Speaking from personal experience, the closer you get to marathon day, the louder the worries become. Can I really make it to the start line when I’m so sore and tired all the time? Are my long runs and weekly mileage on par with everyone else’s? Do I even want to be doing this anymore? That is, unless you’re the reigning champion, Hellen Obiri.

This weekend, she’ll be making her return to the New York City Marathon—which she won last year in a course record of 2 hours, 19 minutes, 51 seconds. When I chatted with the On Running athlete a few weeks out from the race, she had just wrapped up a morning session of 12.4 miles and still had another five on deck later that day. It seems like a lot, but “the evening session is always very easy,” she assured me.

Obiri, 36, has won four marathons (NYC and Boston, two times each), and though she knows everyone will be watching to see if she’ll do it again, she doesn’t seem affected by the pressure. “When you're the reigning champion, everybody's looking at you and wondering what you can do,” she says. “You have that pressure of, ‘How can I win back to back?’”

But Obiri knows that in a marathon, anything can happen. It’s a long distance, and she’s competing against the best of the best—so she’s not counting a single person out. “For me, [the key] is to keep training well, and to keep that in my mind: I'm the defending champion,” Obiri says. “The most important thing is to stay safe and to stay healthy, and then everything's possible.”

Here’s what she’s doing to prepare for race day—and her advice to those heading to a starting line soon.

This year, Obiri hasn’t changed much about her training plan.

Because, well, it worked so well in 2025. “Sometimes we do study who is in the race,” she admits, though she didn’t name drop any one contender she has her eye on this year.

Each week, she logs over 100 miles, and gives herself two to three days to recover after a long run or speed session. (Recovery days still often consist of easy miles, though.) Her longest run heading into November 1? Twenty-four miles. Even the best of the best don’t run the full distance until race day.

She also preps—both physically and mentally—for pushing through particularly hard moments. Will she still have enough in the tank to keep pushing the pace with her speedy competitors come mile 20? What about in those last 100 meters if she needs to dig deep for a sprint finish?

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It’s her second year working with On coach Laura Thweatt, who also boasts an impressive history with the NYC Marathon, placing eighth in 2021. Having a coach who has also raced New York has made a huge difference, Obiri says, because she knows what it’s like to train for this specific race and also what it takes to do well. Plus, Thweatt is able to join her on runs (though she won’t be running the race herself). “She’s my training partner,” Obiri says.

Thweatt is also Obiri’s first-ever female coach, and that’s not to be underestimated, either. “To have a female coach, you can't hide something from her,” Obiri says. “She already knows everything, what you're going through in your mind, in your body.”

Beyond running, Obiri does strength work three times per week, focusing on lower-body muscles like her calves and glutes, but surprisingly, she’s pretty focused on her arms, too. At her level, everything counts, including how strong your arms are when you’re swinging them during a race—an area that needs some improvement, she says.

Though she does physical therapy twice per week, Obiri has a recovery secret weapon.

She naps. Often. After her morning session, Obiri takes a snooze. Then, she heads to lunch. After lunch? She’s napping again. “I sleep a lot,” she says. Obiri estimates that she spends anywhere from five to six hours a day napping.

For Obiri, the basics—sleeping, eating, and hydrating—are the most important things for feeling her best. And when it comes to hydration, Obiri’s not getting caught up in the electrolyte craze or downing gallons of water. Instead, she relies on tea as her main source for fluids. She drinks all different kinds, but will make it in a big batch, complete with milk and three spoonfuls of sugar per cup.

“I’m addicted to tea with sugar,” she says. She has about seven cups per day, including before a run. It’s an easy way to get some extra carbs in, for sure. Along with her tea, before her 6:45 a.m. run, Obiri will have two slices of bread and a banana. “I can’t go on my runs with an empty stomach,” she says.

If you’re about to run a marathon, Obiri has some advice for you, too.

First, stay present in your body.

“The most important thing is to listen to your body,” she says. You might be feeling the excitement right off the bat or trying to keep up with the crowd, but remember to pay attention to how you feel and not go too hard too soon. “Don't go crazy because it's a marathon—it's a long journey—and needs patience,” she says. Make sure you’re keeping on top of fluids and fuel, too.

Second, just keep moving.

At this point, you may be deep into training and feeling drained—that’s completely normal, but does require a mindset shift. When Obiri is lacking motivation, she just tells herself she has to do it, or at least start it. “If I start, I will finish it,” she says. And, when a run gets hard? No matter how far she is from the end, she tells herself, “I’m almost there.”

Finally, stay focused on yourself.

It’s possible your For You Page (like mine) is filled with people freaking out about where they’re at in training—and it can be pretty easy to compare yourself to them. Maybe you have friends crushing long runs on Strava and are starting to wonder if it says anything about your progress.

Whatever it is, stay focused on your own program. “Everybody trains differently, so just know you have trained well and focus on your body, and trust me, you’ll be at the finish line and run well,” Obiri says.

Ultimately, your marathon is about you and what you did to get there. “Trust yourself, trust what you have been training for, and be ready to do what you have been training for six months or longer,” Obiri says.