curious to know if anyone ever just show up to something like a marathon and just run it having done zero training specific to it?
curious to know if anyone ever just show up to something like a marathon and just run it having done zero training specific to it?
Half marathon, it wasn't pretty.
2:25, hadn't run a step in 15 years.
Did get my ass in gear to start training a little bit again after that.
not a marathon wrote:
Half marathon, it wasn't pretty.
2:25, hadn't run a step in 15 years.
Did get my ass in gear to start training a little bit again after that.
Even worse, now that I think about it, back then the race wasn't a half marathon, it was 20K.
Norm Higgins went to Central Park in 1971 expecting to run a 5 or 10k road race. When he got there he found that the race was the New York Marathon. He entered anyway and won in 2:22.
Older buddy of mine had a great TV interview back in the early 80's. When the reporter asked why he chose to run a marathon on Thanksgiving Day his reply was "I came to visit my son and daughter-in-law today and realized that they were running and if I wanted to spend time with them I would have to run too."
No, but I once pretended I did.
I trained hard for six months for the St. George Marathon but didn't tell anyone. Then when I picked up my packet I posted on Facebook that I had been traveling through town and saw this quaint little marathon about to happen so I decided to do it.
I went 4:35 and all of my friends and office mates were astounded that I could do that spur of the moment. Four years later they all still think I'm a bad-ass runner, even better than the 22-year old who runs a sub-17:00 5k.
Thomas Ryba
Planned to visit Tallahassee the first weekend in Feb. and realized it was the marathon/ half weekend. Having done Jacksonville the previous December, and done almost zero running since, I figured I would run the half for fun. As I stood in line the morning of (good old days) to register I was set on the half. When I got to the front of the line and was asked "half or full?" I blurted out "full". Ran 2:49/2:59 six weeks apart with only a dozen or so 40 min. runs in between.
not a marathon wrote:
Half marathon, it wasn't pretty.
2:25, hadn't run a step in 15 years.
Did get my ass in gear to start training a little bit again after that.
The thread title specifically stated "MARATHON OR LONGER".
So, no one cares about your half marathon. And, jezus, no one really cares about your 2:25 half marathon.
Selfies wrote:
No, but I once pretended I did.
I trained hard for six months for the St. George Marathon but didn't tell anyone. Then when I picked up my packet I posted on Facebook that I had been traveling through town and saw this quaint little marathon about to happen so I decided to do it.
I went 4:35 and all of my friends and office mates were astounded that I could do that spur of the moment. Four years later they all still think I'm a bad-ass runner, even better than the 22-year old who runs a sub-17:00 5k.
Lol. You trolled the whole office place. I was thinking trolling some friends of mine about a marathon too. I have two of them over top about starting their training now for a race in March. I haven't showed any interest in it, but would feel like an epic troll if i show up to meet themon race day and run it on a whim lol
HRE wrote:
Norm Higgins went to Central Park in 1971 expecting to run a 5 or 10k road race. When he got there he found that the race was the New York Marathon. He entered anyway and won in 2:22.
I didn't know about that, but it confirms my sense that back in the day (meaning the mid to late 70s), the marathon was at once more daunting (the mythic "wall" that would destroy you) and less daunting (because everybody was less professionalized, there was an active club running scene with somewhat higher standards than today's couch-to-5K scene, and because a fair number of club runners were putting in pretty big miles). I remember a friend of mine, a lapsed XC guy in Princeton's band-of-outcasts Terrace club, heading out one fall day to run the NYC marathon. Fall of '78, I believe. I'm quite sure that his preparation hadn't included the requisite mileage and long runs. He just went and ran it. I don't think he had a great time--around 3 hours, as I recall--but he did it.
Actually, a few years after that, when I was getting ready for Jersey Shore ('83), I did a "test" marathon in the Princeton area on a moderately warm (mid-70s) September afternoon. There were about 150 runners in the thing. Tiny. My GF biked the entire thing alongside me. I ran 3:00:25. Just locked into pace and held it the whole way, on country roads.
No bands. No crowds. No finisher's medals. No goodie bag. No chip timing. No photographers. (No selfies, obviously.) Just a starting line, some water stops, some mile markers, and a finish line. Can you imagine? And we had a good time.
Yes. Most of our training group was running it, so a friend and I decided to bandit the first 15M for our normal long run. We even staged a car there.
We were both rolling and felt good, so we decided to go to 20M near where his dad lived so we could catch a ride, but no further we promised. But we were still rolling nicely, and although hurting a bit, decided to stick it out to the end.
Best part of it all? That was my lifetime PR run by 3 minutes (ignoring our stepping off the course a few meters before the finish since we hadn't entered).
Selfies wrote:
No, but I once pretended I did.
I trained hard for six months for the St. George Marathon but didn't tell anyone. Then when I picked up my packet I posted on Facebook that I had been traveling through town and saw this quaint little marathon about to happen so I decided to do it.
I went 4:35 and all of my friends and office mates were astounded that I could do that spur of the moment. Four years later they all still think I'm a bad-ass runner, even better than the 22-year old who runs a sub-17:00 5k.
Wow, if I somehow "ran" a 4:35 on one of the biggest net drop courses in the world, I'd definitely tell everyone that I hadn't trained as well. And that I stopped a beer somewhere along the way. For about 2 hours.
There's a guy I follow on Movescount who has really strange erratic training. I'd been following him for about a year. Sometimes he wouldn't run for weeks and then you'd see him do a long really hard fast workout in areas that you know are really hilly and lay down pretty good times for a hobby jogger. But then you'd see most of his runs just super slow relatively short. I was convinced that some of his workouts were on a bike and not runs.
I don't think he ever ran more than 20 miles a week. Usually it was more like 10. For about 3 months, he dropped way down and was probably only running short jogs once every two weeks. The day after the Marine Corp Marathon, I happened to glance at his page and saw an entry for 26.2 miles. He did it right at around 3 hours. Not fast, but not slow either. Really good time for a guy who essentially doesn't train. I was impressed.
not from here anymore wrote:
Yes. Most of our training group was running it, so a friend and I decided to bandit the first 15M for our normal long run. We even staged a car there.
We were both rolling and felt good, so we decided to go to 20M near where his dad lived so we could catch a ride, but no further we promised. But we were still rolling nicely, and although hurting a bit, decided to stick it out to the end.
Best part of it all? That was my lifetime PR run by 3 minutes (ignoring our stepping off the course a few meters before the finish since we hadn't entered).
Too bad you didn't register because you can't claim that as a PR.
Unless you want to be that guy who claims a PR that he can't prove and everyone assumes is lying.
So you're one of those people who cares about your finishing time? Where's the glory in that? Posting pictures of your medal on Facebook is really all it takes.Sorry you have to try harder than I do.
Try harder wrote:
Wow, if I somehow "ran" a 4:35 on one of the biggest net drop courses in the world, I'd definitely tell everyone that I hadn't trained as well. And that I stopped a beer somewhere along the way. For about 2 hours.
Selfies wrote:
No, but I once pretended I did.
I trained hard for six months for the St. George Marathon but didn't tell anyone. Then when I picked up my packet I posted on Facebook that I had been traveling through town and saw this quaint little marathon about to happen so I decided to do it.
I went 4:35 and all of my friends and office mates were astounded that I could do that spur of the moment. Four years later they all still think I'm a bad-ass runner, even better than the 22-year old who runs a sub-17:00 5k.
This is a sad story for so many reasons. I'm sorry you're like this.
Strictly speaking, I did something like this as my first act as a post-collegiate runner.
My senior year, my final race was in the morning session of a last chance meet. It so happened that the city's marathon was happening the same day. Me, a teammate, and a friend from another school were all in the 10k that started at 9 am. The marathon must have started around the same time. We ran our race, none of us qualified for nationals (we didn't expect that we would) so our season was over, and in my case my NCAA career was over. We went to cool down together, and about half a mile in we came up on the starting line for the marathon.
We must have discussed our options, though I don't remember how we arrived at the idea of jumping in. Long story short, we ran the goddamn marathon. We didn't go too hard, but we caught a ton of joggers who had a head start over us. I feel like we kept up something like 7:00-7:15 pace but I really don't know for sure. I also feel like we started out thinking we'd do the half marathon, but then changed our minds when we reached the turnaround for it. This was almost 15 years ago so some of these recollections could be off.
Around mile 18 some dude was in his yard handing out beers. We stopped and chugged one each - it was actually (so far as I know) my teammate's first ever beer. We made it to the end and tried to grab our finisher's medals, but the lady handing them out wasn't stupid, she saw that we were in our college jerseys and had no race numbers. She scolded us for crossing the finish line as non-paying participants. The finish line was right around the corner from the track so we walked back and supported our teammates the rest of the day.
Felt exhausted but generally fine that day, woke up the next morning and felt like my legs weighed 900 pounds. I don't believe I ran another step for about 6 months. I've run 17 marathons since, all of which I planned to do more than zero minutes ahead of time.
Yep. Half marathon. I was a lifter and never ran more than 3 miles in training or more than 10 in a week.
A cute girl I wanted to see was doing it so I entered on a lark. The girl never showed cuz her cat was sick but I ran it anyway. I started easy and actually was surprised I didn't die. Ended up with a 1.38 finish and I negative split the whole race. I could barely walk for days after though.
I ended up hooking up with the girl later that year so the entire experience was worth it.