Marathon Training Essentials Real Women Swear By

Running—and training for—a marathon is no easy feat. It requires serious dedication: You're investing quite a bit amount of time and energy into a grueling, 26.2-mile run that usually involves a combo of blood, sweat and tears. (Maybe not the blood, but definitely sweat. And tears.) But it's the days, weeks and months before a marathon that really matter: It's during your training period that you get your running legs, proverbial or otherwise. So what do you need to get through a day of interval sprints or a Sunday long run? Cool gear, essential fuel, some tunes (or a podcast) and more. We spoke with a few real-life marathoners (this writer included!) to find out what gets you through the good, bad or just plain awesome training runs—and, of course, race day.