16-Week Newport News One City Marathon Training Plan

The 2027 Newport News One City Marathon is scheduled for March 7, 2027, so the 16-week window opens around November 15, 2026. Treat that as the outside edge of the window, then line week one up with the plan's normal weekly rhythm.

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.

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 One City by making even pacing automatic and by practicing wind. A course this flat, run in one direction across a coastal city in early March, hands you no terrain variety and no shelter. Two things decide your race: your discipline through the first 10 miles, and how you respond when a headwind arrives and stays.

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.

Yes. Qualifying rates have run in double digits every year since 2022: 14.8 percent of finishers ran a Boston qualifying time in 2026, 13.9 percent in 2025 and 16.2 percent in 2024. The course is flat and certified with a net drop of only about six feet, so no downhill adjustment applies to a time run here.

Seven hours from the 7:00 a.m. start, which is a 16:00 per mile pace. The organizers enforce it with intermediate cutoffs at mile 6.5 by 8:45 a.m., mile 13.1 by 10:30 a.m., mile 18 by 11:45 a.m. and mile 23 by 1:10 p.m., so a slow first half cannot be made up later on.