Preparing for My First Marathon While Injured
By Quentin van Bentum • April 2025
After my first half marathon, I got injured pretty significantly with shin splints. And now, there were only six weeks left until my first full marathon. The problem? I hadn’t run anything longer than 21 km. Here's how I still kep training for a marathon while injured.
Resetting My Expectations
Originally, I had set a goal of running the marathon in 3:30. I figured it was doable based on my 1:45 half marathon time. But then, as I mentioned in my last post, injury struck.
After the initial frustration, I decided I wasn’t going to give up on my marathon dream. But I had to be realistic. That 3:30 goal? Out the window. Instead, I set my sights on finishing under 4 hours. Still tough, still something to be proud of.
So how do you prepare for a 42 km race when you’re injured and can’t really run?
Training Without Running
The reality is, there’s no perfect substitute for running. The impact, the motion, the stress on your legs, it’s hard to simulate. And with shin splints, I knew I wouldn’t be able to run much at all without making it way worse, let alone long runs. So I made a choice: my priority was starting the race as healthy and pain-free as possible, even if that meant showing up undertrained.
The thing about shin splints is that while they’re painful, they’re also a stress injury. That meant I wasn’t totally sidelined from working out. I could still move, still sweat, still build endurance, just not with running.
So I started experimenting and tried pretty much every cardio machine out there. Eventually, I landed on one that felt right: the elliptical. It mimics the motion of running but without the impact. I could train hard with almost no pain.
So that became the plan. For the next few weeks, I basically lived on the elliptical. Long sessions, sometimes hours at a time. I even practiced fueling, taking gels and drinks during workouts just to simulate race conditions. I won’t lie: it was boring. But it worked.
Ready or not, it was go time!
About two weeks before the marathon, five weeks after the injury started, I noticed the pain was almost completely gone. I cautiously started running again with compression sleeves, short and easy. There wasn’t time to build up mileage, but I got in a few light runs to remind my body what running actually felt like. This was also the time to get used to a new running belt for my energy gels, since a marathon requires quite a few!
I actually wrote a full guide on how to make your own DIY energy gels for just $0.30 each
Those last two weeks flew by, and suddenly, it was race weekend: the 2024 Rotterdam Marathon.
I stood on the start line knowing I was undertrained, unsure how my body would hold up past 21 km. But I had done everything I could with what I had. I had shown up. And that, honestly, already felt like a big achievement.
(Part 2 coming soon: The Race Report)
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