Marathon on NO training; Should I run it this weekend?

I am responding to this just to try and explain people's irritation at people saying they are going "to attempt to run a marathon".

I am an ultracyclist also, and I used to be a very serious runner. I even ran a 2:35 marathon in HS. I am 43 and my last few races have been 435mi for 24hrs and 243mi for 12hrs (tough conditions) and a 210 miler in 9:27 (event record - 22.5 mph avg.). I do know all about the Furnace Creek 508. I tell you this ONLY so you know that I DO KNOW where you are coming from.

Why real runners get upset is because they may have come from the era (like me) where "running" a marathon meant aiming for a time between 2:18 and 2:29 (3-6 guys in my track club did it at Boston EVERY year - when I was 11-17), or at least 2:30-2:59 if you were just a "good" or "serious" male, or a very good female. If you completed a marathon in 3:00 to 3:30 it either meant you were a female who was average or you were a teenage boy before high school (I did one in 7th grade in 3:13) or you were a teenage female. Also it could mean you were shooting for a respectable time of 2:40 or a BQ of 2:50 and you bonked or blew-up or had some other serious problem and instead had a big disappointment of something over 3:00. It seems like when this happened to those who were capable of much more, they either dropped out, or didn't tell anyone about it (and there was no searchable internet results to "out" you). Nobody considered trying to run a marathon beyond 3:30 to be a goal. Hell, that was beyond 8:00 pace and that was jogging. That was slower than you ever went in training unless you were terribly sore or had just traveled or were injured. And 4:00? 4 hours? Are you serious? OK, good, I didn't think so. How could anyone stay running for 4 hours? Why would anyone want to? I guess I had heard of some clowns who jogged the marathon over 4:00, but they usually were in a costume, or were some California celebrity who had gotten hooked on jogging and decided to try this marathon thing (probably to attract girls - Corbin Bernsen comes to mind). No Virginia, you didn't set out with a GOAL of a 4 hour marathon, it might happen to the woefully underprepared, but you didn't set out with a plan for that. That would be like starting college with plan to graduate with a GPA of 2.0 ... surely you are capable of more son?

This kind of mindset was the norm from the Sixties, gained steam in '72 and into the late 70's and up to about 1984-85. Marathon participation, performance and depth dropped off after that. The number of Marathons offered started falling in the early-80s and continued dropping too. It seems like there was little interest from '85 to '95 (the magazines of the time seemed to stress the Triathlon and "Total Fitness") ... and then (I will call it) the Second Boom happened. Despite distance running being the worst it had ever been in America (outside of T-Will and BK) non-runners started getting fixed on the idea of "finishing" a marathon. Not RUNNING a marathon or RACING a marathon or trying to break 2:19:06 or trying to break 2:30 or 2:50 so you could run Boston ... NOPE, they wanted to "finish" a marathon. I always thought this was a strange goal. I thought, "Why, I could run 26 miles continuously any day of the year, why is this so interesting to the general population?" To me, just completing a marathon was like "just" completing 5th grade. It is an eventuality for everyone that shows up enough days in a row. It isn't an achievement, it isn't a natural wonder, it doesn't necessitate putting a new sticker on your car. It is just something that happens when you decide to race an event called the marathon as opposed to a 10-miler, 25k, 10k, or 20k. Once you can run 5 miles continuously, you try 10 and then 15 and then you decide it would not be that hard to string a 15-er and 10-er together and ... Hey, I can RUN a marathon! But you shot for 7:00-pace and then 6:00-pace and then you dreamed of sub-2:30 at Boston.

NONE of the runners from the good era in the 2:18-2:29 range, 2:30-2:59 range or even the "recreational" runners from 3:00-3:30 had blogs, or energy gels or foam rollers or compression socks or training support groups or status updates. They didn't view their marathon training or racing as special. Sure, it was different than sedentary people of the time and different than other athletes in team sports. But not much different than serious swimmers, rowers, or cyclists. We knew those guys put in WORK as well, and didn't have any social cachet at school either. It took a LOT of miles and a lot of discipline, but it wasn't viewed as some kind of achievement that put you above non-marathon running people. It was being a RUNNER that made you different. I am not going to say better, but just different. I guess the best way to explain it is that I felt like running at the level I did made me special because not very many people can do it.

But anyone can "run" a 5:00 marathon.

I just had to add a comment here. I cannot believe how precious some people are about this subject. what does it matter if somebody wants to run a marathon with no preperation, if somebody wants to run it with little preperation, or if somebody wants to dedicate their life to running the fastest possible time they can? What does it matter if someone finishes in 2:03:00 or 6:03:00? Who cares, why are people offended?

As that song said a few years back, "The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself!"

I'm doing my first marathon in a month and I'm hoping to break four hours. If I do that I will be very happy on a personal level, if I don't do it I know I will have raised £1000m in sponsorship for a children's hospice. how can people find that offensive.

I respect the achievements of people who are able to complete a marathon in a very quick time. I respect their drive, dedication and ambition, but that doesn't mean that anyone who makes less of a commitment or sets their sites lower is not worthy of respect or is somehow insulting the discipline.

I'm probably athletic enough that if I wanted to make the commitment I could train to run in sub 3 hours, but you know what... I don't want to make that commitment. I have my own business, and family and friends and other things that I value in my life. I also quite like beer and steak & I'm sick of pasta.

Good luck to anyone who wants to run a marathon, or complete one. I think regardless of the details, it's a good thing that you do.

It is not an insult if this guy wants to run regadless of training. It may not be wise but he has every right to run it.

Yes, in the greek and ancient ideals of a marathon (albeit debated) it requires dedication and a sense of competition. However that is old news, most marathon runners are not athletes and are doing it for a good cause or sense or self worth. Would you also snub these people who may not be physically up to the job but have a goal and a dream to make there tedious running experience a way of bettering society or themsleves... you are overlooking the modernised way in which marathons have become less about 'I am the atheltic WINNER (or weiner in your case)'

Why can't an inexperienced guy have a go with the best intentions than some seemingly arrogant show boat who sees it as a constant need to race all other competitors. What happened to it just being a good cause or because you felt like it! FOR SHAME JOHN ZIZZLEDICKMUNCHSTEIN!

It is not an insult if this guy wants to run regadless of training. It may not be wise but he has every right to run it.

Yes, in the greek and ancient ideals of a marathon (albeit debated) it requires dedication and a sense of competition. However that is old news, most marathon runners are not athletes and are doing it for a good cause or sense or self worth. Would you also snub these people who may not be physically up to the job but have a goal and a dream to make there tedious running experience a way of bettering society or themsleves... you are overlooking the modernised way in which marathons have become less about 'I am the atheltic WINNER (or weiner in your case)'

Why can't an inexperienced guy have a go with the best intentions than some seemingly arrogant show boat who sees it as a constant need to race all other competitors. What happened to it just being a good cause or because you felt like it! FOR SHAME JOHN ZIZZLEDICKMUNCHSTEIN!

Hello Au Contraire,

I had absolutely NO training for the marathon. I jog and walked the first half and then walked the second half completely (minus the last .2 miles).

I am so sore and my knees hurt like hell.

I would have trained (and will train from now on for every race) it is just that it has been a Very difficult time in my life.

How badly can a body be injured? I finished in 7 hours and 25 minutes. Will this "stupid" idea of jogging/walking the marathon injure me to the point where I can never race again - or run long distance, for that matter?

Please help!!

My post-race condition has me wondering if I just ruined my body for being so adamant about doing the marathon w/o training...

I wanted to add my experience, which was a lot like BarefootBuck's. I ran a marathon yesterday on little training - low mileage with a few moderately long runs. My goal was to run the whole race except for the water stops, and I finished in 4:42, which I was happy with. For the three months prior to the race I was averaging 10-15 miles a week, with one 14.5 mile hilly long run, two half marathons that I raced, and one hilly trail half marathon that I did at an easier pace. My half marathon PR is 1:54:36, to give you an idea of my general ability. I'm sure if I trained "right" I could run a faster marathon, but my goal was to enjoy my first marathon so that I might want to run more in the future. I ran the race pretty evenly paced and never hit the wall or really suffered, and I think that higher intensity moderately long runs can be good preparation for completing a marathon. Now I'm sore, but not much worse than after racing a half marathon.

Go out slow, then back off.

Week leading up; eat eat and eat some more.

Sleep when not eating

And you, sir, are a running elitist snob. Why so angry? Everyone runs for different reasons. Who the hell are YOU to berate someone for this? Good God. People like you make others not want to run at all. Go to hell.