We spoke to the Olympian who took hugely encouraging first steps in his marathon career with fourth place in New York.
Age: 29; Coaches: Alistair and Amy Cragg
Patrick Dever made a conscious effort to prioritize consistency over perfection in 2025 and it paid off with a fourth place finish in the New York City Marathon, his time of 2:08:58 good enough for 10th on the UK all-time list.
An experienced international athlete – in 2022 he competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Championships (10,000 m) and European Championships (5,000 m), as well as for England at the Commonwealth Games (5,000 m), while in 2024 he once again donned the British vest at the European Championships (10,000 m) and Olympic Games (5,000 m) – he was frustrated at not having met his high expectations in such events. high profile.
“One of the greatest lessons I learned [in 2024] “It wasn’t too much going up or down after a particular race or workout,” Preston Harrier said at the time. “I think just trying to stay a little more level-headed will allow me to peak when it matters and not burn out emotionally.”
It just so happened that training for a marathon (when the decision was finally made to increase the distance) lends itself perfectly to such a rational approach.
While Dever modestly claims that his preparation was “pretty good,” the main thing, he says, was that he didn’t have to miss anything. “I think that’s why I did so well in New York,” he says. “Probably not all go as well as you could have done, but it’s about analyzing the work over a longer period of time. “I had definitely trained as well as I had in the nine or ten months before that, so it’s not just about the sessions you do close to the race, but consistency over a longer period.”
Dever, a member of the PUMA Elite Running Team trained by Alistair and Amy Cragg in North Carolina, USA, had obvious marathon potential; He ran 60:11 at the Houston Half Marathon in January (fourth on the UK all-time list), then 60:19 at the New York City Half Marathon in March. Once marathon training began, his consistency continued with a 60:17 at the Copenhagen Half Marathon in September.
When he took on pacing duties at the Chicago Marathon in October (he reached the halfway mark in 60:16, taking the opportunity to practice running at a good pace while sipping drinks), he knew he was ready.
“Alistair had wanted me to do a marathon for quite some time,” says the 29-year-old, who admits that opting to debut in New York, a notoriously tough race, removed his potentially destructive fixation with time. “I guess the way we looked at it was that if [the marathon] It was a possibility for the ’28 Olympics, it would be better to do it sooner rather than later, because I couldn’t expect to arrive and achieve an Olympic qualifying time on the first try. I really wanted to respect the event and make sure I had enough time to prepare.
“The race itself was pretty incredible. Growing up in this sport, I always thought that being in a stadium on a track was the biggest stage, and I guess it still is, in a way, but when you’re around a major marathon, it’s a big spectacle in town. I can remember the amount of spectators on the field… at some points the noise was deafening. I definitely knew it was going to be big, but, when I was in it, it was great.”
A typical training week (at altitude in Park City, Utah, October 2025)
Construction of Dever’s New York City Marathon was completed in 12 weeks.
The easy runs were for feel rather than pace (evening runs generally at a slower pace than morning runs), while the Friday session, described as a “rotation session” with the aim of clearing the legs, was introduced during the second half of the build-up and was rarely run at a pace higher than 5km.
Gym workouts were performed three times a week after morning running on non-session days (including an optional session during the marathon block). “We did a lot of things around body weight, general conditioning and mobility,” he says; “Although once we were in full marathon training, it was more about doing what we needed to do and getting home as quickly as possible to focus on recovery.”
- Monday: (am) 75min; (pm) 35min
- Tuesday: (am) 75min; (pm) 35min
- Wednesday: (am) track session – e.g. 5 x (2km-3min recovery-1km-2min recovery); (pm) 35min
- Thursday: (am) 75min
- Friday: (am) rotation session such as 16x400m in 60 seconds on the track or 2x (8x300m) on a Park City bike path (alternating downhill/uphill); (pm) 35min
- Saturday: (am) 60min
- Sunday: (am), this would be a long run to gain time (“The best we did was 2:30,” says Dever. “The pace didn’t matter, although we were naturally going to get faster towards the end.”) or a long run workout like a 2 to 2.5 mile warm-up – 3 mile pace – 10 mile (alternating between marathon pace and 45 seconds slower than marathon pace) – 3 mile pace (about 3 minute standing recovery in between) – 2 miles (max) cool down, or 2.5 miles warm up – 5 x 4 miles at marathon pace with 3 minutes – 2 miles cool down. (“I actually did 4 x 4 miles and then 2 miles on the fifth set that day, so that was an example of where things didn’t go exactly as planned!”)
Favorite session: “Probably switch day. Because I’m not that far from the track, it’s still nice to feel kind of fast, and I definitely think as a marathon runner it’s still important to train for those things. The way some of the Kenyan guys were running in New York, it was a little fartlek – at some points we were running 65-second 400-meter pace for a short period of time – so it’s definitely good to do those things on the track.”
Least favorite session: “The long run to gain time. Even in the marathon you finish in just over two hours… so having to keep going until 2:30, it was just getting used to running for such a long period of time.”
