--- title: "First Half or Marathon? What I Wish I Knew | TrainPace Blog" description: "I went from not being able to run 6 laps in gym class to finishing a half marathon. Here is what I learned the hard way." url: https://trainpace.com/blog/beginner-marathon-training-tips --- # First Half or Marathon? What I Wish I Knew I went from not being able to run 6 laps in gym class to finishing a half marathon. Here is what I learned the hard way. By Alex · 6 min read As a kid, I could not run 6 laps in under 15 minutes in gym class. Running was not something I did. Then, in May 2024, I crossed the finish line of the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon in 3:01:00. I survived, but only just. The following week was awful — sore, in pain, unable to walk down stairs without a grimace. But finishing gave me something I did not know I needed: proof that I could get through hard things. Here is what I wish someone had told me before that first race. ## 1. The Long Run Is King Your weekly long run is the most important session of the week. It builds: - Endurance - Mental strength - Confidence - Your ability to burn fat as fuel Do not skip long runs. Do not rush them. Run them at conversational pace. ## 2. Easy Days Must Be Easy This was the hardest lesson. When I joined a run club, they made me slow down on easy days — runs that felt almost embarrassingly slow at the time. But that is where my body adapted. Easy pace should be about 2 minutes slower than race pace. If you cannot hold a full conversation, slow down. Use our Pace Calculator to find your correct easy pace. ## 3. Consistency Beats Intensity Four 40-minute runs a week beat one 3-hour hero session. Your body adapts to regular stress, not to occasional huge efforts. I trained consistently for 24 weeks before my second half marathon. That consistency — not any single workout — is what took 55 minutes off my time. ## 4. Rest Is Training Your body adapts during recovery, not during the workout. Sleep 7-9 hours. Take rest days seriously. Your body will thank you on race day. ## 5. Nothing New on Race Day This golden rule covers: - Shoes - Clothing - Fuel (gels, drinks) - Breakfast - Your routine before the start I took 10 gels and 2 heavy bottles to my first race because I had no idea what I really needed. Test everything in training. ## 6. Start Slower Than You Think The first few miles will feel easy. You will want to put time in the bank. Do not do it. Start 10-15 seconds slower than goal pace. You can always speed up later. You cannot get those early miles back. ## 7. Fuel Early and Often Do not wait until you feel hungry. By then it is too late. Start taking gels or other fuel by km 6-8, and carry on every 20-30 minutes. Have a look at our Fuel Planner to build your plan. ## 8. Expect the Hard Part (But Plan Around It) Km 15-18 of a half marathon will be hard. Really hard. That is normal. It happens to everyone. A plan helps: - Break the race into sections - Have a few short phrases ready to repeat - Remember that the bad patch will pass ## 9. Enjoy the Experience Your first long race only happens once. Look around. Read the signs. High-five the kids. This is a celebration. ## 10. Finishing Is the Goal Forget time goals for your first race. Really. The goal is to cross the finish line healthy and happy. Everything else is a bonus. A year after my 3:01, I crossed the line in 2:06 — smiling instead of limping. But that first finish, painful as it was, proved to the kid inside me that hard things are possible. --- Ready to start? Get your training paces, study your race course, and plan your fueling strategy. You can do this. ## Other TrainPace tools - [Pace Calculator](https://trainpace.com/calculator) — training paces from a recent race result - [VDOT Calculator](https://trainpace.com/vdot) — fitness score and equivalent race times - [Training Plan Builder](https://trainpace.com/plan) — week-by-week 5K to marathon plans - [Race Fuel Planner](https://trainpace.com/fuel) — carbs per hour and gel counts - [Elevation Finder](https://trainpace.com/elevation-finder) — GPX route and climb analysis ## For AI agents Every page on this site has a Markdown mirror at the same path with a .md suffix (for example /calculator.md), and honors an Accept: text/markdown request header on the HTML URL. The calculations here are also available as callable tools through a free public MCP server — no account or API key. - [llms.txt](https://trainpace.com/llms.txt) — site index for agents - [llms-full.txt](https://trainpace.com/llms-full.txt) — every page's Markdown in one file - [MCP server docs](https://trainpace.com/mcp) — endpoint, tools, and client setup