Women's Running magazine featuring a plus-size "athlete". 5k PR 1:09:50, Marathon PR 12:19:30. Is she really a runn

the more important question is: why you are reading a women's running magazine?

Her biggest challenge is pacing, she said.

dlkfsjaldsfjs;lkdjfs;ldajf wrote:

the more important question is: why you are reading a women's running magazine?

Maybe OP is a woman?

Unlike most "anyone can run a 2:30 marathon" letsrunners, I'm fine with people "running" 5, 6, 7 hour marathons. More power to ya. And if you have cerebral palsy or severe injuries and want to do a marathon as a challenge no matter how long it takes, go for it.

But good grief, I would think that if you took a totally sedentary but not disabled, 300 lb, 40 year old woman and gave her a good pair of shoes and some tubes of bodyglide, she could go out tomorrow and do a 5k in under and hour or even a marathon in under 10 hours. The marathon wouldn't be easy and would wipe them out for a week, but with determination they could do it.

Is this woman also disabled? I'd bet there are other women her size who can move better than she can but don't make a big deal out of it.

Don't Ironman events have time limits? Unless she's more at home in the water than on land, she might just a well swim train, because that's the only portion of the Ironman she'd get to do.

I'd rather watch some plus size women run than yet another SCRAWNY/SKINNY FAT runner high fiving herself.

She is not fat - just big-boned

I give her credit for trying to get healthier.

[I remember that once one of my track athletes saw some 400lb guy in the swimming pool and asked, "What's *he* doing here?" My answer: "Who better?" Who could possibly benefit more? Who *needed* it more?]

But for trying to "cash in" (at least metaphorically) from her fitness endeavors: not so much.

And to answer the thread title's question:

Given that I've broken five hours for a marathon multiple times--walking all the way (and I'm no racewalker)--no, I'm not going to consider her a "runner." She's not.

I wish her well, though.

What is with all these obese female "athlete" stories? Why don't we just start publishing stories about smokers who's lungs are so destroyed they can't even walk up the stairs.

Hmm, charts predict an eleven hour marathon off a 70 minute 5k and she couldn't break twelve. She must have been focusing more on speed than endurance. She probably needs to do more marathon pace work in training. By the way, marathon pace for an eleven hour marathon is 25 minutes/mile.

twenty five minute miles wrote:

Hmm, charts predict an eleven hour marathon off a 70 minute 5k and she couldn't break twelve. She must have been focusing more on speed than endurance. She probably needs to do more marathon pace work in training. By the way, marathon pace for an eleven hour marathon is 25 minutes/mile.

Good lord...I think I could crab walk a marathon at 25 minutes/mile.

Wow.

https://i.imgur.com/eEaqDFZ.jpg

lease wrote:

Given that I've broken five hours for a marathon multiple times--walking all the way (and I'm no racewalker)

Yes you are a racewalker. A normal walking pace is 20 minutes per mile. Really trying to walk determinedly gets you 14-15 minutes per mile. Your 11.5 minutes per mile pace is walking really hard at a pace that it'd likely be easier to jog. Sure, competitive racewalkers go faster, but 11.5 minutes per mile is a lot faster than a normal walk.

elephino wrote:

lease wrote:

Given that I've broken five hours for a marathon multiple times--walking all the way (and I'm no racewalker)

Yes you are a racewalker. A normal walking pace is 20 minutes per mile. Really trying to walk determinedly gets you 14-15 minutes per mile. Your 11.5 minutes per mile pace is walking really hard at a pace that it'd likely be easier to jog. Sure, competitive racewalkers go faster, but 11.5 minutes per mile is a lot faster than a normal walk.

14-15 minutes per mile is a fast stroll. A good race- walker will walk at 7 minutes per mile or under.

Pretty disgusting. Culture has lost the plot. "Plus size" is nothing more than a PC way of saying "fat @$$". Body acceptance is basically saying it's ok to be fat, and that's ridiculous. Just makes them feel less guilty with their bag of Doritos.

Really not cool wrote:

Pretty disgusting. Culture has lost the plot. "Plus size" is nothing more than a PC way of saying "fat @$$". Body acceptance is basically saying it's ok to be fat, and that's ridiculous. Just makes them feel less guilty with their bag of Doritos.

You're dead wrong.

It's not about bodyfat percentage, for women it's about fat distribution.

There are countless studies that show that women who store body fat in their hips and butt are far superior (in terms of health, too) to your typical female, SKINNY FAT runner that has belly fat but no butt.

That's the truth, if you like it or not.

Everyone has to start somewhere and I give her credit for trying. But how is she any different from the other 50+% of the population that is obese? And why should I care? Just a sad ploy for shoe companies to sell more sneakers.

The journal says she hit 17 mph on the bike. With those huge legs there is no way she went that fast unless she was going downhill in which case she may have reached 100 mph.