{"id":21510,"date":"2026-04-24T18:48:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21510\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:48:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:48:44","slug":"at-65-i-run-a-129-half-marathon-and-am-aiming-to-break-320-at-the-london-marathon-heres-how-i-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/21510\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018At 65, I run a 1:29 half marathon and am aiming to break 3:20 at the London Marathon \u2013 here\u2019s how I train\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Kleanthous and the London Marathon<\/a> go back a long way. The Leighton Buzzard man ran the very first edition of the race in 1981 \u2013 and now, he\u2019ll be back this year as a 65-year-old trying to break the 3:20 mark. If he does so, it\u2019ll be his fastest marathon in 25 years and an extraordinary feat. RW caught up with Mark to find out how he\u2019s managed to stay quick into his 60s \u2013 and what advice he has for others looking to do the same. <\/p>\n

\u2018I finished last in the school cross-country<\/a> race when I was 10. My sports school teacher, who I looked up to at the time, said, \u201cMark, you\u2019ll never run a marathon<\/a>.\u201d I felt embarrassed, but somewhere inside me I think it planted a seed: I wanted to prove him wrong.<\/p>\n

\u2018I first heard about the London Marathon in Athletics Weekly. There was no internet back then. To enter it, I had to go the building society, write out a cheque and send it on a self-addressed envelope. I was 20 at the time.<\/p>\n

\u2018I tried joining a few well-known running clubs, but felt rejected, so tried to work it all out myself. I think that I got up to about 10 miles before that first marathon. I was so unprepared. I remember wearing two pairs of socks in a pair of New Balance<\/a> shoes that were far too big, because someone had told me that that\u2019s what you should do. I was really struggling by the end, but I\u2019d been bitten by the marathon bug.<\/p>\n

\"runnerSupplied by Jungle Cat Solutions<\/p>\n

Mark deep in the pain cave during the final miles of his first London Marathon<\/p>\n

\u2018I now run a maximum of five times a week and I have two consecutive rest days a week. I took up triathlon, competing in 40 Ironman-distance triathlons, and still like to replicate that sort of cross-training<\/a>. The last three years, I\u2019ve also been using a Concept2 rowing machine<\/a>. When I\u2019m cycling, I make sure that I used a very high cadence to try to replicate my running cadence<\/a>, while keeping my heart rate low. <\/p>\n

\u2018Sometimes I\u2019ll do, say, a 90-minute long run<\/a> and then hop straight on the bike and keep going. It\u2019s a way of getting in the volume while reducing the injury risk.<\/p>\n

\u2018I swim<\/a> a bit, too. You don\u2019t necessarily have to swim fast, but you can skip some breaths. So you might breathe in every fourth or fifth stroke. It\u2019s hypoxic training \u2013 you\u2019re building up your lungs. You have to work up to slowly, though, and make sure that you\u2019re not getting light-headed.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t stretch and I don\u2019t do intervals<\/a>. Instead of stretching, I warm up slowly on the run. It always amazes me how fast some people run to warm up for a race. I run slowly, do some strides at race pace, then I\u2019m ready to go. In terms of intervals, marathon runners tend to do them too quickly, then do their long runs too slowly. So there\u2019s hardly anything in their training that replicates the race. <\/p>\n

\u2018I sometimes speak to runners in their 70s, who say that it takes them more than a week to recover from a hard track session. For me, I want to run again tomorrow and the day after, so I prioritise consistency over one-off sessions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Technique is important as well. Back in the 80s, I used to run with someone who told me, \u201cPut pennies in your pocket and try to keep them from rattling around too much.\u201d I\u2019ve since progressed to wearing a Camelbak that\u2019s half full of water and trying to run without it sloshing around excessively.<\/p>\n

\u2018This year, I ran 1:29 at the Cambridge Half Marathon. I won my age category by almost four minutes. And it\u2019s a big race \u2013 there are over 14,000 runners. So you start thinking, \u201cWhat could I do over the marathon?\u201d So I decided to see if I could beat my time from 25 years ago \u2013 I\u2019m aiming to run sub-3:20.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve run 126 marathons over the years and have only finished slower than four hours on two occasions, both at Beachy Head. My decline has been very gradual and I think that\u2019s because I don\u2019t tend to get injured. I listen to my body. I\u2019m happy to take time off. I\u2019m happy to cross-train. <\/p>\n

\"displaySupplied by Jungle Cat Solutions<\/p>\n

Mark has run more than 100 marathons \u2013 and shows no sign of slowing down<\/p>\n

\u2018Lots of people get tapering wrong. The more confident that I am, the less I run during the taper and the better I perform. That means me going out for literally 15 to 20 minutes a few times a week. Too many people run too much during the taper and get to the start line with tired legs.<\/p>\n

\u2018I also take the natural food supplement CurraNZ<\/a>, which is made from New Zealand blackcurrants. It\u2019s definitely reduced DOMS after workouts. CurraNZ also helps me to maintain pace for longer, which in the latter stages of a marathon is often where time is lost. I tend to take one a day, but I\u2019ll take three on race morning \u2013 two a few hours before the race, then one just beforehand.\u2019 <\/p>\n

Mark is running this year\u2019s London Marathon for Leighton Buzzard Mencap \u2013 you can support his fundraising efforts here<\/a>.
<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Kleanthous and the London Marathon go back a long way. The Leighton Buzzard man ran the very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[7681,4552,9870,2771,9869,2770,27,9868,7890],"class_list":["post-21510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-collection-london-marathon","tag-content-type-default","tag-contentid-f8efd1ed-d92c-4cb8-aa61-c2683e907b53","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-i-run-a-129-half-heres-how-i-train","tag-locale-gb","tag-london","tag-shorttitle-at-65","tag-subsection-motivation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116461181702268307","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}