Two sub-3 race reports, two very different fueling plans
A homemade drink mix at Lausanne, a 9.8 g per kg carb load at Frankfurt, and both runners held pace to the line.
Two r/Marathon_Training posters went under three hours in the same week, and both wrote up exactly what they put in their bottles.
Lausanne, 2:59:33
The Lausanne runner started running about two years ago with a 2:00:08 half, then brought that down to 1:25:43 last year. His first marathon, Malaga, went through halfway in 1:26:30 and blew up at 30 km for a 3:14 finish. Milan ended in a DNF after 10 km following a viral infection.
The change this time was fuel. Instead of gels he dissolved fructose and maltodextrose in water and carried it in a soft flask, which he says was cheaper and easier, and simple to practice on weekly long runs. He sat with the 3:00 pacer from the gun, 4:05 per km on the opening downhill and about 4:12 after that, with his heart rate settling between 175 and 178 instead of spiking the way it had in Malaga. Hamstring tightness turned it mental from 33 km, and a 25 second stop to pee just after 38 km cost him the pace group. Training was choppy at 55 to 60 km a week, with a few weeks between 70 and 95.
Frankfurt, 2:58:41
The Frankfurt report is the more detailed one. Male, 42, 67 kg, previous PR 3:11:54 from Amsterdam in October 2025. He hired a coach who told him sub-3 was a real step and nine weeks was really too little. The block came to 578 km over nine weeks, four to five runs a week, topping out at 80.2 km, built around Tuesday intervals and Sunday long runs with marathon pace blocks. A tune-up half, untapered in rain and wind, came in at 1:27:30.
He carb loaded at 9.8 g per kg on Friday and 9.3 g/kg on Saturday and says he could not get any more in. Then it poured from 30 minutes before the start until two hours after. His watch splits barely moved, 4:09 to 4:13 per km for 40 km, average heart rate 162 against an estimated max of 188 and a threshold around 172. The pace group started with about a hundred runners and finished with about ten. At 40.5 km the pacer called out "low 2:59".
What it actually means. Two amateurs, two fueling setups, both held pace to the line. One of them did it on a drink mix he made at home.
And the wall never came.
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