Reviewed by Matt Stanlake — Head Physiotherapist & Director, Upwell Health Collective. APA Member. AHPRA Registration: PHY0000975408. 20 years clinical experience. Last reviewed: May 2026.
The short answer: A marathon is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your body and one of the easiest things to do badly. Good preparation is not about following a celebrity training plan or buying the right pair of shoes. It is about respecting the demand, training consistently, fuelling honestly, strengthening intelligently, sleeping properly, and letting your body adapt at the pace it can actually adapt — not the pace your ego wants. This guide covers everything we wish every Melbourne runner knew before race day.
A marathon is 42.195 kilometres of cumulative load on bones, tendons, muscles, cardiovascular system, immune system, nervous system, and the part of you that decides whether you're going to keep going at kilometre 33 when everything hurts.
Most first-time marathoners underestimate every single one of those domains.
The training is not the race. Training is months of carefully calibrated stress and recovery, slowly nudging your tissues, your aerobic engine, and your nervous system into being capable of something they were not capable of three months ago. The race is the demonstration. The race is not where fitness gets built — it is where fitness gets tested, and if you have not built it properly, the marathon is unforgiving in a way few other events are.
There is a difference between surviving a marathon and running one. Anyone reasonably fit can shuffle through 42 kilometres if they are willing to walk, hurt, and damage themselves. Running a marathon — pacing it, fuelling it, finishing strong, recovering well, staying healthy — that is a different project entirely.
Under-preparation is the most common mistake. Over-training is the second. The runners who do this well sit in the sensible middle: enough volume to be ready, enough recovery to absorb it, enough strength to defend the body when fatigue arrives.
Pull quote: The marathon is not won on race day. It is won across 16 weeks of unglamorous, consistent, sustainable training.
The week you decide to run a marathon is not the week you start running 80 kilometres. It is the week you take stock of everything that affects whether your body can handle what you are about to ask of it.
If you are over 35, have been sedentary, have any cardiovascular risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, family history of heart disease, smoking history, diabetes, obesity), or have not exercised regularly in years — see a sports doctor or your GP before starting. This is not paranoid. Marathon training is significant cardiovascular load. Identifying risk before you find out at kilometre 18 is medicine, not fear-mongering.
If you have a history of stress fractures, female athlete triad signs, disordered eating, hypothyroidism, anaemia, or osteoporosis risk factors, get screened. Marathon training amplifies any underlying problem in bone health, energy availability, or hormonal function.
If you have an old Achilles, a niggly knee, a hip that grumbles, a back that complains, or any tendinopathy that has not been properly rehabbed — address it before base training, not during it. The volume of marathon training will find every weakness. The smartest thing you can do is a thorough musculoskeletal screen with a sports physio in the first month and have a clear plan for managing your highest-risk tissues.
Marathon training is a 10–12 hour per week project at minimum. That is on top of work, family, sleep, and everything else. Before you commit, ask honestly:
If three or more of these are no, training quality will suffer, injury risk rises, and the experience becomes a grind. Honest answers protect the project.
Your first marathon goal should be to finish well. Not to hit a specific time. Not to qualify for Boston. Not to beat your mate. To finish — well-paced, well-fuelled, well-recovered, injury-free, and wanting to do another one. That is a successful first marathon. Time goals are for marathon two onwards, when you actually know what your body can do at that distance.
You can find a free marathon plan in 30 seconds on Google. That is part of the problem. Most generic plans were written for a generic runner who does not exist.
Choose based on what your body has done in the last three months, not what you wish it had done. If you cannot currently comfortably run 30 minutes three times a week, you need a beginner plan, regardless of how fit you were five years ago. Cardiovascular fitness recovers quickly. Bone and tendon load tolerance does not. Start where your tissues are, not where your memory is.
Elite marathoners run 160–200 kilometres a week. They sleep 9 hours, eat for performance, train full-time, and have access to a team. You do not. Your plan should reflect your life — work, family, sleep, recovery capacity. Volumes that look impressive on Instagram are how recreational runners end up in physio rooms with bone stress injuries.
| Principle | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Consistency beats intensity | Four months of consistent moderate training beats six brilliant weeks then two injured ones. |
| Most runs should be easy | 80% of weekly volume conversational pace. 20% harder. The famous 80/20 rule exists for a reason. |
| Progressive volume | Weekly volume rises gradually — most experienced coaches use a 10% rule as a rough ceiling, but individual capacity matters more. |
| Deload weeks | Every third or fourth week drops volume by 20–30%. Recovery is when adaptation happens. |
| Long runs | The cornerstone. Build slowly. Peak long run is usually 30–35 km, not 42. |
| Tapering | Volume drops 30–60% across the last two to three weeks. Fitness is locked in. Freshness is built. |
The simplest explanation: your body adapts to what you have done on average over the last four weeks (chronic load). What you do in any given week (acute load) should not wildly exceed that. Big spikes — going from 40 to 70 km in one week, for example — are where injuries happen. This is not coaching dogma. It is one of the most consistent findings in modern sports medicine research published across the British Journal of Sports Medicine and JOSPT over the last decade.
Upwell Clinician Tip: If you can talk in full sentences during your easy runs, you are at the right pace. If you can only gasp single words, you are running too hard, too often, and you are building fatigue rather than fitness.
Runners who do not strength train are slower, less efficient, and more injured than runners who do. This is no longer controversial in the sports medicine literature. The question is not whether to strength train — it is what, how often, and how heavy.
The non-negotiables for runners:
Two sessions per week, 30–45 minutes each, is the sweet spot for most recreational marathoners. In the heaviest training weeks, you can drop to one. Doing zero is leaving performance and injury resistance on the table.
You do not need to be hyper-mobile to run a marathon. You need functional range — enough ankle dorsiflexion, hip extension, and thoracic rotation to run efficiently without compensation. Most runners do not need more stretching. They need better strength through the range they already have.
Static stretching before runs has been shown across the literature to reduce performance acutely. Dynamic mobility warm-ups (leg swings, lunges with rotation, A-skips, walking heel-to-bum) are far more useful.
| Recovery tool | Evidence rating | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep (8–9 hours) | Strong | The single most underrated performance tool in running. |
| Nutrition (adequate energy + protein) | Strong | Under-fuelling is the silent killer of training quality. |
| Easy days kept genuinely easy | Strong | The 80/20 principle in action. |
| Massage | Moderate | Subjective recovery benefits; helpful for tight tissues. |
| Foam rolling | Moderate | Short-term mobility improvements; not magic. |
| Compression garments | Mixed | Modest perceived recovery benefit; not a game-changer. |
| Ice baths post-race | Acceptable post-race | Blunt some adaptation if used after every session — use sparingly. |
| Massage guns | Mixed | Similar to foam rolling — useful, oversold. |
Marathon training is a chronic sympathetic stressor. The runners who recover best protect parasympathetic time deliberately — slow breathing, walks without headphones, time outdoors at low intensity, real sleep. Your nervous system is the operating system. Performance happens in sympathetic. Recovery happens in parasympathetic. You need both.
Clinical Pilates is not generic group fitness. It is physiotherapist-prescribed exercise that targets the specific patterns runners struggle with: pelvic control, single-leg stability, hip and trunk strength, breath control, and movement quality under load. One session per week through a training block, particularly for runners with niggly hips, knees, or backs, is a small investment with disproportionate return.
There is no perfect shoe. There is the shoe that fits your foot, suits your mechanics, and works for the kilometres you are running this week. The marathon shoe industrial complex would prefer you believed otherwise.
Modern running research supports rotating two to three shoes through a training block. Different shoes load different tissues slightly differently, which reduces repetitive stress on any single structure. A typical setup:
The carbon-plated, super-foam shoes (Nike Vaporfly/Alphafly, Adidas Adios Pro, Asics Metaspeed, Saucony Endorphin Pro, and the newer generation from On, New Balance, and others) are genuinely faster for most runners. The research is consistent — 2–4% running economy improvement is real. They are also expensive, wear out faster, and load the calf and foot differently to standard trainers. Introduce them gradually. Do not race in them if you have not trained in them.
None is universally better. Stability shoes were oversold for decades on a flawed pronation model. Minimalist shoes were oversold during the barefoot running wave. Maximalist shoes are currently being oversold by carbon-plate marketing. The truth: the best shoe is the one that lets you run pain-free for the volume you are doing. That is an individual question, not a category answer.
Most shoes are good for 500–800 km depending on the shoe and the runner. Cushioning fades before the outsole wears. If a familiar shoe starts to feel "flat" or your knees and shins start complaining for no obvious reason, check shoe mileage.
Orthotics help some runners considerably. They are not magic and they are not necessary for everyone. The runners who benefit most: those with specific foot mechanics (rigid high arches, pronounced flat feet with associated symptoms, leg-length differences, structural issues confirmed clinically). The runners who don't necessarily need them: most asymptomatic runners with average mechanics. A podiatrist assessment is worth the appointment if you have foot, ankle, or knee symptoms that have not resolved with strength and load management.
Reality Check: No shoe prevents injury on its own. Shoes are tools. Load management, strength, and recovery are what keep you running.
Under-fuelling is the single most common nutrition mistake we see in recreational marathoners. Especially among women. Especially among runners who came to the sport partly through wanting to lose weight. The marathon does not respond well to a calorie deficit. Energy availability deficiency (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, REDs) drives stress fractures, hormonal disruption, fatigue, immunosuppression, and chronic underperformance. If you are training 10+ hours a week and constantly tired, hungry, cold, and not progressing — you are probably under-eating.
Marathon training is glycogen-dependent. Your hardest sessions and your long runs need carbohydrate. The numbers vary by body size and training load, but most marathon runners need substantially more carbohydrate than they think — often 5–10 grams per kilogram of bodyweight on heavy training days. Low-carb approaches do not consistently work for marathon performance.
1.6–2.0 grams per kilogram of bodyweight daily, spread across the day. Protein supports recovery, immune function, and lean mass maintenance through high volume.
The marathon requires in-race carbohydrate. The general guideline is 30–90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, with most recreational marathoners doing well in the 30–60g range and trained guts tolerating more. Practise this in training. Race-day fuelling tested for the first time on race day is the most reliable way to end up in a portaloo at kilometre 28.
Drink to thirst. The research has moved decisively away from forced hydration schedules. Hyponatraemia (sodium too low) from overdrinking is a real risk and has hospitalised marathoners. For hot races, plan electrolytes. For cool races, water is usually fine. Weigh yourself before and after long runs occasionally to learn your sweat rate.
3–6 mg per kg of bodyweight, taken 30–60 minutes before the race or hard session, is well-supported in the literature for endurance performance. Practise in training. Do not change your caffeine intake dramatically on race day.
Most running injuries are load-management failures, not freak accidents. They cluster in predictable patterns. Knowing them is half the battle.
Front-of-knee pain, worse going downstairs and downhill, worse with prolonged sitting. Usually a strength and load problem — weak hips and glutes, sudden volume spikes, poor running mechanics. Management: targeted hip and quad strength, load reduction, gait modifications if needed. Don't: push through, ice and hope, run more to "strengthen the knee".
Sharp lateral knee pain that arrives at a predictable point in long runs. Mechanical irritation at the ITB insertion. Management: hip strength, running cadence adjustments, downhill modification, load reduction. Don't: foam-roll the ITB for an hour and expect a cure — the ITB itself isn't usually the problem.
Stiffness and pain at the back of the heel, worst in the morning and at the start of runs, often warming up before getting worse later. Management: progressive heavy slow resistance loading (the literature is unambiguous), load management, calf strength, sometimes shoe heel-drop modification. Don't: rest completely (de-loading without re-loading worsens tendons), stretch aggressively in the acute phase, push through severe pain.
Bottom-of-heel or arch pain, classically worst with first steps in the morning. Management: calf strength, plantar-specific loading exercises (heel raises with toe extension), load reduction, sometimes a temporary heel cup or orthotic, podiatrist input. Don't: rest indefinitely, rely only on rolling a frozen bottle, expect a quick fix — plantar fasciopathy is a months-long rehab, not weeks.
The most serious common running injury. Tibial, metatarsal, femoral neck, sacral — all possible in marathon runners. Risk factors: rapid volume increases, low energy availability, low vitamin D, low bone mineral density, history of stress fractures, female athlete triad / REDs features. Red flags requiring urgent imaging: localised bony tenderness, night pain, pain that has progressed despite rest, hop test pain. Bone stress injuries are not "push through" injuries. Femoral neck stress fractures missed early can be career-ending.
Multiple possible drivers: gluteal tendinopathy, hip flexor strain, FAI / labral issues, hip joint pathology. Sports physio assessment matters — these are not one-size-fits-all.
Often a load tolerance and trunk control issue, sometimes biomechanical, occasionally referred from hip or sacroiliac structures. Usually responsive to running modification, trunk and hip strength, and clinical Pilates work.
Proximal hamstring tendinopathy (deep buttock pain at the sitting bone, worse with sitting and uphill running) is common in marathoners. Management: progressive isometric then heavy loading of the hamstring, hip strength, posture modification when sitting. Slow rehab. Do not rush it.
Particularly soleus strains in marathoners. Management: progressive loading, isolated soleus strength, return-to-running protocol, no jumping straight back into the same volume.
Upwell Clinician Tip: The window between "niggle" and "injury" is often a single 30-km long run done on a leg that was already talking to you. If something has been bothering you for more than three or four days, get it assessed before the next long run, not after.
Peak volume week or just past it. Last long run of any substance. Final equipment decisions made. Race-day fuelling and hydration locked. Sleep prioritised. No new shoes, no new foods, no new strength exercises.
Taper begins in earnest. Volume drops 30–40%. Intensity maintained briefly to keep the legs sharp. This is the week where most runners feel sluggish, anxious, and slightly mad. Taper anxiety is real. It does not mean you are losing fitness. Trust the plan.
Eat a familiar carb-rich dinner. Nothing new, nothing high-fat, nothing high-fibre. Lay out everything. Hydrate. Set two alarms. Do not stress about not sleeping — the night before a race is famously bad for sleep, and it does not meaningfully harm performance if the week leading up was solid.
Almost every marathon mistake is made here. Adrenaline lies. The crowd lies. Your legs lie. Run the first 10 km a touch slower than goal pace. You will thank yourself at 32 km. Runners who positive-split (slow down through the race) almost always started too fast.
Stick to the plan you practised. Gel every 25–30 minutes from around the 30-minute mark. Water at every aid station, electrolytes if hot. Do not skip fuelling because you feel fine at 15 km — you fuel now so you feel fine at 35 km.
Cardiac drift — heart rate creeping up at the same pace as the race progresses — is normal in marathons. It is not a sign to panic. It is a sign to hold pace and let the body do its work.
"The wall" is glycogen depletion. It is much less common in well-fuelled, well-paced runners than marathon mythology suggests. If you have practised fuelling, started conservatively, and trained your long runs properly, you may never meet it. If you do, the answer is: small carbohydrate intake, walk briefly, reset, run again.
Strategic walking through aid stations is a legitimate, smart tactic for first-time marathoners. It often produces faster overall finish times than trying to run through every station. The clock does not care if you walked for 30 seconds at kilometre 25 — it cares about your final time.
Most race-day discomfort is normal marathon discomfort. Some symptoms are not. Stop and get medical help if you experience: chest pain or pressure, severe shortness of breath disproportionate to effort, sudden severe headache, confusion or disorientation, collapsing, or any symptom your gut tells you is wrong. Marathons are not worth cardiac events. Race medical teams would much rather assess you than carry you.
The marathon is not over when you cross the line. Recovery is part of the project.
Walking is fine. Light spinning is fine. Running is generally not recommended in the first three to five days. Many runners report feeling "fine" by day three and immediately go for a run — this is one of the most common pathways to post-marathon injury. The body is more damaged than it feels.
Most coaches use some version of the "one day per mile" rule for full return to normal training — roughly three to four weeks for a marathon. Easy runs first, no intensity for two weeks, then gradual return.
Tendons, bones, and connective tissue take longer to recover than muscles. The runner who feels great in week two and pushes hard often gets a stress reaction in week four. Respect the post-race rebuild.
Marathons change people. Not in the cliché way the motivational posters suggest. In a quieter, more useful way.
You learn that consistency beats brilliance. That sustainable beats heroic. That the body adapts to what you ask of it, but only at the rate it can adapt — not the rate you want. You learn that recovery is part of the work. That sleep is a training session. That fuelling honestly is a form of self-respect.
You learn what it is to commit to something across months. To show up on Tuesday morning at 5:30 when no one will know whether you went or not. To say no to second drinks the night before a long run. To choose the harder, slower, more patient path because the alternative is breaking.
You learn that marathons are run by people, not by training plans. That every runner has bad weeks. That the elite athletes you envy have all stood at a kitchen bench at 6pm wondering whether they have it in them to lace up. That what gets you through is not motivation — it is the boring discipline of doing the next reasonable thing.
And you learn that the body, when respected, can do extraordinary things. Not in a heroic-comeback-montage way. In a daily, deposit-by-deposit, kilometre-by-kilometre way that accumulates into something you did not think was possible the day you signed up.
Long-term running health matters more than any single race time. There will be more marathons. There will be faster days and slower days. The goal is to be running well at 50, at 60, at 70 — to still have the legs that carry you, the lungs that keep up, the joints that don't grumble. That is the real prize.
Final thought: Run the marathon. Then run another one. Build a body and a mind that can do this for decades. Ego will not get you to the start line of marathon number ten. Sustainability will.
Most first-time marathoners need 16–20 weeks of structured training, ideally on top of a base of consistent running for at least three months before that. Less than 16 weeks is rushed for most beginners.
It varies dramatically. Most first-time marathoners peak around 45–70 km per week. Faster recreational runners may peak around 70–90 km. Elite runners go far higher. Your training plan should match your history and your life, not someone else's.
No. Most coaches cap long runs around 30–35 km. The cumulative fatigue from a 42 km training run rarely outweighs the recovery cost.
Yes. Two short sessions per week is the sweet spot for most recreational marathoners. The runners who keep strength training through a build are the ones who stay injury-free.
A familiar carbohydrate-rich meal or snack 2–3 hours before, plus a small top-up 15–30 minutes before. Avoid high-fat, high-fibre foods that take longer to digest.
Persistent fatigue, declining performance, poor sleep, elevated resting heart rate, low motivation, increased illness frequency, and mood changes. If three or more apply, reduce volume and see a sports physio or sports doctor.
See a sports physio early. Most running injuries respond well when caught early. Most become chronic when ignored or run through. The marathon will still be there. Your body might not be if you keep loading it through pain.
For most first-time and recreational marathoners, yes. A running-specific physiotherapy assessment, podiatry input if needed, and an exercise physiology-designed strength program are high-leverage investments. Group running clubs also provide accountability and pacing partners that solo training cannot replicate.
If you are training for a Melbourne marathon — the Melbourne Marathon Festival, the Great Ocean Road Marathon, or your first race anywhere — the Upwell Health Collective team in Camberwell sees runners every day. Physiotherapy, podiatry, exercise physiology, clinical Pilates, all under one roof, all coordinated. 28 free undercover carparks. All health funds accepted. Book online at upwellhealth.com.au or call (03) 8849 9096.
Matt Stanlake is the Head Physiotherapist and Director of Upwell Health Collective in Camberwell. He is a member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APAM) and AHPRA-registered (PHY0000975408) with 20 years of clinical experience. Matt has built Upwell into a 7x award-winning multidisciplinary allied health clinic trusted by AFL legends Mick Malthouse and Jonathan Brown. He is the author of Not Broken and the creator of the Whole Person Care framework.