Running in the Rain wrote:
I am going with the marathon. My first marathon might of been the most painful experience of life. The mile really only starts hurting with 600 to go.
might HAVE
Running in the Rain wrote:
I am going with the marathon. My first marathon might of been the most painful experience of life. The mile really only starts hurting with 600 to go.
might HAVE
It's not that bad if you are trained for it. Way worse than the 100 and 200, but not in the same realm as distance races.
Flatulus wrote:
RuKiddingMe!! wrote:pace races never hurt like the 400 all out! that hurts!
Agree. I'm old and slow and run lots of races from 5K to marathon and only within the last couple of years raced 200/400/800/1500 and without a doubt the 400 is the most painful race I've ever experienced. I dread walking onto the track knowing what's coming. That's a race I will leave to others.
the marathon questions puts your existence into question - it is crushing. I've never run a mile in which I thought my life was in danger.
To be at 21, dying, and facing another 45 minutes of this - that seriously hurts.
But I think that is why so many more people run the marathon - to walk up to the edge.
By the end of the day of my mile and 5K prs I felt fine and the next day I was running again. For my marathon PR, my legs were absolutely dead for the rest of the day and hurting the next day. It took a couple of days before I felt like running again.
But, there is a 'different' kind of pain running an all out short effort like a 400 or 800.
The difference between the mile and the marathon is like the difference between being stabbed in the chest and being slowly crushed by boulders.
This is like asking what's better to suspect your GF is cheating on you and eventully find out or to catch her in the act.
If you are fit/injury free/hydrated/carboloaded and run with in yourself, only the last couple miles a marathon will hurt, but I would not call the hurt pain. The hurt is more like getting through the last reps of a tough interval workout, you are pushing hard to fight through fatigue, but pain is not the right word.
An 800m for example will be painful no matter what, if you run it hard, you will feel pain. When you get the marathon right, the last couple hunderd meters can be an incredible feeling; when you run the 800 right, you will still feel pain.
The marathon destroys you both mentally and physically.
It's pretty evident by the responses in this thread who has run a marathon and who hasn't.
They say racing the mile is like burning yourself with a flame whereas racing a marathon is like being slowly roasted over coals.
Biased as I may be (run 6 marathons, many miles/1500s, 5ks and 10ks) the marathon hands down is the most painful...but only if you bonk/hit the wall. There are just so many things that can go wrong in the marathon - every single one has felt different and been a unique (painful) experience. In no other race have I wanted to just get shot in the head and die when I still have 5k to go and am so dizzy I must slow from 5:20 pace to 10:00 pace. There is an overwhelming desire to just quit. You feel like you're going to puke and crap yourself while your legs are being torn apart and you still have 30min left in the race.
That being said I never ran a 3k steeple but I respect the pain and risk that goes with that event as well...it has to hurt a lot!
The marathon hands down. Like someone else said, the marathon will make you question your existence, why you run, why you even entered the race, what's the point of putting one foot in front of the other just one more time..
The mile or 5k never does that.
There's a reason why thousands and thousands of weekend warriors run marathons and almost no one runs 800's. Mid-distance and sprinting is excruciating pain. Marathons you just start walking. And I'd be willing to wager that I've bombed a marathon worse than just about anyone on this board.
Another thing. In EVERY other race, when the pain starts you want to slow down. In a marathon the pain will make you want to stop, and sit on the curb.
Marathon, no doubt. Maybe a mile hurts more if you train at a slow pace every day and run the marathon just "to finish." But if you race them it's not even close, the marathon hurts in ways a mile can't.
I've raced everything from a 400 to a marathon and the most painful race I've done hands down is the Steeplechase. If you're hurting and slow a little, it becomes even harder because you have to use more energy to clear the barriers at a slower pace now. You cannot get lazy or lose focus because you will clip a barrier.
Between the two in question, I'd say the mile is more painful than the marathon.