16-Week Long Beach Marathon Training Plan

Long Beach, CAOctober 10, 2027

Start around June 20, 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
June 20, 2027
Runway
16 weeks
Course
Mostly Flat · Loop
Plan choice
Current training

Does this window fit your starting point?

Use this window when you have a running base and want several weeks before the hardest marathon-specific work begins. The extra month over a 12-week plan creates more room for gradual long-run growth and recovery.

  • You run consistently enough that week one is a continuation, not a restart.
  • You want a distinct foundation phase before the biggest long runs.
  • You can protect your planned run days for roughly four months.
  • Your race date leaves the full window without forcing skipped weeks.

The 16-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.

Foundation

Weeks 1–4

Jun 21, 2027–Jul 18, 2027

Establish repeatable weeks, keep most running easy, and begin extending the long run without forcing the pace.

Build

Weeks 5–10

Jul 19, 2027–Aug 29, 2027

Increase the weekly load, preserve step-back weeks, and introduce the terrain and effort the race will require.

Peak

Weeks 11–13

Aug 30, 2027–Sep 19, 2027

Complete the biggest race-specific weeks and use long runs to lock in fueling, pacing, and equipment.

Taper

Weeks 14–16

Sep 20, 2027–Oct 10, 2027

Bring volume down while keeping the weekly rhythm familiar. Training is finished before race week begins.

Make the window specific to Long Beach Marathon.

Use the first month to establish consistency, then make long runs progressively more specific to the race's terrain and conditions. The course rehearsal should grow with the plan, not appear all at once in peak week.

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

16-week Long Beach Marathon plan questions, answered.

When should I start a 16-week Long Beach Marathon plan?

The 2027 Long Beach Marathon is scheduled for October 10, 2027, so the 16-week window opens around June 20, 2027. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

Is a 16-week plan long enough for the Long Beach Marathon?

Use this window when you have a running base and want several weeks before the hardest marathon-specific work begins. The extra month over a 12-week plan creates more room for gradual long-run growth and recovery. 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 16 weeks?

Use the first month to establish consistency, then make long runs progressively more specific to the race's terrain and conditions. The course rehearsal should grow with the plan, not appear all at once in peak week. 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 16-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 16-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.