How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I'd probably shrug and think to myself, "Umm... so what?"

Not that facts will get in the way of idiots, but I'll give it a try:

New large study from New England Journal of Medicine 10/18/2018 :

Association of Cardiorespiratory Fitness With Long-term Mortality Among Adults Undergoing Exercise Treadmill Testing

Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cohort study enrolled patients at a tertiary care academic medical center from January 1, 1991, to December 31, 2014.Consecutive adult patients referred for symptom-limited exercise treadmill testing were stratified by age- and sex-matched cardiorespiratory fitness into performance groups: low (under 25th percentile), below average (25th-49th percentile), above average (50th-74th percentile), high (75th-97.6th percentile), and elite (≥97.7th percentile).

Exposures Cardiorespiratory fitness, as quantified by peak estimated metabolic equivalents on treadmill testing.

Main Outcomes and Measures All-cause mortality.

Results The study population included 122 007 patients (mean [SD] age, 53.4 [12.6] years; 72 173 [59.2%] male). Death occurred in 13 637 patients during 1.1 million person-years of observation. ... Extreme cardiorespiratory fitness (≥2 SDs above the mean for age and sex) was associated with the lowest risk-adjusted all-cause mortality compared with all other performance groups.

Conclusions and Relevance Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no observed upper limit of benefit. Extremely high aerobic fitness was associated with the greatest survival and was associated with benefit in older patients and those with hypertension. Cardiorespiratory fitness is a modifiable indicator of long-term mortality, and health care professionals should encourage patients to achieve and maintain high levels of fitness.

TLDR: Keep running marathons, you'll live longer.

Actually she is right. Marathon running is not good for you. But training and a having a healthy lifestyle is.

I would show her that running marathons prevents erectile dysfunction.

Left fist to the jaw would be my response

I would just agree with them and say "yes I'm sure you're right, that's why I haven't run many marathons"

free_the_thigh wrote:

I would rather be a 50 year old running marathons, than a 50 year old who isnt able to run

This

I had a job in a factory a long time ago. I ran by the factory in a snow storm, a guy was outside (in the snow storm) smoking a cigarette.

The next day he say me and said (seriously) running in that weather can't be good for your lungs.

I said nothing- you can't reason with stupid.

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I think they read the 2012 study from that bozo

This is an easy one. Agree and let them know you are training for a 100 miler.

Life isn't good for you. It inevitably ends in death.

Death is just the beginning of the next journey of the soul.

That they are correct. As Dr. Kenneth Cooper said years ago, anyone running over 15 miles a week is doing so for reasons other than health.

I agree with them because training for and racing 26.2 mile/42K is not healthy. Running 30 minutes easy a day is healthy

cosmic or something wrote:

Death is just the beginning of the next journey of the soul.

There is no soul after James Brown. And he is dead.

If you’re trying to race as fast as possible a marathon every weekend then I would agree because of the muscle damage.

But if you race 2 or 3 times a year like most people it ain’t gonna hurt. It’s like getting drunk 2 or 3 times a year. Sure it ain’t great for your liver on those days but the other 362 days you’re not drunk make up for it.

coolcoolcool wrote:

I agree with them because training for and racing 26.2 mile/42K is not healthy. Running 30 minutes easy a day is healthy

+1

Objectively wrote:

I would tell them they are correct.

I think we all agree running 5 miles a few times a week (say 15-20 mpw) is healthy. Running 40 mpw has some marginal additional overall health benefit. So does running 60. After that, the overall health benefits are not marginal. They are negative. You’ll be a better run, sure. But not more likely to be overall healthy.

Same with running 26.2 miles. Not good for you by any objective measure.

By the way, I run a marathon every year. I’m 50. I’ve run 25 marathons. But the heavy training and actual races are not good for you. Your friend is correct.

^ COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS

You will see when you guys get old how good having put that kind of mileage throughout will do to you.... joints, hips, heart.... different issues but as bad as being sedentary all along....

Btw... why are you running marathons at 50? You are losing every year a bit of aerobic capacity. You should focus on shorter distances where you can make up for this deficiency through leaning on other systems (VO2 MAX in particular)

BlueNorther wrote:

Not that facts will get in the way of idiots, but I'll give it a try:

New large study from New England Journal of Medicine 10/18/2018 :

Cardiorespiratory fitness is a modifiable indicator of long-term mortality, and health care professionals should encourage patients to achieve and maintain high levels of fitness.

TLDR: Keep running marathons, you'll live longer.

Suggestive, but not necessarily supportive of marathoning, in-and-of-itself.

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I think they read the 2012 study from that bozo

If you're looking for an immediate health gain, running on a marathon on pavement likely isn't at the top of the list. However, the experience within itself is life changing. Your perspective on life's situations outside of running take on a new light. It's all about the proper training, and listening to your body. Becoming religious to a set number of miles or paces every run is a recipe for disaster, even if you never plan on racing, you can still hurt yourself.

The most important part of the conversation that somehow never gets taken into account is, "what's your cumulative running history?" Easily the most important variable when signing up for, and training for a marathon. I'd venture to say, most who sign up for the distance don't follow the traiditonal protocol of running 5-10ks, experiencing the HM a few times, and in time, eventually run their first marathon. It should be a gradual progression over YEARS, not months.

If you can even run 20-30 mpw throughout the year, just staying consistent, your chances of hurting yourself once you ramp up mileage (relatively speaking) are much lower. Your bio mechanics often get ignored in this discussion too.