This is the big difference for the half-marathon compared to the marathon.

Bottom line: If your race takes over an hour and a half, make sure you have strong legs. This is especially important for half-marathoners toward the back of the pack because they can actually hit the wall like marathoners do if their legs get too beat up during the race. But, if you are a slower half-marathoner, then you need to focus on building stronger, more durable legs in order to race your best.Īs with my marathoners, my half-marathon training achieves better leg durability in four ways – sustainable and consistent weekly mileage, long runs, race-specific long runs and specialty leg strengthening exercises like in the available Marathon Legs program. Therefore, if you’re a fast half-marathoner, then you don’t have to worry too much about leg durability and all half-marathon training plans should give you what you need to build strong enough legs. Yes, the race is still stressful to the legs but it’s just not as extreme as for the half-marathoner that takes longer to complete the race. For the faster runners, finishing in less than an hour and a half, there isn’t as much muscular damage as for runners finishing in over 90 minutes. The first factor is leg durability, but as mentioned, it’s not consistent across the pack of half-marathon runners. Let’s take a look at the factors and how they may vary based on your expected finish time. But, for half-marathoners that take over two hours, the factors for success are similar to the marathon – with leg durability and fueling become very important. While the factors of success for the marathon are fairly consistent from the front to middle to back of the pack, the factors for success in the HALF-marathon vary a bit based on your finish time.įor the really speedy runners, they are only racing all out for slightly more than an hour – removing the need for as much fueling and leg durability issues that those of us who take a bit longer have. Shorter distance runners like that they can get the challenge of a long race without sacrificing their desire to race frequently and to do a balanced variety of workouts (endurance, stamina, speed and sprint). Marathoners enjoy the break from the high training loads (particularly the long runs that take up so much of the weekend and require so much recovery time). The half-marathon has quickly become the favorite race distance for runners.

Download half marathon length