310. How to Race Your Best Marathon with Peter Bromka
Release Date: 10/09/2026
310. How to Race Your Best Marathon with Peter Bromka
Healthy Runner Podcast
FREE Marathon Training Guide: Train Smarter & Race Strong → You can be in the best shape of your life and still miss your marathon goal if you don’t execute properly on race day. So how do you take months of training and turn that fitness into your best possible marathon? In this episode of the Healthy Runner Podcast, I sit down with 2:19 marathoner, running coach, and writer Peter Bromka to break down how to race your marathon for peak performance. Peter shares lessons from years of racing, coaching, studying, and writing about the marathon. He also includes why this distance is so...
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309. Tapering 101: How to Taper Before a Half Marathon or Marathon
Healthy Runner Podcast
FREE Marathon Training Guide: Train Smarter & Race Strong → Are you a few weeks away from your half marathon or marathon and suddenly wondering if you’re running too little? Welcome to the taper crazies! After months of long runs, speed workouts, and strength training, reducing your training before race day can feel completely backwards. You may start wondering if you’re losing fitness, whether you should squeeze in one more long run, or why your legs suddenly feel heavy. But here’s the key: You don’t get faster during your taper by squeezing in more fitness. You get faster by...
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308. Carb Loading Before a Marathon: What Most Runners Get Wrong with Brooke Czarnecki, RDN, LD
Healthy Runner Podcast
Are you carb loading correctly before your marathon, or could your nutrition strategy be setting you up to hit the dreaded wall at mile 20? If you think carb loading means eating a giant bowl of pasta the night before your race, you're not alone! But proper marathon carb loading involves much more than one big meal. In this episode of the Healthy Runner Podcast, Dr. Duane Scotti sits down with registered dietitian and endurance sports nutrition expert from our team to break down exactly how to carb load before a marathon or half marathon. You'll learn when to start carb loading, what foods...
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307. 3 Common Marathon Injuries: How to Treat Them Without Giving Up Running with Carolyn Coffin
Healthy Runner Podcast
What happens when your hamstring, IT band, or Achilles starts hurting in the middle of marathon training? Do you really need to stop running completely? Not necessarily! In Episode 307 of the Healthy Runner Podcast, I’m sharing an insightful conversation I had with Carolyn Coffin from the Inspired Soles Podcast about 3 of the most common injuries that can derail marathon training and what you can actually do about them without automatically giving up running. We take a deep dive into: 🏃🏻♀️ Proximal hamstring tendinopathy: Why stretching that nagging pain near your sit bone may...
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306. How to Train for Disney Marathon Weekend: 5 Mistakes Runners Make with Coach Whitney LaCombe
Healthy Runner Podcast
Training for RunDisney? and learn how to train for the entire Disney experience…not just the miles 🏰🔋 Are you training for Disney Marathon Weekend like you would for any other marathon? That could be one of the biggest mistakes you make. Disney Marathon Weekend isn't just about covering 26.2 miles. Between the early wake-ups, standing in corrals, walking through the parks, Florida weather, and for Goofy and Dopey runners… racing on back-to-back days, your body has to handle much more than the mileage on your training plan! In this episode of the Healthy Runner Podcast, I’m...
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305. What Jon Levitt Learned from 850,000 Runners About Running After 40
Healthy Runner Podcast
Have you ever wondered if you can keep running (not just through this season) but for the rest of your life? If you're over 40 and you've started questioning whether your body can keep up, this episode is for you. Joining me today is Jon Levitt, host of the popular For The Long Run podcast, where he's spent years interviewing some of the world's best runners, coaches, sports scientists, and researchers to answer one big question: What does it actually take to achieve sustainable excellence? Through conversations reaching more than 850,000 runners every month, Jon has uncovered the common...
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304. Disney Marathon Training: The Strength Work Most Runners Skip
Healthy Runner Podcast
Training for RunDisney? and learn how to train for the entire Disney experience…not just the miles 🏰🔋 Disney Marathon Weekend isn't just a marathon… it's one of the most unique endurance events you'll ever train for. Between miles on unforgiving concrete, long days walking through the parks, early morning wake-ups, and for many runners, back-to-back races like Goofy and Dopey, your body needs more than just a running plan. It needs a strength plan. In this episode, Dr. Duane Scotti, running physical therapist, running coach, and two-time Dopey finisher, shares the exact 20-week...
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303. Stop Stretching Your IT Band! Do This Instead to Finally Beat IT Band Syndrome
Healthy Runner Podcast
Have you been stretching your IT band every day… yet the pain on the outside of your knee keeps coming back? Here's the truth that surprises most runners: you can't actually stretch your IT band. In this episode, Dr. Duane Scotti, running physical therapist, running coach, and 8x marathoner, explains why the traditional "IT band stretch" isn't solving your problem and why it may even be keeping you stuck in the injury cycle. You'll learn why IT band syndrome isn't caused by a "tight IT band," what's really driving that sharp pain on the outside of your knee, and the three evidence-based...
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302. Marathon Training Mistakes That Lead to Injury (With Jason Fitzgerald)
Healthy Runner Podcast
If you're training for a marathon, this episode could save you months of frustration and help you reach the starting line healthy and ready to perform your best. Joining me for his fourth appearance on the Healthy Runner Podcast is marathon coach Jason Fitzgerald, founder of Strength Running, USATF-certified coach, and 2:39 marathoner. Together, we answer some of the biggest questions marathon runners have, including: ✅ Why runners hit the wall around mile 20 ✅ The marathon workouts that actually matter (and the ones you can stop stressing about) ✅ How to structure your long runs for...
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301. My First Ever Marathon DNF: What Every Runner Can Learn From It
Healthy Runner Podcast
Grab your FREE Last week, I did something I never thought I would do. I stepped off the course at mile 13.1 of the Buffalo Marathon and recorded my first ever DNF. After completing seven marathons, I finally had a race that didn't go according to plan. But here's the crazy part... Just six days later, I found myself standing on another marathon starting line. And by the end of that race, I crossed the finish line of marathon number eight. In this episode, I share the full story behind my first DNF, why I made the difficult decision to stop, why I chose to run another marathon less than a week...
info_outlineFREE Marathon Training Guide: Train Smarter & Race Strong → Download Here
You can be in the best shape of your life and still miss your marathon goal if you don’t execute properly on race day.
So how do you take months of training and turn that fitness into your best possible marathon?
In this episode of the Healthy Runner Podcast, I sit down with 2:19 marathoner, running coach, and writer Peter Bromka to break down how to race your marathon for peak performance.
Peter shares lessons from years of racing, coaching, studying, and writing about the marathon. He also includes why this distance is so difficult to get right and what separates being marathon-fit from actually executing a great race.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- What to do (and avoid) during the final 24–48 hours before your marathon
- How the first 3–5 miles should feel so you don’t make the classic mistake of starting too fast
- What to focus on during miles 6–18 when you’re feeling good but still have a long way to go
- How to approach the final 10K when the marathon really starts to hurt
- Mental strategies for when your brain starts telling you to slow down or stop
- How to respond when you fall off goal pace without letting one bad mile turn into five
- How to adjust your race strategy for hills, wind, heat, and unexpected race-day conditions
- The biggest mistake Peter sees runners make during the marathon
- Peter’s three keys to getting the most out of your fitness on race day
Plus, Peter takes on the Spark Lightning Round, sharing his quick takes on GPS watches, pace bands, even versus negative splits, running the tangents, music, when to make your move, and chasing a marathon PR.
Whether you’re trying to finish your first marathon, break 5 hours, qualify for Boston, or set a new PR, this episode will help you race smarter, stay mentally strong, and execute the marathon you’ve trained so hard for.
Listen now and learn how to turn your marathon fitness into your best race.
Connect with Peter Bromka:
- Instagram: @bromka
Listen next: Episode 309 — Tapering 101: How to Taper Before a Marathon
If this episode helps you, share it with another runner who has a goal marathon coming up.
Grab your FREE Marathon Training Guide Here!
A big thanks to CEP for your support for this episode!
Healthy Runner listeners get 15% off their entire order when shopping CEP Running online through November 15!
Shop CEP Running or enter code LRL-NYC-15 at checkout.
Offer ends November 16, 2026, at 3:00 AM EST. Limit one use per customer. Cannot be combined with other discounts.
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Long runs, hard workouts, and sweaty training sessions can take a lot out of you, especially when you're training in the heat.
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Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://www.DrinkLMNT.com/healthyrunner
Proper hydration and fueling are key parts of building a strong, healthy, and durable running body. Give LMNT a try and find your favorite flavor, mine is watermelon! 🍉
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👋🏼 New here?
I’m Dr. Duane Scotti, former physical therapy professor turned full-time running coach, running physical therapist, and 9x marathoner 🏅
I help everyday runners stop nagging injuries, get stronger, and finally feel confident in their training by blending rehab-level expertise with performance training.
If you found this helpful, make sure to follow the Healthy Runner Podcast and share this episode with a runner who needs to hear it.
Connect with Dr. Duane:
- Instagram - @sparkhealthyrunner
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