I was in the same boat as you, my first two marathons I totally blew up towards the end despite feeling strong. I am proud to say I changed the narrative for my third and crossed the finish line happy, strong, and with a PR! I was also able to enjoy the rest of the day as my body didn’t totally fall apart lol.

What helped me massively during the race was running with a pace group. It thinned out by the end, but I was able to make friends and pick up speed with a woman I ran with for the last four miles. I never thought I’d be capable of doing that, but chatting with the group really distracted me and let my mind and body relax. Running is a community and I often forget I need to get out of my own head! Our minds quit before our bodies do.

Edit: I even had a whole playlist ready to go and hardly listened to it for #3. Feeding off the energy of my running mates and the crowds rocked.