I think if the spring marathon is not until May there is plenty of time to build a couple of 10ks and a half marathon into your build-up, without waiting until autumn.

My marathon is in early December down here in northern Alabama. So it requires a great deal of running in the hot summer months of Alabama. But I get a couple of cool months in the fall for final preparation. it doesn't get really bad down here until end of December/early January.


I had a recent discussion about marathon timing with a running buddy that went a long like this.

Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina really don't usually worry about snow or ice cancelling a marathon. So their big marathons occur in the winter months. Their concern is the heat and humidity.
Mississippi Blues is in January, Mississippi River is in February, Mississippi Coast is at end of November. Rocket City Marathon (Huntsville, Alabama) is in December, Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham is in February, First Light in Mobile, AL is in January. R&R Savannah is in November, Publix GA is in March. Charleston SC in Jan, One Epic (Spartanburg, SC) in January. Houston is mid Jan and Austin is in mid Feb. I would hate to race in FL, but most of theirs is in the worse winter months like Jan/Feb.


Go a little north like in Tennesee, there is a concern for ice and snow. So they have to be a little more careful in their timing to balance the risk of winter weather and heat& humidity. Knoxville is in early April, St Jude R&R in Nashville is end of April, St. Jude R&R Memphis is first week in December.
Now contrast to that are all your northern marathons. Ice and snow are big problems. Heat and humidity not so much. So they stay away from the winter months and focus more on spring and fall. Chicago marathon is in October, NY is in early November, Boston is in September, Grandma's Marathon is in June, Portland is in October, Twin Cities is in October.

All of your midliners kind of spread out into the rest of the schedule.


Fall marathons means lots of running in heat and humidity. But if yours is in the northern part, your summers are not as bad as the folks in the south. But winters are horrible in the north. So any spring marathon in the north would suck as far as training is concerned.

@Stoshew71 - Boston registration is in September, but the actual marathon is on Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, the 3rd Monday in April. Weather can be just about anything from snow to 80s, though mid-April has a decent chance for good running weather.

The list of marathons I find interesting but will never run as long as I keep earning my way back to Boston include Lincoln, NE (my home town); Pittsburgh; Flying Pig (Cincinati); and a return to Buffalo. All of them are too close to Boston for an old guy like me to run in the same year as Boston. I know someone who ran Boston in mid-April then came back and ran Buffalo in late May; but I don't have enough testosterone to think that's a good idea.

So I'm doing first marathon in October. How long will I not be able to run after that?

I'd normally be back doing some easy jogging by the Tuesday or Wednesday after a Sunday race. I do a reverse taper building back up to 35 miles per week at the end of week 5. But running well and racing take me a lot longer. I wouldn't schedule a race I wanted to do well in for at least a couple of months.

MobyCarp wrote: »

@Stoshew71 - Boston registration is in September, but the actual marathon is on Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, the 3rd Monday in April. Weather can be just about anything from snow to 80s, though mid-April has a decent chance for good running weather.

You are correct and I should have known better. This year's Boston was very warm (from what I was following). One of our top guys from Huntsville stopped at the aid station I think it was around mile 18 and gave up due to heat exhaustion. And I think you discussed this already about how we will anticipate lowered than normal registrants for next year due to the fact that the warm weather made it harder to requalify (for those that planned to use this year's Boston time for next year).

I heard my named mentioned so I thought I'd pop in!

I did indeed run the Lake Wobegon (paved) Trail Marathon this year. It's a very well run race and I'd recommend it as a first marathon (the caveat is that this is the only marathon I've run so far). The course is flat. Very flat. The volunteer crew is excellent, and the price is great. If not for wanting to check out other marathons, I'd run it again. I still may do so.

Here's why I chose a spring marathon for my first:

• I was able to train in cooler weather than I would for a fall marathon. I started my "official" 16 week training ramp the last week of January for the mid-May race.
• I wouldn't have to train in the summer, avoiding and conflicts with family time and summer activities (and heat). An early October race would mean starting my training in early to mid June.
• I love winter running. The coldest run I had was a -23F wind chill. I never had to run on a treadmill.
• I love running in the dark (of course, I love running in daylight too but darkness doesn't bother me)
• Average low temp in mid May at the LWTM is 41F. Average low temp in early October in Mpls is 39F, so same temp at race time.

Really, the biggest consideration for me was that a spring marathon had the least amount of impact on my family. As busy as we are this summer, I'd have been in a tough position if I had marathon training as well. At one time I considering a trail ultra in October but that's off the table now. At least for the next few years, my big race of the year will be in the spring.

@kristinegift hates winter running, @Stoshew71 thinks our winters are horrible (I think they're awesome!), so your desire for winter running also plays a part. To be fair, I think I'm in a better area for winter running than you are. We have a large number of trail runners keeping the trails well packed, a minneapolis park department that gets the paved trails around the lake plowed even before the roads are, and lots of cars and salt means the roads are pretty clear for running all year, but I could be completely wrong on that as I'm just making assumptions.

I think the best advice came from @MobyCarp:

MobyCarp wrote: »

*shrug* I think how ready your body is for the distance is probably a bigger factor than the time of year.

@MNLittleFinn , I just got a postcard from the LWTM folks. You may already know this, but next year will be their 10th anniversary and if you register by January 31st, you get a LWTM jacket in addition to the finishers shirt. That might be enough to get me to run it again next year. I'm planning on an Ultra in April so I'm not sure if I'll be recovered by then, but I'm very tempted to sign up for both now.

@MNLittleFinnMNLittleFinn TC Marathon was my first and a good choice. Trail running is fun but much more difficult. I recommend you wait and do a trail marathon as your 2nd or 3rd instead of your 1st. If you want an alternative in May or June, consider Grandma's instead.

edit: based on the comments of @7lenny7 above it appears that Lake Wobegon is not your typical trail marathon (since it is paved and flat) so maybe it would not be a bad choice either.