Your plan in four answers
St. George Marathon has not announced its next date, so we have estimated October. Change the date below once you know it.
- Distances
- 5K, Half marathon, Marathon
- Terrain
- Rolling
Course
The St. George Marathon course
A point-to-point net-downhill course that starts in the Pine Valley mountains and descends nearly 2,600 feet through southern Utah red rock country to Worthen Park in St. George.
Read the full course notes
It is one of the best-known Boston qualifiers in the country, and it is not uniformly downhill: the Veyo hill early on is a genuine climb and the profile undulates before the long descent into town. Registration is first-come rather than a lottery, and it fills.
- Terrain
- Rolling
- Distances
- 5K, Half marathon, Marathon
- Weather on race day
- Early October in southern Utah means a cold, dark bus ride to a start line in the 30s or 40s, and a finish that can be in the 70s. The temperature swing over four hours is larger than almost any other US marathon.
What to train for
Downhill quad conditioning above all.
The descent is long enough that tired, sore quads, not aerobic fitness, end most bad days here.
Build downhill long runs progressively over the last two months, and do not treat Veyo as a formality: it arrives early enough to ruin the pacing of anyone who charges it.
Sample week
A sample St. George Marathon training week
A week from the middle of the build, about six weeks out. Your plan sets the real distances and paces from your own fitness and adjusts them every week as you train.
- Monday
- Rest, or 20 minutes of mobility
- Tuesday Key session
- Intervals: 5 × 1 mile at 5K to 10K effort, easy jog between
- Wednesday
- Easy run, 6–7 mi
- Thursday Key session
- Goal-pace run, 10 mi with 6 mi at race pace
- Friday
- Recovery run, 4 mi, or cross-train
- Saturday Key session
- Long run, 16–18 mi, the last 4 mi at race pace
- Sunday
- Easy run, 4 mi, then 6 relaxed strides
Taper
Tapering for the St. George Marathon
Start the taper two to three weeks before race day. Cut your weekly volume by about a third, then by half in race week, and keep a few short efforts at race pace so your legs stay sharp. The course rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Also in Claude
Ask Claude for this plan
Add AthleteSpace to Claude once, then paste this prompt and put in your own numbers.
Build me a training plan for the St. George Marathon in October. I run [distance] a week, [days] days a week, easy pace [pace].
St. George Marathon training questions
How long should I train for the St. George Marathon?
Most runners give a marathon sixteen to twenty weeks of focused training on top of an existing base. The plan above counts back from your actual race date, so if you have less time than that it builds the best plan the remaining weeks allow rather than pretending you have longer.
Is the St. George Marathon course hilly?
Rolling. A point-to-point net-downhill course that starts in the Pine Valley mountains and descends nearly 2,600 feet through southern Utah red rock country to Worthen Park in St.
What is the weather usually like at the St. George Marathon?
Early October in southern Utah means a cold, dark bus ride to a start line in the 30s or 40s, and a finish that can be in the 70s. The temperature swing over four hours is larger than almost any other US marathon.
When should I start tapering for the St. George Marathon?
Start the taper two to three weeks before race day. Cut your weekly volume by about a third, then by half in race week, and keep a few short efforts at race pace so your legs stay sharp. The course rolls, so keep one short session on undulating ground in the first taper week.
Do I need an account to get a St. George Marathon training plan?
No. The plan above builds in your browser with no account, no email, and no card. Make a free account only if you want to keep it, log your runs against it, and have the coach keep adapting it as your training goes.