Across three races, I've been fortunate (knock on wood) not to hit what some call "the wall" in the second half of a marathon. I think this is mostly due to my aggressive approach to carb-loading. Before each race, I make a plan to make sure I'm eating 8–10g of carbs per kg of body weight. For me, that means around 550–700g of carbs a day for the 3 days leading up to race day. Below is a rundown of my typical diet during those three days. One small but helpful tip: make Friday's dinner your biggest carb load, and keep Saturday's dinner earlier and smaller to prevent race-day bloating.

Less than three years ago, I was training in carbon-plated race shoes and running 14 miles with no build-up. Most of what I've shared here, I learned by getting it wrong first. None of it required perfection, just a willingness to keep showing up and paying attention to what worked. If you're thinking about signing up for your first marathon, my advice is simple: pick a race, commit to a training plan, find a route you love, and start. You'll figure out the rest one mile at a time. As for me, SF left me just shy of a Boston qualifier, so I know exactly what I'm chasing next.