As far as the guy you talk about in the original post...you can’t compare yourself to others like that. Some people have more natural talent than others or respond to training better.

 

30s aren’t old at all at least in my area as far as race times go. Basically age isn’t an excuse till you get in your upper 50s 60. Your mileage is pretty low to even be thinking about marathon training at this point IMO. Maybe try getting faster at shorter distances first? Just a thought.

I know I shouldn't compare myself, I have a horrible jealousy streak that likes to compare myself though. 

I tried working on getting faster in shorter distances back in 2017, I started doing track/speed workouts and for about 3-4 months it was going really well until my hamstring went haywire. Normally I do better with long, steady distances, I've got the stamina and endurance for it...... as long as everything else is going right. Before this crap, my magic number for distance and speed was 10k's and 15k's. But I really, really love running distances of 13-26 miles and want to get back to it.

Also, and I'll put this in the dailies - I think the poor circulation in my legs/feet tend to cause issues, and after my father's passing we looked deeper into the family and realized Type 1 Diabetes runs through it, the coroner said if my father had lived through the heart attack he would have lost his leg a year later. The arteries/veins in his legs were so deteriorated that they couldn't get the embalming fluid through all the way down to his feet so his legs were decomposing at regular pace during the funeral visitation and burial which explained the rotting corpse smell. The final hour before he was carried to the Hearse, you could hardly stand within 10 feet of his casket.