Forums >General Running>I've Lost That Loving Feeling...?
Dear OP -- there will be future marathons (I hope!) My vote is for skipping this one and concentrating on becoming a runner for the long haul, which would obviously be even cooler than running a marathon. The paces on your training runs are actually pretty quick. I bet there is some talent in there. If you train smart, you will not just be completing marathons, you will be kicking ass. Cheers!
Dear OP -- there will be future marathons (I hope!) My vote is for skipping this one and concentrating on becoming a runner for the long haul, which would obviously be even cooler than running a marathon.
The paces on your training runs are actually pretty quick. I bet there is some talent in there. If you train smart, you will not just be completing marathons, you will be kicking ass.
Cheers!
I'll give +318 of my votes to this, Jeff. I think several of us, including myself earlier, had suggested to skip this marathon but OP decided to ignore all that and go for it. It's what I call "a partial Rocky syndrome". If you're determined enough, you can do anything!! Unfortunately, far too many somehow missed the scene where he got up at 4:30 (if you skip anything, skip the egg-drinking part), struggle up the stairs...and all the training that followed after that until the fight. Either way, she's made up her mind. So I switched my goal to "how can we help her minimize the damage...?"
Obviously common sense is shouting "Don't Run" at the top of its lungs. But we are runners. How often do we listed to common sense? If we did we would probably be much faster and injured much less frequently but most of us don't.
There will always be more marathons to run if you skip this one, but there will also always be more marathons to run if you decide to go for it in Portland and have a bad race.
There is nothing wrong with starting a marathon that you are not prepared for. I would guess that >90% of us do that every time we take the starting line at a marathon (I'm going to do that at Cape Cod next month).
If you decide to run, please remember that a DNF is MUCH better than an injury.
Once you are injured, death marching to the finish is not an accomplishment or a sign of strength or courage. It is a sign of weakness and fear of admitting to not finishing a race. It says much more about a person who has the intelligence and courage to drop out of a race rather than turn a minor injury into a major.
(I should have dropped out of my marathon last January when I first injured my knee but was afraid to tell people I went to Italy to run a marathon and dropped out at 25km so I finished it with my slowest road time since 2005. It took ~3 months to really get over all the injuries I picked up by letting the twisted knee throw off the rest of my stride).
#artbydmcbride
The race in Portland has a half marathon.....
Runners run
not bad for mile 25
However,
No. Crashing the last few miles of the Half-Marathon Course is unfair to the runners who registered for the event.
To the OP (April),
Bear in mind that all this lively discussion is because we've been there...undertrained, unmotivated, racked with self-doubt. It's not that you have messed up any more than the rest of us. Go run it, jog it, run/walk it, or even DNF it, and your support system is going to be there for you. I think everyone's main concern is that you don't injure yourself, so just take it easy and take the results for what they're worth (which may be quite a bit!).
rectumdamnnearkilledem
However, No. Crashing the last few miles of the Half-Marathon Course is unfair to the runners who registered for the event.
I don't understand that policy. How the hell does anyone even know if a marathon runner decides somewhere before the half to change events? So a person can take a DNF on the marathon, but not decide mid-race that they want to opt for the shorter distance? I can understand why they wouldn't want HM participants changing their minds for safety/medical/food/beverage preparations and generally HMs cost less than the full, but I see no reason in most races that a person registered for the longer event couldn't simply opt to take the shorter course and notify a race marshall at the finish to change their event. If I were running a HM and someone registered for the full decided that they weren't up for it and wanted to change to the HM mid-race it wouldn't bother me in the least.
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
Different courses. Different route.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
Enjoy life
Assuming it's an event where one could easily change distances mid-race, where's the problem?
This policy is specific to the Portland Marathon as they have two different courses for the half and full.
Ahhh...OK. I have seen this sort of policy attached to races that use the same course for many miles and it's never really made sense. Some have been out/back sorts of courses with different turn-arounds. I've always wondered why someone couldn't simply decide to turn around at the turn for the HM. A lot of times they have timing mats at those turn spots, so there would be proof that a person didn't simply cut at an odd spot and cheat.
I wasn't suggesting changing to the half during the race....but officially switching at the EXPO the day before. (or if not officially, just starting with the Halfies and running that race.)
I think she'd have to do the latter. The FAQ says that changing after registration is closed is a Very Bad Thing.
MTA: I recall SRL and others relating that the Portland RD is extremely rigid and inflexible. I think they used more eloquent terminology than that.
Don't I remember reading that the Portland marathon is run by a bunch of mean idiots and that entry is like $140 for the half (more than the full)? Or was that Seattle? It was definitely somewhere west of Ohio.
You beat me by a hair about Portland. Is there indeed life west of Ohio?
Hey!