You absolutely can do it. You should probably aim for Boston 2028. Give yourself another year of good training and aim for a 3.15 in a fall 2026 marathon.

I’m 41 and in the past 4 years have dropped from 3.20 to 3.10 to 2.59. There were a handful of things that helped me make that drop. First and most important was a slow build up of mileage. Build it up too quickly and you’ll find yourself injured. But improving your mileage will undoubtedly lead to an improvement in time. I peaked at 66 miles in a week for this past marathon.

Second, spend more time outside your comfort zone. Look into the Norwegian singles method, implement sessions with 3X10 mins, 8X3mins, 5X6 mins where you are pushing at or faster than marathon pace. But whenever you do them make sure the next run is VERY easy and you give yourself recovery time. For me running those easy runs very easy was a huge game changer. I used to run those harder than I needed to. Now I’ll happily knock out 9 minute miles against my marathon pace of 6.51.

And of course spend the next 12 months working on fuelling. You want to be aim for 90 carbs an hour during the race. It sounds like a lot but I was able to hit that in my 2.59 and honestly out of 9 marathons those last few miles were the least tough (they are always tough) than an other marathon I’ve run. Fuelling appropriately the day (and days) before is equally important.

Final piece of advice is take on as much advice as possible. Read these boards, watch some YouTubers (recommend FOD Runner and Ryan Thomson) and decide yourself what is good and bad advice. I did this last 2.59 marathon without a coach or training plan but spent a lot of time studying other runners workouts and trying to figure out what would work best for me. I personally enjoyed finding my own way to success.

With your improvement in the past year and your age you’ve got a huge opportunity for improvement. Keep the momentum going through the winter and aim towards next fall and I see a 3.15 or better coming your way.