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About The Twentysixers Marathon Training Club

The Twentysixers Marathon Training Club is based in Santa Monica, CA and is dedicated to providing a safe, fun and professionally coached marathon training experience for both novice and experienced marathon, half marathon and ultra-marathon runners. Run with us and have a great time. We do exotic runs each year like our famous Stair Run, The Steepest Streets in LA, and our summer running in Death Valley as examples. We believe in providing a smaller more intimate club where everybody knows your name. We train all types of runners. Our members range in age from 18 to 61 years old at present.

Each year, we put together a formal training program to help marathoners train for and complete the LA Marathon, Long Beach Half Marathon and City of Angeles Half Marathon. In addition to these well attended local marathons, we also provide training programs and coaching to help any marathoner train for and complete any marathon they are interested in running.

What separates us from the other large running organizations in Los Angeles is that we actually provide hands on coaching for each runner. The other large clubs usually have volunteer mentors and while some of these mentors are quite good, it has been our experience that you get what you pay for when it comes to training. We believe that every runner in our club should be getting the same information and coaching and this just does not happen with the big clubs. This is not good for the novice marathoner and is why these large groups typically have a 50% failure rate each year based on the number of runners and walkers that sign up at the beginning and are still running come race day.

If you want actual coaching, smaller pace groups, interesting routes to run and can run on Sunday mornings, then the Twentysixers is your marathon training club. Even if you can't make it on Sundays, we can still provide training to you via email as our primary focus is to make sure each runner has the tools and knowledge he or she needs to be successful in marathoning.

Coaches

Rodney and Dan have been coaching and mentoring both experienced and first time runners to train for and complete their first marathon and or half-marathon since 1999. We have mentored runners and groups of runners ranging from 7 ½ minutes per mile to 14 minutes per mile. While we tend to focus on marathoners, we have also coached age group winners from 5K to ultra marathon distances. Not only do we coach our runners, but we run with them during training runs and marathons in order to provide a better, richer learning experience for everyone. Our experience running at various paces has allowed us to truly understand the needs of a wide range of runners and their abilities and challenges as they prepare for their first marathon or half marathon experience. We have also leveraged this knowledge and experience in helping experienced marathoners improve on their times and achieve their running goals. Dan is certified as a personal trainer through National Academy of Sports Medicine and Rodney has a BA in Kinesiology Summa Cum Laude and is certified as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Our primary goal is to help everyone sift through the incredible amount of different training philosophies that are put in running magazines each and every month and provide to our runners a program that is based on sound principles that each runner can use to build his or her foundation of running success while still having fun. While it is true that the primary goal is to cross that finish line at the end of the marathon, we believe strongly that you should enjoy and embrace the training that will allow you to reach that finish line. Each training session builds on the previous one and while you may have tough runs from time to time, the end result is a new, fitter, more confident you. You may run many marathons, but they will all be different as will the training that you put in for each of those races. Age, strength, flexibility, injuries, health, life, work, family and even the weather all play a role in shaping each experience. Whether you decide to train with us or other clubs or on your own, we wish you the best, and we hope you take the time to be respectful and courteous to those you meet while running. Be safe and pay attention to cars, bikes and other hazards on the road and do your best to smile even during those tough runs.  Don’t worry, we all have tough runs both in life and running, but as long as we keep moving forward one step at a time, we will overcome any obstacles and finish the race.