Do you think I could BQ? 47 year old woman.

Sure, but you might want to work on your speed a bit.

definitely, most women only need about 25mpw to qualify

Increase your mileage, run on soft surfaces - dirt, grass - as much as you can and mix in some half marathon to marathon pace runs in about twice a week and you should be able to do it. If not, you could always find a downhill course that usually has good weather. That should give you some extra minutes to get under the Boston qualifying time. I would shoot for at least 4 minutes under the Boston qualifying time to be sure you get in. Running just under the qualifying time will not get you in.

twitter paigeruns? Nice pics!

You can do it, as someone said, have some quality faster work mixed into it all to make the bit slower pace feel real easy. And there you go (run).

What are your mile, 5k and 10k PRs?

SprintTriathlon wrote:

twitter paigeruns? Nice pics!

You can do it, as someone said, have some quality faster work mixed into it all to make the bit slower pace feel real easy. And there you go (run).

You gave the trolls your name?

So, are you single?

Have you ran a marathon before?

You can do it, but you probably need some experience with marathon training. It is completely different from HM or 10k training. The key for you is to get to the line healthy. At your age, staying uninjured must be your #1 priority. Back off a bit if necessary and have fun with your training.

OP, what is your background of athleticism ? In other words have you played sports in your youth years, or workout a lot or are you a couch to potato kind of gal? Not trying to be sarcastic or come across as condescending (even though we are on Let’sRun) but I’m just trying to collect all info to help you or for other posters to provide advice/suggestions.

A few thoughts on your message:

A "simple" marathon prediction formula is to take your 1/2 marathon time, multiply by 2, and add 10 minutes, so I think you can do it.

You may want to plan on a couple of races to qualify. The Marine Corps marathon is known to be very congested, so you may want to find a smaller race as a "plan B". Run Marine Corps as a first marathon with a goal to finish, and learn about race preparation and managing your effort, then aim to qualify in a second (or third) marathon after sufficient rest and recovery.

The Hanson's plan is not for everyone--especially a new marathoner. It's more of an experienced marathoner plan. Lots of people have had success with it, but it tends to work best for people who have run a few marathons (with other established training plans like Galloway, Pfitzinger, Daniels) and hit a plateu and are ready to try something different. If you've read the book, and the plan makes sense for you, then go for it. Otherwise, Galloway is the "benchmark" for a first time marathoner. He has a more recent intermediate-level book on "Boston: How to Qualify" (or something like that).

I wouldn't worry about streaking. If your body needs rest or you feel an injury coming on, then take time off. (The Hansons plan is good about distributing the training load around 7 days/week and favors streaking, but you have to stay healthy and rested to benefit from the workouts.) Good luck.

OP - No disrespect intended, but of course you can BQ - 3:55 is barely even running, that's a legit jog. Do track once a week and get over 30mpw and you will easily BQ.

My wife has been trying to do the same thing. She is younger (30s) but she’s been running for almost 4 years. She can run high mileage, long runs, but her pace stays around ~10:00

Just recently she ran a 28:06 5K

It’s not as as easy as some people make it out to be.

I did my first marathon this spring. I'm female and in the 45-49 age group. My goal was 3:45 and I made it under that.

I basically used Hanson's advanced marathon, but added some more easy miles, including running on Wednesdays. I take off days when I feel I need to. Usually every two to four weeks I take a day.

Rather than limiting myself to 16 miles for the long runs, I did three runs over 16. (17.5, 19, & 21). These longer runs were done with the first half easy and the second half at goal marathon pace. I felt I needed to run at least 3 hours once just to know what it was like. Before this, my long runs were typically two hours with an occasional 2:15-2:30 thrown in.

In the last several years I have run a bunch of half marathons (5 or 6), the fastest at 1:46. The year prior averaged 40 miles per week. My typical week though is around 55 miles.

I would say you can do it if you are able to hit those long tempo runs at marathon pace. They were easily my favorite workouts and key for me. I don't know how long ago that Half PR or if you have run a marathon before but I heard that you should double your half and add 20-30 minutes, so you would have some work ahead of you. I found the race predictor calculators to be pretty accurate for the current times I was entering.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/marathon-calculator/

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Best of luck!

The MCM is a great marathon - but they do a horrible jobs with the corals. People just line up anywhere - I was in the appropriate coral for 3:50 and there were people right next to me wearing 5 hour 30 min pace bands. I couldn't believe it. And so the first quarter of the race you have to dodge around people - which makes you run notably farther. If you want to BQ at MCM you need to be one of those people that line up in the wrong coral (further up than your goal time). Sad but true.

PaigeRuns wrote:

Hi!

Background I am a 47 year old woman that has been running for 4 years. ... My PR in the half is 1:54:02. ... I've been training for a 3:52 marathon ... 40-60 miles a week. ... Do you think I have a shot?....

Not currently with that half time. You'd need to get your half time down to 1:51. I trained with a women of a similar age, who was running about 35-50 miles per week, who ran a 1:54 half, and a 3:57 marathon on a fast course (double her half time plus 9 minutes).

If you do the following, you will do it:

(1) run 50-70 miles every week.

(2) run at least 20% of your mileage at 3:52 marathon pace or faster

(3) do 3 runs of 20 miles at any pace in the 3-8 weeks before the marathon

(4) don't gain any weight

Best of Luck!