WARNING!!! This post contains PR's

If you feel fatigued even on easy 6 mile runs, then you are tired.

If you think you can't race a marathon, you can't; I suggest that you don't try unless you believe. Or change your attitude so that you believe, and then try.

Oh, and yes, stop being a bitch and grow some sac.

Come to Hartford and do the Half. I'm doing it with about 2000 others.

Last year only 6 people finished under 1:10 so you could be right up there. If you bust your @$$ you could hit paydirt.

The course is mostly flat. There are a few slight inclines (around 7 miles, 8 miles, 10, and 12). Nothing you can't handle. Do it!

Not trying to be a smart ass, but why did you quit after you had already run 11 miles in a half marathon. That's pretty much being a royal bitch and is pathetic.

Its not like anyone cares what you run anyway (until you post it for the world to see, that is). How can you not have the mental toughness to finish the last two miles of the Philly 1/2 (which are probably the easiest two miles of any race, any distance, in the country) yet come on here blathering about how fast you are, and you would have run "x" if not for the wind, and "y" if not for the competition.

That's pretty candy assed. You have no business racing any time soon until you get your head straight. The fact that you are asking anonymous people to boost your ego shows that you aren't there yet.

Not saying you can't get there someday, but my two month old handles more adversity than you.

Hey, two other points:

(i) Where was this 51:07 ten miler in July; certainly wasn't at the Blessing of the Fleet 10 miler.

(ii) You want toughness, look at Wejo last year at NYC. Ran like hell, but didn't quit even though his time sucked compared to what he hoped to run. Until you can go out there and run through adversity, you'll never improve.

I hate Joe Black.

Joe Black should be banned from the boards. He hasn't contributed anything worthwhile. Just preys upon people.

Disagree. "Hasn't offered anything worthwhile"?

That's simply silly. Telling someone that they need to get race tough and run through adversity is worthless advice?

I don't care how talented you are (i.e., SFH), if you can't run through adversity, you will never achieve your full potential, even though your talent level alone may take you higher than most.

How is that advice worthless, or do you disagree? Are you saying that being race tough isn't important?

Why beat yourself up just to prove you are some sort of a "tough guy"? You did the right thing. If it's not going to happen pack it in. There will be other days.

Tough guys don't ever rebound. But they're "tough". Just ask them.

The 51:07 sure was at the Blessing of the fleet in July:

1. The only place I know to see the results of this race is at coolrunning.com but that page is down (how convienent)

2. The reason I dropped out at Philly was because my 6:03 last mile felt like a 5:03 last mile. My last 2 miles would most likely have been closer to 7 minutes. This was not an attempt to receive an "ego boost" from anonymous runners I don't know but was an attempt to seek advice on whether someone who was not in self perceived shape to race a fast half marathon should attempt it anyway. An athlete and his coach have biased opinions and I was looking for advice from runners who may have been in a similar condition.

Sorry for wasting the board's time with my candy assed ego boost request.

~MP

Philly was extremely humid. If you deal badly with humidity, that may account at least in part for your negative experience. I do very poorly in humidity, and I too ran considerably slower at Philly than I had hoped (although I just managed to hold off Marla :-)

Also, it took me 2 weeks just to get over feeling sluggish after that effort, and I'm not convinced I'm entirely over it now. So that may have affected your experiences this past weekend. (But why race twice on 1 weekend? That seems like asking for trouble if you're already fatigued).

So I think you shouldn't necessarily take either experience (Philly or last weekend's races) as indications of what you're capable of at the moment. On the other hand, if you're still feeling sluggish and get tired from easy 6M runs, I don't see any reason to expect that things will magically turn around at Hartford.

I would suggest reducing mileage and just running easy (no workouts) for the next two weeks. If you find yourself perking up near the end of that period, by all means give Hartford a try. Otherwise I'd keep running easy for a while longer and start thinking about the next big goal race several months out.

MattP, are you coached by Jim Harvey? Or are you still with TNT?

I'm still with TNT, I did a few workouts with the Jim Harvey guys but they mostly train for track stuff and 5K's while I tend to run better and the longer stuff. If I had any leg speed (14:30 type stuff) like his crew I might consider running with them, but I'll NEVER be a quality 5K runner. He's a real nice guy though.

~MP