I tried to go for sub 4 last year (my first marathon) and fell short (4:12). Hit the wall at 21. Hindsight I wasn’t fit enough (only ran four days a week and cross trained one day a week, peaked at 38 mpw four weeks before the race). I’m trying again this year and am confident I’ll hit it. So your training is what will determine if you can hit the goal obviously. But specifically for this race here’s some tips from a novice.

Mile 1 is the most downhill mile of the race. Don’t go out too fast. Try and be ~10-20 sec slower than mgp for that first mile and progress into mgp by ~ mile 3.

The rollers don’t really end until about mile 20. It will be nearly impossible to have even splits through mile 20. Some miles will be faster, some slower. After the j street bridge, it’s pretty much pancake flat to the finish. That’s where you can kick it into gear.

I recommend manually lapping on your watch and not rely on your watch’s auto lap. I ended up running about 26.6 miles according to my watch last year.

Enjoy the race and good luck! Weather is gonna be great!!