Is marathon pain a different kind of pain than 5k/10k

Painn wrote:

Is marathon pain a different kind of pain than 5k/10k

Not if you've trained properly for the distance.

At 22 miles, I was breathing pretty heavily too, but that's not what hurts.

At the end of a 5k, you breath hard because your muscles have built up lactic acid and are not absorbing the amount of oxygen they need. In a marathon, there's barely any lactic acid built up. You breath hard because your muscles are out of glycogen and much less of the oxygen you breath is used as fuel, so your brain tells you to breath harder as that's the only option left.

I dont know of any stats saying that altitude marathons are far worse than sea level marathons that would be more so than in a 5k/10k. But if it's true, it probably has to do with equilibrium and its effect on efficiency.

Think about those days where you go out for a longish tempo, and you barely make it 2 miles before stopping. It has nothing to do with the pace, as you could probably hold that for an hour or longer on a good day. it has to with the lack of reaching equilibrium. If It's harder to reach equilibrium at altitude, then you can bet the marathon would suffer far worse than a 5k/10k

Blitzplay wrote:

When it goes wrong in a marathon, it's complete torture and not just physically. Some weird thoughts and feelings come with it too as glycogen fuels your brain too. I've seen guys stop 100m before the line and just can't sum up the energy to walk/run those last few metres.

yes, it is bad. You get thoughts about never running again. "Why bother?" "What's the point of this?" "Those studies are right, this really can't be healthy". "Never again." "All that training and I can't hold a lousy 6:50 pace?". "Will I make it?" "this has to be doing irreparable damage".

I get the same thoughts at half marathon and they linger. With 5k/10k, you bounce back faster often on drive home.

Brev wrote:

Totally different. Assuming your running the 5k/10k all out, you're pain is mainly due to lactate build up and possibly O2 debt. In a marathon the pain is due to running out of energy stores and your legs shutting down. It has nothing to do with being out of breath.

Assuming my running is what? Also, I am not pain.

The pain is a constant. Everything freakin hurts when you race all-out...800m and up.

The burn of lactic acid and going up to 100% in max heart rate in the shorter distances is super intense.

The glycogen depletion and sheer muscle fatigue in marathons/ultras sucks for minutes on end and is torture.

I think people may experience the types of pain a bit differently based on their physiology...but a lot of people might have trouble figuring out an appropriate pace/intensity for maximum pain (and effort)/performance in a longer distance race.

It's all hard...I'm not going to say a 100km ultra in the mountains is "tougher" or more painful than an all-out 3km on an indoor track though. It all hurts the same and is equally challenging when you go 100%.

Painn wrote:

Is marathon pain a different kind of pain than 5k/10k

OP

Ever sleep with a really hot girl who was great in bed?

Ever sleep with a lazy, no good chick with flabby tits who just wasn't that good at all in bed?

Same difference between 10k and 42k.

Huge difference.

I agree that the half is not that painful. It is a nice distance--long enough to be an endurance race--and to let a person ease into the pace--yet not so long that it might become something awful.

I also agree that, if one has done enough 5k and 10k races, one knows that the suffering is generally short-lived. These races, though, make me tense in that I know that I have to get right up to pace. Interestingly, the 10k bugs me more in this regard. In a 5k, one knows that it is just over three miles, and this can be very comforting. With the 10k, one not only has to get up to speed quickly, but then has to sustain a 5k-like effort for twice the distance.

Hence, I will take a half marathon or a 5k...preferring the half overall.

Once my injury subsides, I will see what the full is like later this year. I plan on doing some serious training, and I hope that much of what has been said here will not happen.

outsiderunner wrote:

I agree that the half is not that painful. It is a nice distance--long enough to be an endurance race--and to let a person ease into the pace--yet not so long that it might become something awful.

You guys saying the half is easiest aren't running the half hard enough.

HM pace is not tempo pace. Ask the former AR holder on these boards. HM is some kind of sick torture when run all out.

His quote was you should be on the edge at the half way point. So half way, you think there's no way you can maintain that pace. Yet you do. How many runners feel that way? Not many. They use the distance as an excuse to go easy. It really isn't much different than the 10k only longer. Give me a 5k any day of the week.

half marathon blues wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

I agree that the half is not that painful. It is a nice distance--long enough to be an endurance race--and to let a person ease into the pace--yet not so long that it might become something awful.

You guys saying the half is easiest aren't running the half hard enough.

HM pace is not tempo pace. Ask the former AR holder on these boards. HM is some kind of sick torture when run all out.

His quote was you should be on the edge at the half way point. So half way, you think there's no way you can maintain that pace. Yet you do. How many runners feel that way? Not many. They use the distance as an excuse to go easy. It really isn't much different than the 10k only longer. Give me a 5k any day of the week.

I agree. The half is really tough. I always hear people saying the half is just a case of pushing through a little pain for the last 2 or 3 miles. I'm usually starting to feel some serious discomfort after passing 10k and the last 5k is extremely painful. Legs like lead and bulging with lactate and that's when I run a positive split. The second half feels just as painful as the second half of a 10k but is over twice the distance to the finish. Absolutely on the limit for the last 10k.

Great writing and description for us marathoners out there...