Personalized Marathon Training Plan Guide
Preparing for a marathon requires a systematic training plan. RunBox AI coach creates a customized 16-20 week marathon training plan based on your fitness level, goal time, and available training time.
Why Choose an AI-Customized Marathon Training Plan?
- Personalized Assessment: Based on your running experience and fitness condition
- Smart Adjustments: Training intensity optimizes automatically with progress
- Scientific Pacing: Based on your target finish time
- Injury Prevention: Reasonable intensity progression to avoid injuries
how small and medium marathons can stand out among thousands of races
The scorching heat of the past two months has firmly held marathons in check. There have been only two or three events, all in the extreme west and north, such as the Guiyang and Jilin marathons in June, the Liupanshui marathon in July, and no marathons yet in August.
After a long period of silence comes the most splendid explosion. As we enter August, although the marathons have not yet arrived, many races scheduled for October and November have already started registration to attract more runners. Many runners are excited, gearing up, eager to try, selecting races, and waiting to see if they will be 'picked' or 'eliminated'.
Some events remain calm and composed in the competition for runners, with a steady increase in registration numbers. Chengdu Marathon, Guangzhou Marathon, Changsha Marathon, and Shanghai Marathon have all reported good news. In contrast, some marathons may face the embarrassment of not recruiting enough participants. Many events go to great lengths to attract more runners, offering discounts on registration fees, free meals and accommodations, and group purchase discounts, but often with little effect.
Da Bing has good personal relationships with many marathon organizers. Seeing these issues troubling his friends, Da Bing is also anxious and worried, sharing their concerns.
Although he has never organized an event, Da Bing has seen many 'pigs' run, nearly a hundred. Without presumption, he wants to offer some ideas to events that may be facing recruitment difficulties.
Find an excellent event company to operate.
Success depends on people. An excellent event company can organize an excellent event. After organizing one excellent event after another, an excellent event company becomes a brand with strong appeal.
Many runners will register as soon as they hear that a certain event is organized by a certain company. Everyone says that the events organized by that company are never bad. In East China, there is Huipao Sports rooted in Wuxi; in South China, Zhongti Sports rooted in Guangdong and Guangxi, and Borun Sports deeply rooted in Hubei. Zhongji Sports, which has grown the Xiamen Marathon and made the Lanzhou Marathon a 'double gold event,' is also a force to be reckoned with.
Small and medium-sized events can choose these traffic-attracting event companies when selecting operators. Once they take over, half of the registration numbers are solved.
Yulin, a northwestern city that most Chinese people don't know about; Yulin Marathon, a not-so-famous marathon, saw a hot registration this year under the support of Huipao Sports, with all projects filling up before the registration deadline.
Explore the highlights of the host city.
Every city has unique landscapes, cultural history, and delicious food. The organizing committee should make an effort to explore and see which aspects can be combined with the marathon.
Some newly held events may have limited attraction, but the city's history is much longer than the event's history, and its scenic spots are much more fun than the marathon. They are like pearls waiting for the organizing committee to string them into a colorful necklace with the marathon, presenting it to runners from all over the world.
Zhongti Sports, whenever they arrive in a city, will carefully understand what local delicacies are available and then use them as post-race supplies for the hungry runners to enjoy after the marathon.
Last year, Zhongti Sports provided post-race supplies for the Meizhou Marathon, including stuffed tofu, shredded radish porridge, Hakka fish balls, fermented rice cakes, fairy cakes, and Hakka steamed cakes. They also gave each finisher a Meixian pomelo. Wouldn't you want to participate in an event organized by Zhongti Sports?
——Image from a runner
Strengthen cooperation with local and surrounding city running groups.
In the coming months, events will be clustered together, competing for the ability to attract participants. Strengthening cooperation with local and surrounding city running groups is a good strategy.
To cooperate with running groups, you need to win over a few key leaders. When the group leader calls for participation in the group, and a few core members respond, a dozen or twenty runners will actively register. Seeing everyone else registering, many other runners will also register, quickly filling up the event.
However, cooperation with running groups must be sincere. You need to make the group leaders feel respected and the entire group feel valued. The specific methods need careful consideration.
Organize and serve the event well.
To organize a marathon well, the most important thing is to organize the event itself well and serve the runners properly.
Some events may not have satisfactory registration numbers in the first one or two years, but if the service is good, runners who have participated will say the event is good, and the event's reputation will gradually build up.
One year, two years, three years of continuous effort will surely attract more and more runners to register for this event that always puts runners first. Soon, the organizing committee will not worry about insufficient registration numbers but about being overwhelmed with registrations, with many runners complaining about not getting in and demanding more slots.
Xianning, a small city in a remote part of Hubei, had unsatisfactory registration numbers for the Xianning Marathon in previous years. However, under the continuous and meticulous efforts of Borun Sports, its reputation has grown, and this year all projects filled up before the registration deadline, forcing the early closure of registration.
Many runners strongly 'protested,' so Borun Sports had to open an additional 1,000 half-marathon slots to meet the wishes of more runners to run the Xianning Marathon.
Value cooperation with self-media.
If an event is well organized, it also needs good promotion. As the saying goes, 'The success of an event depends on safety, and its perfection depends on promotion.' The organizing committee should cooperate more with running self-media.
Running self-media are vertical self-media in the running community. The operators of running self-media are runners themselves, coming from the grassroots of the running community. They can use their words to bring the reputation of an event into the running circle, making more runners aware of the event's quality.
The more runners know about your event, the more runners will participate in your event next year. Your event's registration numbers will surely improve year after year.
Why can the Wuxi Marathon generate as much buzz as the Beijing and Shanghai marathons, even though Wuxi's city size and participant scale cannot match Beijing and Shanghai? This is undoubtedly related to the good interaction between Huipao Sports and running self-media. When the Wuxi Marathon holds a press conference, almost all key opinion leaders and self-media in the running circle attend. When the Wuxi Marathon ends, almost all self-media praise it, making it a hot topic in runners' social media circles.
These are just some humble opinions from the author. I hope more and more events will not worry about registration numbers, and more and more good events will emerge.
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