Over/Under 3:30 @ CIM Sunday? No training runs over 5 miles, first marathon

Nice work last 10k. I was watching the finish, but too many people come through around that time, so I didnt catch his bib as he went by.

String finish! Congrats.

CKidd wrote:

String finish! Congrats.

I don’t believe this guy has never run further than 5 miles.

C'mon people - we were talking a 3:30 marathon, here. That's pretty weak sauce for a younger guy with any minimal amount of talent and fitness.

I don’t believe him. wrote:

I don’t believe this guy has never run further than 5 miles.

In the first post he says 10 or 11 miles, not 5.

I don’t believe him. wrote:

CKidd wrote:

String finish! Congrats.

I don’t believe this guy has never run further than 5 miles.

I don't believe this guy will be running 5 miles tomorrow.

Nice run. I was one of the skeptics, but you got it done.

Please come back and give us a full race report. Also, any plans to recover and then train for something specific?

Exactly. People are way overestimating the time of 330, for a young fit guy with good family running genetics, who runs every day.

Oprah ran in the low 4s.

I'll say it again: Oprah MF Winfrey ran in the low 4s.

It is not unreasonable to think that a modestly talented young guy with low volume (15-35mpw according to OP)-- NOT zero volume--- could do 330.

I would like to hear a race report from OP about pain, cramps, clothing choices, nipples, etc.

Great job OP!

IdiotMarathoner wrote:

Thread title says it all. I'm running my first marathon Sunday at CIM. Never run more than 10 or 11 miles in my life. Haven't done any training runs in excess of 5 miles, most days closer to 3. But I have run every single day.

Over the summer I ran 16:30 for 3 miles off of similar training. I'm a 28 year old male.

Shooting for 3:30. Am I gonna be over or under?

If you run over 3:30 then I believe you didn’t run more than 5 miles during training. If you run under 3:30 then you are full of shlt and you ran more than you are admitting but want an excuse for your relatively crappy time.

Just because you have 0 talent (I assume if you think 8' pace with 30mpw training is impossible), doesn't mean others are not capable of jogging for 26 miles. Yes, its a long distance, but its jogging, and the downhill course was perfect.

Nic clearly has good amount of talent if he can do 3 miles 530 pace almost without training. 8' pace is jogging for him, not close to all out like for those overweight "marathoners" who "train" "seriously" doing 20 milers in training

kayno wrote:

Just because you have 0 talent (I assume if you think 8' pace with 30mpw training is impossible), doesn't mean others are not capable of jogging for 26 miles. Yes, its a long distance, but its jogging, and the downhill course was perfect.

Nic clearly has good amount of talent if he can do 3 miles 530 pace almost without training. 8' pace is jogging for him, not close to all out like for those overweight "marathoners" who "train" "seriously" doing 20 milers in training

Actually, azzhat, a 5:30 mile is easy, but I once did an18 mile easy run with my gf at slower than. 8 min pace as she was training for a marathon and wanted company for her long run. Running at an uncomfortably slow pace for way farther than I normally run thrashed the fvck out of my legs. I would not have kept going for another 8 miles and I don’t think I could have. I don’t do long runs and suddenly going out and running 18 miles, let alone 26, even ridiculously slow is brutal. I also think he lied about his training.

To all the people who still dont believe this is possible, you should go out to a decent sized marathon finish. Watch the kind of people coming through in 3:20 and up. There are pretty overweight people running under 3:30. Why you think a fairly gifted runner with minimal training (and presumably a reasonable body size) can't break 3:30 is beyond me.

I watched the finish today with this thread in mind. An overweight blind man in his 50s broke 3:30 today, ffs. It isnt a fast time to a naturally talented runner.

Sdfsdfsdfsdfsdfsdf wrote:

... It isnt a fast time to a naturally talented runner.

I agree with you, but I admit I was expecting a crash at 20 miles with a painful finish around 3:45. Youth, talent and and some level of consistency in training were enough, despite low mileage and no long runs.

A year ago I ran 3:25 on 20 mpw (only 2 or 3 days each week). I got a few long runs in, but I was 57 years old. With that in mind, I should've been more confident of OP's chances, given his age and talent. Anyway, congrats to him! Looking forward to hearing the details.

Quick recap from my phone before I get on the plane home:

1) First: AWESOME race top to bottom. Sacramento knows what they're doing. Great support throughout the course, huge thanks to everyone who made the race possible.

2) If I had to choose one word to describe the marathon experience: humbling. Humbled by the distance, humbled by the thousands of runners who didn't train like idiots and were getting after it, and just humbled to be a part of it all.

3) An acknowledgement or two: would not have been able to do it without the incredible pacing group. Colin and the other gentleman whose name I didn't catch were nails. We were right on the whole time. Also a huge boost from my brother and his buddy who jumped in around mile 19, Scotty basically ran me home cheering/cajoling.

That's all I got for now. In a good bit of pain, but I've had a few beers which is helping. Thanks for your interest and well wishes. I'll eventually post my Garmin files for those who think I'm full of it.

good stuff, man.

I think 3:30 is not that impressive relative to 30mpw, but very impressive given that your longest training run was 5 miles. so you definitely have talent!

Allen1959 wrote:

Years ago I was chatting with a guy at the start of a marathon. He had never run further than 10 miles. Ever. I was shooting for 2:40, and he said he would tag along. At 24 miles, I started to fall slightly off pace, and he easily took off ahead of me.

He was coming off a college XC season, so I'm sure he had plenty of intensity and decent overall mileage, despite no long runs. Talent made up for that one deficit.

With the more modest goal of 3:30, perhaps talent can make up for no long runs AND no volume. I hope so. Best wishes!

If you don't mind me asking, what Marathon was that and what year?

Winne win wrote:

Exactly. People are way overestimating the time of 330, for a young fit guy with good family running genetics, who runs every day.

Oprah ran in the low 4s.

I'll say it again: Oprah MF Winfrey ran in the low 4s.

oprah ran 4:29:15

Day after: I definitely feel sore, but not can't-get-out-of-bed sore. Coming down the stairs was a little rough. Got out and forced myself to run 3 miles, the first few minutes were God awful and I thought my legs were going to fall off, but then it smoothed out a little and was able to finish just under 8:00 minute pace to keep my run streak going at 338 days. I think walking around downtown yesterday after the race was helpful, we probably put in an extra 2 or 3 miles, and I also took an Epsom salt bath when I got home which might have had an effect. I've also been popping ibuprofen like Skittles.

If you think I'm lying about my training, that's certainly your prerogative. I've posted a lot of my runs on my Instagram account @the_idiot_marathoner. In the next couple days I might post all my Garmin files there, but of course those won't "prove" anything except that I didn't log more than 3 to 5 miles on my Garmin each day. So you can believe me or not. As others here have said, running a 3:30 marathon is something that people much older, much less "fit" in an absolute sense, and less talented than I am accomplish by the thousands each year. Was it an act of hubris to think I could do it training how I did? Absolutely. Was it a miracle? I think probably not.

And I want to be crystal clear that I think the people who train diligently to break 3:30 (or 4:00 or 4:30) are doing the far harder, more honorable thing than what I did yesterday. It was a fun experiment/bet, but primarily I simply got lucky in being able to pull it off. It would have been a far scarier thing to put myself on the line yesterday having trained intelligently to hit a specific time. In the event that I blew up, I left myself with the out: "Well I trained like an idiot, of course I failed." I had no real skin in the game. Whether I someday train for real remains to be seen. Right now I'm thinking no.

I'm working on a full race recap that will probably be posted over at Citius Magazine, will post a link when that's up.

Thanks again for everyone that's followed along and given words of encouragement/congratulations.

Idiot Marathoner wrote:

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Whether I someday train for real remains to be seen. Right now I'm thinking no.

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That is how it always starts. Next thing you know you will be hammering 100 mile weeks and shooting for 2:30.

Congrats though. I didn't train for my first marathon and didn't fare near as well as you did.