Boston runners' top marathon training tips (2024)

The B-Side

Plus: 🍩 Boston’s ultimate doughnut marathon

By Gia Orsino, The B-Side and Emily Schario, The B-Side

April 15, 2024

It’s Marathon Monday, Boston.

🥇Missing toenails, bleeding nipples, and questionable farts, oh my!We stopped by the Boston Marathon Expo to ask runners about the less glamorous parts of marathon training. And they didnothold back.Check out our video here.

👀What’s on tap today:

• A(nother) strike at BU
• The SAT is back en vogue
• A different sort of marathon

Up first…

BOSTON MARATHON

Top marathon training tips

Image: Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff. Illustration: Gia Orsino.

Nearly 30,000 runners will tackle the 128th Boston Marathon today.And while all eyes will be on the pros, we’re looking to this year’s marathon newbies to hear the No. 1 lesson they learned from training (just in case you catch the running bug after today).

Here’s what they told us:

🏃Listen to your body (a.k.a. know when to back off).“Making sure that you’re in tune with how everything is feeling, both mentally and physically is really important,” saidCarleigh Leyman, a25-year-old consulting associate running forBest Buddies. Leyman, who has struggled with athletic injuries in the past, credits her clean bill of health as she’s toeing the starting line to listening to her body: “Knowing when I should reel it in, maybe I’m a little bit more sore than usual and I’m feeling a little bit of new pain,” was the key in her training.

👟Don’t let influencer culture influence your running.According toLauren Tuiskula, a 29-year-old sports writer running forGirls on the Run, the amount of running influencers populating your feed can make it tough not to draw some comparisons. But the only way you’ll be able to successfully cover that 26.2 miles is if you know what works foryou, she said.“Testing out what you feel comfortable with early in training: Finding the right gear that works for you, the right fuel,” is important, Tuiskula said. So in early training, don’t be afraid to experiment beyond the IG trends.

💨Be ready for a “huge lifestyle change.”Madison Mahoney, a 26-year-old consultant running forPine Street Inn, realized that parts of her old weekend routine (likegirl dinnersor going out), just weren’t going to be conducive to a successful training block, so she had to find a new normal. “I’m going to bed a lot earlier …And I have to be a lot more intentional about what I’m eating,” she said. If you stay up late and eat a DIY-charcuterie board for dinner before a morning run, “you wake up the next day, you go to run and you’re like … ‘that’s just not gonna carry me,’” she said.

🏅A solid support system is key.Winna Brown, a 55-year-old partner at Ernst and Young running for theEsplanade Association, said that having people around you who you can turn to for support, inspiration, and encouragement is crucial for when things get tough (e.g. running eight miles before work on a dark January morning). Whether that’s family, friends, or your fellow runners, their support not only propped her up, she said, but also helped her feel accountable to someone aside from herself for getting the work done. “It really made a huge difference,” she said.

⭐Andto all B-Siders who are making the journey from Hopkinton to Boston …The B-Side team wants to wish you a gigundo congrats. You rock! And for the inevitable wave of you who are inspired to take on some training after today … Here’sa starting guide.

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CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

Image: John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

🥵It’s gonna be a glorious day for spectators, but a little spicy for runners.Ideal conditions for the schlep from Hopkinton to Boston include cloudy skies and temps in the 40s and 50s, but today’s sunshiney forecast in the 60scould be considered hot for some runners. While today’s temps won’t touchthe nearly 90 degreeswe saw on the course in 2012,officials warnmedical tents may see more runners dealing with heat-related illnesses, like dehydration and heat stroke. The good news? It looks like runners will enjoy a slight tailwind.

🏃🏿‍♀️It’s Marathon Monday, and the B.A.A. is getting sued.The Boston Athletic Association and the Newton Police Department are facing a lawsuit fromTrailblazHers Run Co.over an incident that took place at last year’s marathon. The suit alleges that police engaged inover-the-top racial profiling and policingwhen responding to a call about spectators — their group and another BIPOC run group,Pioneers Run Crew— by stepping onto the course (police ultimately formed ahuman barricadein front of the groups). They also said that the B.A.A. has failed to enact any meaningful changes since the situation despite a number of conversations with them.

🪧BU now has two strikes on its hands.In the midst of BU’s unionizedgraduate worker students strike, the university’s nearly 300 unionized RAs (resident advisors), GRAs (graduate RAs), and GHAs (graduate hall assistants)walked off the job on Fridayto start a four-day strike after failed contract negotiations with the school. A key sticking point in the negotiations: money. BU RAs are currently paid only in free housing (and sometimes meal plans). They also haven’t reached an agreement on issues like additional mental health and addiction training and workload.

📝Standardized testing is coming back en vogue.Harvard just announced they’ll be the latest in a line of Ivy League schools toreinstate standardized testslike the SAT or ACT as an application requirement after removing them in 2020. The move comes despite ananti-standardized testing sentimentwhich claims that the scores are mostly reflective of how much access to fancy resources a student has. But Harvard officials say that new data suggests that the tests will actually be an opportunity for students without a lot of resources to stand out from their peers.

THINGS TO DO

Weekday plans

Image: David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

🍻Extend your marathon to 27 miles.Sam Adams is hosting amile 27 post-race party todayat City Hall Plaza with running icons Des Linden and Kara Goucher where you can raise a glass to runners and enjoy live music.

🍦Scream for free ice cream!Tuesday is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s so make sure tofind your closest scoop shopand get your free ice cream from 12 to 8 p.m.

☕ Break out of your WFH slump.Sometimes you just need a work buddy, so the Seaport’s Capital One Café is hostinga co-working dayWednesday to break that WFH isolation, complete with coffee and a midday yoga class.

🎶Pre-game T-Swift’s album drop at Harpoon.The brewery is hostingTaylor Swift-themed musical bingoon Wednesday and a“Taylor’s Version” of their live music Fridayto ring in the occasion.

💞Let B-Side help you find the love of your life.We’re co-hostinga Single Mingle Partythis Friday at Grand Ten Distillery, complete with drinks, apps, and most importantly, eligible singles.

ONE LAST THING

The Masshole Marathon

Want the glory of finishing a marathon without the running?May we present: The Mass Hole Marathon.

The “marathon” is a challenge byMass Hole Donuts, a Somerville donut shop, to eat 26.2 of their classic donut holes (which, for the record, are more than double the size of a Dunkin’ munchkin) as quickly as you can.

This weekend was the inaugural event, and it certainly lived up to its running marathon counterpart in terms of difficulty: Only one entrant, Matt, managed to finish the challenge, setting a new course record of a whopping 14 minutes and 40 seconds.

And if you’re wondering how it went: Thelook on his facepretty much says it all.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍩Thanks for reading!We know that all of you are going to say you’d rather eat the donuts, but TBH, we’re pretty sure the two options will have equally horrifying bodily consequences.

💜Special shoutout to today’s sponsor,Stonehill College, for supporting local journalism and giving graduates the resources they need to succeed in the workplace.

🏃The results are in:54% of B-Siders say that you couldn’t pay them to run a marathon. One slightly more optimistic reader added: “You probably could pay me to do it … but it would have to be a LOT.”

💃Keep up with us@BostonBSideonIG,TikTok, andTwitter. Send comments and suggestions to[emailprotected]or[emailprotected].