Forums >Running 101>15 year old marathoner
THUGLIFE
Hello community, I am a new user here. I hope everyone is doing great and is having a good time with their running and their lives. I am Seth, I am 15 and from a small town in Kansas. One of my biggest goals I am wanting to do right now is run a marathon. The bad part is. I only have about 2 1/2 months to train until the race. I was wondering if there was anyone who would give me advice and recommendations as to running a marathon and long running. I have already started training for it but will still be easily behind schedule aways. I thank anyone who gives advice or replies. Thank you.
Bests...
1 mile: 5:44
2 mile: 12:48
5k: 20:05
10k: 57:55
I heard you're a player. Nice to meet you, I'm the coach.
runktrun
Not that it can't be done, but I would worry about the long term effects of running a marathon that young AND with a very short buildup.
How many miles a week are you currently running? How long have you been running? What are some of your recent race distances and times? You may be able to pull it off, but I would strongly urge you to postpone your marathon until you're a few years older, or at least until you can train consistently and establish a good base for about a year. An overuse injury at your age could precipitate years of nagging problems and squander your potential.
Not running for my health, but in spite of it.
Dear kilkee. I would notice that with some of your information. Of course I have done plenty of research about running a marathon of course. I do about 8-10 miles a week which I know is totally crap compared to running a marathon but I am hoping that with running awhile I will build up by the time of two and a half months. I have two years of running in JH track and cross country. My longest runs were a 10k here last saturday and my time was 58:44. My best was my 1st 10k and I ran it in 57:55. Not a big difference but I am needed to get back into shape as school and for my goal of doing a marathon. There has been lot of articles online that say yes teens shouldn't run a marathon but yet theres many that say people should train for one but maybe not run one. I know it is unlikely but I am looking forward to really doing this.
Not that it can't be done, but I would worry about the long term effects of running a marathon that young AND with a very short buildup. How many miles a week are you currently running? How long have you been running? What are some of your recent race distances and times? You may be able to pull it off, but I would strongly urge you to postpone your marathon until you're a few years older, or at least until you can train consistently and establish a good base for about a year. An overuse injury at your age could precipitate years of nagging problems and squander your potential.
+1. Kilkee knows what she is talking about and I think most everyone here would agree with her. I don't think anyone can give much advice if you don't have a base of running under you. A few years ago it was shocking to me to read (from multiple sources) that one needs to have a base of at least 40 miles a week for at least 6 months, preferably a year or longer, in order to run a marathon comfortably. Not to race, just to be comfortable (comfortable being a relative term). After having run a marathon on barely 25 miles a week, I can attest to the fact that the marathon can be finished on low mileage but it will not be pretty. At all. Why not make the goal to do a marathon in 2018 when you are 18? In the meantime, put some intermediate races on your schedule every few months as goals, not only for distance but also for time. See how fast you get, see how many miles you can run in a week, see how many miles you can run in a month, etc. There are so many accomplishments to be had in running there is no reason to rush it. Not to mention that the body will not be rushed and it takes those years to build the anatomy (muscles, tendons, mitochondria, capillaries, etc) necessary to run a marathon. And like kilkee said above, you risk losing your potential. You have years on your side and it will not take long at all, in the grand scheme of things, before you can run a marathon well.
2.5months=10weeks.
You body needs 6-8 weeks for some adaptation and at least 2 weeks or taper (reduced effort level) to be well rested for the race.
Are you active in any other sports?
Running your best marathon is about building your bodies systems: Mitochondria in the muscles, circulatory system to carry more blood and O2, Lactic Acid Clearing and your heart muscle. It takes years to develop them do do well ... you have 8 weeks. So all you can do it to build stamina and not near enough.
You best shot IMHO is to go for quantity of training. I would take the non-standard approach of quickly added lots of miles. Most people would want to run 20 Miles one week and then add 10% to 22 the next = a reasonable approach. If I were you I would start out with at least 6 days a week and shoot for 30 miles your 1st week and then 40 miles week 2 and 50 Miles week 3. You do not have to run the whole time, but you need to cover the distance. If you have to run 2 minutes and walk 2 minutes and then repeat that is fine. You will be able to cover 2-3 times the distance by running easy and taking walk breaks than trying to run the whole way.
Walk breaks should be brisk (Try to do 4 miles per hour if you can)
After week 3, try and take less frequent walk breaks and more running.
Week #1 = Long run / walk of 8 miles - Total = 30 miles
Week #2 = Long run / walk of 10 miles - Total = 40 Miles
Week #3 = Long run / walk of 12 miles - Total = 50 Miles
Week #4 = Long run / walk of 15 miles - Total = 40 Miles (only 40 miles to add a break to recover) - But run more of the miles
Week #5 = Long run / walk of 17 miles - Total = 45 MIles
Week #6 = Long run / walk of 18 miles - Total = 50 Miles
Week #7 = Long run / walk of 20 miles - Total = 50 Miles
Week #8 = Long run / walk of 16 miles - Total = 40 Miles - Try and run most the miles
Week #9 = Long run / walk of 12 miles - Total = 30 Miles - try and run all the miles
Week #10 Race week - Run 2-3 miles each day, take the day off before the marathon.
During this time you will have to really pay attention to drink enough water, get enough sleep and to eat well (healthy with more carbs than you currently do)
Either you will be successful or get injured. Without investing the proper amount of time to build up to it ... 3 to 1 you will get injured.
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Keep in mind that some races have age minimums (for good reason) for entering. I would recommend focusing on half marathon at 15 years old. I raised a runner son who was a recruited college runner. His coaches held him back in distance deliberately and he didn't even run a half marathon until he was 19. That plan served him well. His first marathon was at the end of the Kona Ironman World Championships.
Take your time before running and training for a full marathon.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
If you follow Dopplebock's program, I think you'll be able to finish the marathon, but my bet is by week 3 you'll realize running 50 miles a week is hard work and try to look for other shortcuts. If you'll try to run the marathon anyway then at about hour4 of your 5-5.5 hour marathon you'll want to never run again.
PS - If I were 15 and as stupid and stubborn as I am (I am still stupid and stubborn) - I could have went from not running to following the plan I laid out, but:
1) I was very active = Played tennis 6 days a week in summer and had to ride my bike 40 miles a day to get to the tennis.
2) I would have made the mamoth mistake of running too fast in training
3) I would have not gotten enough h20 or sleep
4) I would have had many naggly pains that I would have ignored ... my shins, achillies tendons, hip flexors, foot pain that might or might not have become injuries, but I would have ignored the pain and pushed on until I was either a success or broken.
By your 10k time you do not have much fitness from other sports, so you are in a hole to start.
No one here would recommend you try my plan (Including me - It is stupid), but some of us here would try it anyway.
Running your 1st marathon undertrained sucks. I ran my 1st marathon 11 months after starting running and had run a lot of 50-70 mile weeks and it was amazing.
Everyone and their little sister runs marathons, why don't you try for a 50k right away?
#artbydmcbride
Runners run
Well they say 100 miles is the new marathon, so maybe that's a better target.
In all seriousness I hope the OP posts back here to say he has reconsidered, & opted for a longer term approach. In that case there will be plenty of valuable advice to be had here.
Dave
I'm only 4 years old and so far my longest run has been 20 miles. I really don't have any desire to run further but still have plenty of energy after 20. I'd recommend that you allow yourself more time to complete the full training program if you are going to attempt. 2.5 months is not enough time.
Woof!
Well. Just as I suspected. I would come on here and be told by all the 30+ year experience runners and the runners that have ran for 3 years and already have a dozen half marathons under their belt. To who ever is talking about little sisters running the marathons I am pretty sure you are off topic and leading to other unrelative sources of not needed to be spoken of jibberish. I know I am still a beginner for running but that was my exact outlook on this. I would make this post and everyone in the world (runnners or not) would jump right up here and say you can't do that. I know running a marathon takes a extreme amount of dedication and hard work. More than I can imagine. I don't know what it is about it, but I have felt a heavy urge to get into a marathon. I know my 10k times aren't great but that is because I never trained for either of those. I ran a 5k but that was because I had been running actively and consistently at track practice and was already a long distancer and I did that in a ok time. I also don't need any of this 50k or 100 mile "mountain man / runner extremist" challenge. A marathon is a perfectly fit goal for me right now. I know of a few people have ran a half marathon and even a full with little to no training. Of course they were already a prehand runner somewhat but they didn't follow a program. Some even entered three days before the race and although painful for them, they still finished. I would be surprised if other then Olympian runners ran a marathon and said. No big deal, even with training. Most people hit the wall as I hear it. These "wall-hitters" are usually the average-Joe runners out there. These are people that have trained a while but they are not out there going for a Boston Marathon qualifying time. So that is something I don't see a heck of a lot of difference between.
And you can quote me as saying I was mis-quoted. Groucho Marx
Rob