This weekend I’m going to try something new by running the New Hampshire Marathon on Saturday and the Maine Marathon on Sunday.
I’ve never done this before, but I feel that I’m in good enough shape for a pair of sub-3 hour marathons.
New Hampshire will be a new race for me that I’ve never run before, but the Maine Marathon was the second one that I ever ran (back in 2003) and remains my second slowest marathon to date at 3:18:23 (not counting splits during my ultramarathons.)
Here’s a quick preview about how I’m planning on approaching the weekend:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz79uEVkvJQ
Video Transcript
show
Hi, this is Blaine Moore from http://www.RunToWin.com and this weekend I’m going to try something new.
I am going to try running back to back marathons.
On Saturday I will be running the New Hampshire Marathon, and then on Sunday I will be running the Maine Marathon.
I’ve never done anything like this before; it should be a good experience, I hope.
My training over the summer has been going pretty well for the most part. I spent most of my time since last April trying to keep my weekly mileage right around the mid 40’s, but the last couple of months I’ve been trying to get up into high 50’s / low 60’s.
I was going to try to get up towards the 70’s, but the schedule just didn’t quite work out well that way. Between falling down and hitting my head and then a couple of weeks later falling and cracking a rib, it was a little tough to consistently hit that 60 miles a week. It’s mostly been a week back down in the 40’s and then a week up in 50’s or 60’s, and then a week in the 40’s.
All in all I don’t have quite as much speed work under my belt as I would have liked, but I certainly feel that I’m pretty fit. And I’m looking forward to seeing how well my body responds trying to run a marathon on a Saturday and then another marathon on Sunday.
Goal-wise, I’m looking forward to running hopefully in the 2:40’s on Saturday and then anything sub 3 on Sunday will be good. I’ve run the Maine Marathon once, back in 2003, and that was 3:17, 3:18 or so.
I’ve never run the New Hampshire Marathon. I hear that it’s a hilly course, but I don’t actually know too much about it. I’ll be going into it without a lot of preconceived notions so we’ll see how well it goes. I’m just going to take this as a fun experience and hopefully I will manage to get my goal of running under 3 hours in both races, which I’m pretty sure I’m capable of doing right now.
Have you ever done a back to back marathon before? If so, leave a comment below and let me know what your experiences were like. And if you have any advice for me, then I’m all ears. I’d love to hear it.
Back to Back Marathon Attempts
- My First Attempt at Back to Back Marathons
- Back to Back (Part 1): The New Hampshire Marathon
- Back to Back (Part 2): Bridging the Gap Between Marathons
- Back to Back (Part 3): The Maine Marathon
(Download This Video: MP4 – MP3 – Marathon Sites: NH – ME)
“Last month I fell and hit my head, now I’m going to run back to back marathons” I wonder if there’s a connection there? Just messing with you Blaine, good luck! I’ll see you at both of them.
Ha ha ha!
Good point, except that I’d registered for these races before I fell down. Heheh.
Hopefully Sam and I will be joining Ryan in cheering you on at the Maine Marathon on Sunday, but if not, good luck and I hope you have two great races!
dude, you’re nuts. have fun 🙂