Brian Rock 
Feature photo by Naoki Nakashi on Flickr – CC BYSA 2.0 It’s been a couple of weeks now since the Tokyo Marathon. I wrote up a general analysis of the data from the race, and I followed that up with an exploration of how the field varied throughout the corrals. But that preliminary data was … Read more
I guess the title of these posts will now become, “JC Marathon Training.” Because this week was the United Airlines NYC Half – and it’s officially in the past. Despite the crumby weather, it was a great race and a fun time. I came up a little short of my goal, but I’ve got no … Read more
This weekend, I ran the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon. I applied through the lottery for this race last year, and I didn’t get in. I did get into Brooklyn, and I had a blast there. I had lofty goals of hitting the 1:25 time qualifier for the NYC Marathon, but it wasn’t in the … Read more
Feature Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash If you were to ask which marathon training plan is the most popular, I’d probably say Hal Higdon. He is frequently recommended on r/Running and r/Marathon_Training to new runners, and when you look at the Google Search data people look for information on him much more frequently than … Read more
Feature image by Dietmar Rabich on Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 4.0 Time flies, and just like that we’re it’s almost time for the United NYC Half Marathon. Seems like just yesterday I was running Fred Lebow – and March seemed a far way off. This training block started off slowly. The first couple of … Read more
Feature image by nakashi on Wikimedia Commons – CC BY-SA 2.0 Last week, I published an analysis of the 2025 Tokyo Marathon and shared some insights from the data. I collected the preliminary results, including some demographic data and finish times, and came to three general conclusions: This analysis prompted a decent amount of discussion, … Read more
Feature photo by nakashi on Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 2.0. Scenes from the 2024 Tokyo Marathon This past weekend was the Tokyo Marathon — the first Abbott World Marathon Major of 2025. Last year was an exciting one for the series: So what does this year have in store us? The 2024 Tokyo Marathon was exciting in its … Read more
Are you bummed that you didn’t make it into the Chicago or New York City Marathons? Well, you’re not alone. New York City had 200,000 applicants for its lottery, and only 2-3% got in. There were ‘only’ 160,000 applicants for Chicago’s lottery, so your odds there might have been a bit better. But far more … Read more
It took a few weeks, but I’m finally getting into the groove of training. Last week was a pretty good week, with a solid(ish) twenty mile long run, and an improving pace on my easy runs. Winter is also (mostly) behind us. It’s still chilly in the mornings, but there shouldn’t be too many more … Read more
Last week, I published an analysis of the new Boston Marathon qualifying times. That analysis quite clearly shows that the qualification rate – the percentage of runners in a given age group who run a qualifying time – increases with age. A few age groups in particular – 45-49, 60-64, and 65-69 – had disproportionately … Read more