On a rainy Saturday in June 2024, Hannah Zarzecki cried as she crossed the Grandma’s Marathon finish line. It was her eighth marathon, and despite following a training plan, she didn’t achieve her sub-4 goal—again. My feet hurt,’” she says.
A high school cross-country runner, Zarzecki returned to the sport after graduating from Harvard University, where she played ice hockey. Wanting a goal to work toward, she entered the 2018 Chicago Marathon lottery and won a bib in her hometown race. Leading up to the race, Zarzecki had not run more than about 15 miles and didn’t follow a training plan.
She was in good shape from teaching spin classes several nights a week and wasn’t sure how else to prepare. I’m either gonna finish this marathon, or I am gonna end up in the hospital, she remembers thinking. She was surprised and proud when, taking walk breaks, she ran her way to the finish in 5:04:59.
Not convinced that marathons were for her, Zarzecki turned her focus to shorter distances, 10Ks and half marathons—until a spin class student told her about completing the Berlin Marathon. She loved the idea of traveling to run races in other countries, so she applied for and got into the same marathon. After loosely following a training plan she found online this time, she ran and walked the 2021 Berlin Marathon in 5:16:32.
Disappointed, she decided to commit to working on her time. Zarzecki found a coach on Instagram whom she paid to create a training plan for her. She devoted herself to this regimen, which included her first experience with speedwork and intervals.
She also joined the Electric Athletic Club in Chicago and participated in their group runs. Zarzecki raced the 2022 Rock ’n’ Roll Nashville Marathon. Without taking walking breaks, she finished in 4:12:11, improving her Berlin time by more than an hour seven months later.
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