When Sue Redding crossed the finish line of the 2022 Marine Corps Marathon in 5:01:12, she knew she’d return to break the 5-hour mark. But the 2023 race was unseasonably hot and humid, leading to a time of 5:49:43, followed by a 5:28:09 finish in 2024. Although Sue, who lives in Frederick County, Maryland, had been “getting to that age where every joint hurts” and marathoning is “a big time commitment,” she wouldn’t give up marathoning until she ran sub-5.
Sue started running almost 40 years earlier and raced her first 26.2 miles at the 2002 Baltimore Marathon. The 2025 Marine Corps Marathon was her seventh attempt—but this time, the 58-year-old was using a new training technique, and she was excited to see how far it would take her. Sue crossed the finish line in 4:55:54—and set a new PR.
That technique that led to her shiny new personal best? Running by optimal cadence. The idea of cadence training, which helps adjust and optimize step rate and generally targets 160-180 steps per minute (but can be lower or higher based on the individual), was not new to Sue; she had just always dismissed it as something she didn’t need to pay attention to.
But then, two years ago, she attended Another Mother Runner running retreat and, during a book exchange, received a copy of Born to Run, where Christopher McDougall explained cadence in a way that clicked for her. He links cadence training to the song “Rock Lobster” by the B-52s, Sue says, asking readers to start by standing up with their back against the wall and trying to run to the beat of the song with their knees high and without kicking the wall. The experience made her believe that she could pace a marathon the same way.
Now, Sue runs faster than she did in her 30s. Increasing your cadence can be a slow process, but one that can bring many benefits. Cadence is directly linked to running efficiency, says Alison Freeman, a triathlon coach based in Boulder, Colorado, cofounder of NYX Endurance coaching, and the author of Unlocking Triathlon: Training Plans and Coaching Support for a Confident Race Day.
You can run stronger or faster on race day.” Cadence training has also been linked to injury prevention. A 2025 study published in The Cureus Journal of Medical Science concluded that increasing your running cadence by 5 to 10 percent reduces lower-body impact forces and decreases the risk of common overuse injuries like runner’s knee and shin splints. With that knowledge, you can start looking into increasing the number.
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