I ran my first marathon in April in 3:37:20 which as a 40yo/f was Boston qualifying but realistically probably not enough to actually get in. I really enjoyed the distance and the training and am planning to do another in November. I'm wondering if its realistic to think I can improve 3-5 minutes. I'm wondering how much other people improved from their first to second marathon.
I did run negative splits, each 10K was faster then the last and I didn't really hit the wall until 25.5 miles so I would say the race went well. My slowest mile was a 8:43 and my fastest was a 7:55 which makes me think I may want to speed up the first half of my race but I'm not sure if that would cause me to hit the wall earlier. I was absolutely exhausted at the end.
I've got a lot of experience running and training (since middle school) but all of my experience is with the 5k-mini marathon. I know between my first two minis I improved 6 minutes but I was in my 20s and didn't run a very good first one.
Anyway I know there's no 'right' answer anyone can give but I'm just wondering about other people's experiences or thoughts.