12-Week Long Beach Marathon Training Plan

Long Beach, CAOctober 10, 2027

Start around July 18, 2027. The calendar below gives each phase a real date, then the course guidance shows where to make the build specific to Long Beach Marathon.

The Long Beach Marathon starts at 5:30 in the morning, which tells you what the organizers are worried about. The course tops out around 83 feet above sea level and never really climbs, so what decides your race here is October heat on the Southern California coast rather than anything in the terrain.

Race day
October 10, 2027
Start window
July 18, 2027
Runway
12 weeks
Course
Mostly Flat · Loop
Plan choice
Current training

Does this window fit your starting point?

Use this window when your recent training is steady and the opening week will not be a mileage jump. If you are returning after a long break, twelve weeks is too little room to rebuild and peak at the same time.

  • Your weekly mileage has been consistent for the last six to eight weeks.
  • You have completed recent long runs and do not need to rebuild from three easy miles.
  • You can protect the same number of run days from week one through race week.
  • You are prepared to begin race-specific work early instead of using a long base phase.

The 12-week Long Beach Marathon calendar

These dates define the job of each phase. Your current mileage, recent longest run, experience, goal, and available days still decide the actual workouts inside them.

Settle

Weeks 1–2

Jul 19, 2027–Aug 1, 2027

Hold close to your current volume, establish the weekly rhythm, and make sure the opening load is honest.

Build

Weeks 3–7

Aug 2, 2027–Sep 5, 2027

Grow the long run and weekly work with step-back weeks intact. There is no room to repay missed mileage.

Peak

Weeks 8–10

Sep 6, 2027–Sep 26, 2027

Complete the most race-specific long runs, rehearse fueling, and practice the terrain that will decide the final 10K.

Taper

Weeks 11–12

Sep 27, 2027–Oct 10, 2027

Reduce volume, keep the routine familiar, and arrive on race day without trying to squeeze in one more big week.

Make the window specific to Long Beach Marathon.

Course-specific work starts early in a 12-week build. Put the race's terrain and expected conditions into long runs once the opening weeks feel controlled, without adding extra hard days.

Read the full race guide

How to train for the Long Beach Marathon

Train for the Long Beach Marathon as a heat race on flat ground. October race mornings here start near 62F with humidity around 86% and the day climbs to an average high close to 79F, so the limiting factor is how well you shed heat, not how strong your legs are. Acclimation in the eight weeks before race day matters more than hill repeats ever will.

In practice that means running some long runs in the warm part of the day on purpose instead of always at dawn. Two or three warm exposures a week for three to four weeks is enough to change how early and how much you sweat. Build your fluid plan around the actual aid station spacing here, which is generous in the second half, with the longest carry being the 2.5 miles between the first two stops.

Then train the flat itself. A course with 470 feet of total climbing and nothing to descend gives your legs the same stride for three or four hours, which is its own kind of damage. Do long runs on genuinely flat ground rather than rolling routes, practice holding goal pace when the terrain never changes, and finish one long run every couple of weeks with three hard miles to rehearse the campus loop late.

Long Beach Marathon course facts

Course
Loop · Mostly Flat · Road/Pavement
Elevation gain / loss
470 ft gain, 462 ft loss
Highest / lowest point
83 ft / 5 ft
Marathon finishers
4,722 in 2025 (large field)
Boston qualifier
Certified Boston qualifying course
Finishers running a qualifying time
4.8% in 2025
Typical race morning
62°F at the start, 86% humidity, clear
Race day high / low
79°F / 58°F on average

Sources

Let your current training decide the actual plan.

Current mileage, recent longest run, marathon experience, goal, and available days determine which plans rank first. After you choose and subscribe, Stride dates every workout through October 10, 2027.

Build My Plan

12-week Long Beach Marathon plan questions, answered.

When should I start a 12-week Long Beach Marathon plan?

The 2027 Long Beach Marathon is scheduled for October 10, 2027, so the 12-week window opens around July 18, 2027. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

Is a 12-week plan long enough for the Long Beach Marathon?

Use this window when your recent training is steady and the opening week will not be a mileage jump. If you are returning after a long break, twelve weeks is too little room to rebuild and peak at the same time. The course does not change the opening load you can handle, so choose from your current mileage and recent longest run before adding race-specific terrain.

How should I prepare for the Long Beach Marathon course in 12 weeks?

Course-specific work starts early in a 12-week build. Put the race's terrain and expected conditions into long runs once the opening weeks feel controlled, without adding extra hard days. Train for the Long Beach Marathon as a heat race on flat ground. October race mornings here start near 62F with humidity around 86% and the day climbs to an average high close to 79F, so the limiting factor is how well you shed heat, not how strong your legs are. Acclimation in the eight weeks before race day matters more than hill repeats ever will.

What if the 12-week Long Beach Marathon window has already started?

Do not double weeks or cram missed mileage into the remaining calendar. Use your current mileage, recent longest run, experience, goal, and available days to choose a plan that can enter at an appropriate point while preserving the taper.

Is the Long Beach Marathon flat?

Yes, genuinely. The Long Beach Marathon runs between roughly 5 and 83 feet above sea level with about 470 feet of total climbing and a net change of around 8 feet. There's no named hill on the course. The difficulty here is October heat and the sameness of unvarying terrain, not elevation.

What time does the Long Beach Marathon start, and why so early?

The marathon starts at 5:30 a.m. at Shoreline Drive and Shoreline Village Drive. The early gun is about heat. Race mornings average near 62F at the line and the day climbs toward an average high close to 79F, so every hour you save at the front of the race is an hour of cooler running.

Put the 12-week window against your actual race.

Each page counts back from race day, maps the 4 phases to real dates, and applies the window to that course and its typical conditions.