Thinking of doing a marathon...! (Read 209 times)

Hi everyone,

So I am a newbie runner, that being said I am not a couch potato! Ha! Ok... I've been running fairly consistently for about 6 months. I ran my first race back in December (a 10k) and it was good, I was not totally wiped! I am following a running schedule to try and run about 4 times a week, steadily increasing my distance. I am doing about 15-20km a week now.

Ok, I'll keep this short (this is not a forum on relationships), I am thinking of doing a marathon end of May (so 4 months away). I have not yet done a half marathon and will be doing that in March using that as a way to assess if I can actually do a full marathon. All this to say, what's a good way to tell if you are ready to run a marathon? I do not have a set pace I am aiming for, I honestly just want to finish the marathon (preferably under 5 hours).

Thanks everyone!!

The only way is to actually try a marathon and see!!

In all seriousness, though, I'd see how you feel after the half marathon.  I ran 10+ half marathons before my first full marathon and it was definitely a big step up.  I trained for basically 6 months exclusively for the marathon and ran a lot more weekly mileage than I did when training for half marathons.  Try and get a beginner marathon training programme (there are plenty online) and see how you go with that.

What is the rush.

If you like running and plan on running for a long time then I  would wait and do a fall marathon.

While you could complete a full marathon (including training cycle) in May, I'd warn you to set realistic goals.

Finishing a full marathon in 5 hours would require a consistent pace of 11:26 or less (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/96.shtml)

Without knowing your current pace, age, etc., I can't say if that's realistic or not.

I took about a year in training for my first marathon, but the first six months or so was doing C25k > C210K > then doing 2 cycles of a 20 week C25K marathon program. I finished in just under 4:10.

If you're willing to wait to set a time goal after your half marathon, I'd say go for it. However, I do agree with the others that the ideal situation would be to work on upping current mileage and aiming for a fall marathon.

Your current weekly mileage is very low for me to say you are ready for a marathon. I am about at the same level as you now and also am considering a late May marathon. My own plan is to increase my weekly mileage with a goal of 45 mile weeks, which is considered  good training millage for the marathon, and increase my long run distance. If I can do at least two 18 mile runs I think I could finish the marathon.  My advantage is I did complete a marathon in October and just need to recover some fitness lost. As to those who say you should not attempt the marathon until fall, well, my take is to go for the challenge! Even if you fail at your sub 5 goal sometimes you learn from failing about what you need to improve your training for the next go at it! I failed in my goal in my October marathon which was to finish in better than 4 hours 10 minutes, a Boston qualifier for my age. I knew going into the race that I was not ready and went for a 4:20 instead, maintained the needed pace until mile 20 and then had to slow down, my legs just could not hold the pace. Finished at like a 4:29 time. Disappointed, but my first full marathon in 13 years and I learned from that failure. This time I will give more consideration to speedwork and hopefully more millage. The May marathon, if I do it, will just be a distance challenge and not until October will I try for the sub 4:10 again . Perhaps you may need to think along these lines. Test yourself with the half. Take the half finish time, double it and add ten minutes. That will give a rough prediction of what time you can expect to run the full. If your goal is just to finish you might want to try adding some walking into your race, some people (Galloway) think that walk breaks will actually help with your overall time by preserving your speed abilities for the long distance. And you can always finish the race by walking if you find you can't handle the 26.2, just try for a little sprint at the end so you look good crossing the finish! Anyway, best of luck in reaching your goal!

Reads to me like many of the replies are making an assumption about the meaning of the OP's "doing a marathon" goal.

 

Does that mean: running the whole way?  Running at pace? Running for a time goal? Walking parts?  Just covering the 26.2 miles in order to achieve the goal of being a marathon finisher?

 

OP did say that they would prefer to complete the marathon in 5 hours, so I think we are assuming OP wants to run.

I also say go for it, especially if your goal is to simply finish. That way you can take your time and just enjoy the experience.

Then, for your next marathon you'll have a better idea of what to expect and have a decent chance of a nice PR!

Honestly I don't know the marathon pain since my preferred distance is the half. On this basis, between now and March there is only max 2 months to double the distance from 10k to 21k. And then again very little time until you plan to double again.

I am sure you can do it. But you are at risk of overdoing it, resulting in an injury instead of a PR.

If you want to have the same feeling as you did when you finished the 10k, I would recommend to take your time and to increase mileage very gradually (like the 10% every other week rule - I am sure you can find better guidance on this somewhere in the forum). You are hooked already, so there will be a lot of races in the future.

Enjoy the training though. I like Jack Daniels' half training plans - they prepared me well.