Training and Competing in My First Marathon

Hello everyone! 

Happy Wednesday, I hope you are having a great week so far. Some days feel like summer and others feel like fall. On Friday, I got ice cream and went for a walk by the water.

On Sunday, I was wearing a hoodie and eating an apple spice cookie…see what I mean?

Today’s post has been months, if not years in the making. I’m sharing how I trained and my experience running my first marathon. I am by no means an expert on racing or running, but this is my personal experience and what worked well for me.

Let’s back it up into how I get started in running.

 Back in 2023, I had a goal to run a 5K, I never competed or ran and never liked it, but I wanted to challenge myself. You can read about my experience here. I liked the sense of accomplishment and the training that came with it.

I wanted to try something different in 2024, run a 10K. You can read about it here. 

In 2025, I wanted to up my mileage so I trained and ran my first half marathon, you can hear about my experience here.

So what did 2026 hold? Running a full marathon. I felt up for the challenge, but I also knew I had a busy year ahead between a family wedding, my wedding, and honeymoon all in a short timespan. It was going to be a lot but I was up for the challenge and for making time for what mattered most.

My uncle and godfather, who has competed in numerous half marathons, marathons, and Iron Men helped train me for both my half and full marathon and I couldn’t have done it without him.

I learned so much about fitness, nutrition, physical and mental health through the process.

For me, training looked like two days of lifting at the gym, three days of running (typically two shorter runs and one longer one) and two rest days. 

In the winter months, I had to do my runs on the treadmill, which was not for the faint of heart, some people love running on treadmills, I do not, but I pushed through. I would run outside as long as it was safe on sidewalks and in the cold temperatures, but some mornings forced me to run on a treadmill. My treadmill workouts lasted from December until mid-March due to rain, snow, ice etc. When I started running on the treadmill, I could barely get a mile without getting burnt out, but towards the end, I was running 10 miles.

In the spring was when my longer runs started to ramp up, I would have shorter or medium runs a few days a week and a long one.

My longest run was 21 miles a few weeks before the race.

My training schedule required time management and discipline, two things I am good at. 
Even when I was traveling, I made time for workouts, like running 5 miles on a treadmill at a hotel.

6 miles in New England while I was visiting my husband.

8 miles in Central Park while my husband was working.

Two summers ago, I even went for a run in Rome. 

Training at home, looked like getting to bed early to get up early for runs before work, or longer runs on days off.

It looked like eating breakfast at 5 a.m. to make sure I had something in my body before a long run.

It looked like scheduling my days off to make sure I had enough time to get in a run before doing other things.

Training looked like lots of protein, gatorade, and plenty of hydration.

During my runs, I have listened to countless audiobooks, was exposed to new artists and music, and seen some beautiful places. I found new places to run in my hometown and found the beauty in little moments.

Most of all, I learned training for a marathon takes just as much mentally as it does physically.

When marathon day came, I was ready.

I had my clothes laid out, breakfast early, and my fuel ready to go.

The energy of the crowd and thousands of runners had me excited. It made it even better that it was a course I was familiar with. 

Running a marathon was challenging. I felt good for the first half, but as I was getting through the second half, I had moments of doubt, but I kept pushing through. I didn’t stop to walk or jog, I just kept running. My brother came to support me and helped run alongside my for a few miles and that was a huge help.
I was so happy when I crossed the finish line, I even pulled my phone out to take a picture of the joy I was feeling.

I had done it, I ran my FIRST marathon. 

I was tired, sore, and exhausted, by the end of the run, but I did it.

Not everything went according to plan and there are some things I would have done differently, but there’s always next time, yes, next time. I may have been exhausted, but I wanted to do it again.

I treated myself to ice cream after I finished.

I learned so much about myself as a runner, athlete, and person after competing. The biggest takeaway? I can do hard things and this was one way I proved that. 

So, what’s next? I’m not sure, but I know I’m not done running or racing and I can’t wait to lace up my shoes again!