Running a marathon just for the hell of it

How many miles a week are you putting in? Im guessing 70+ if you're doing a 17-19 mile long run....

Do you realize a 245 would be right at the bottom of that pace range for your long runs (617's)? How comfortable do those longer runs really feel? I have no doubt that you could do the full marathon and most likely in the time you mentioned but it's a matter of how much it will take out of you. Also, it looks like you focus on shorter events seeing as you only gave us your 800, 1600, and 3000 PRs. What is the longest distance you have ever covered at once?

I think you would be fine doing it but just make sure to take it easy for a few weeks after you finish. You'll probably be pretty fatigued afterwards, even if you don't realize it, and pushing too hard immediately post race could definitely get you sick or sidelined for a while. This happened to me (got sick) after I decided to hop into a marathon with my old HS XC coach to help pace him for sub 3 which didn't seem like it would be too hard at the time since I had recently run a 2:48. Thing is, I had just finished my first ironman like 5 weeks prior and then I had strung together some decent training, so I doubt I was 100% recovered. My body couldn't handle all the stress though and I got a nasty sinus infection. Mighta also been because I was only running like 30-40mpw...

I say go for it and let us know how it turns out, just make sure to rest afterwards!

What school do you go to? I know plenty of teams that would love to have a guy with those times especially the 4:15 and 8:33. Come to LSU, I'm sure coach Elliot would love to have you on the team.

YES running a late fall marathon would hurt your training and NO it would do you a world of good.

Usually after running a marathon your bod is worn out. It takes a couple months to recover. If you try to run hard when you should have been resting usually you suddenly run into a stone wall somewhere down the road and just have no energy.

Usually after running a marathon you have built up a lot of endurance in your bod. If you rest well before your winter season that experience in the marathon will add power and speed to your fall workouts.

It is a sword with two sharp edges.

I ran a marathon in May and PR'd in the mile six days later. A mile PR wasn't particularly over due either, I think it was just shy of 5 weeks old.

People who say it takes more than 4 days to recover from a marathon never ran one when they were 19.

Those long runs were just long easy runs. I've done 15 miles at sub 6:00 pace before and not been anywhere close to all out. If I had to guess, I would say I'm capable of running 20 miles at 5:40-5:45 pace in a race on flat terrain when in good shape (I'm not in very good shape at the moment). I've done 10 mile runs at under 5:25, and when I was in that shape 5:45 felt only slightly faster than 'easy'.

Like I said, if I'm doing a ~17 mile run once a week, I don't really think doing one 26 miler followed by 10 days or so of recovery before gradually starting up again would be very killer.

As for running for a school, I tried that once already; it didn't work. Apparently if you don't PR right away off your coach's training (which he lied to you about while recruiting you) and you're not the number one runner on the team, you're worthless and expendable. I realize not every coach is like this, but mine was, and it was so bloody miserable I decided I would never take the chance of falling into that situation again.

Stout wrote:

I ran a marathon in May and PR'd in the mile six days later. A mile PR wasn't particularly over due either, I think it was just shy of 5 weeks old.

People who say it takes more than 4 days to recover from a marathon never ran one when they were 19.

It's called supercompensation. A week or two weeks after a Marathon you may be able to run fast races or even PR. It happened to me a few times that I'd run a race just a week or two after a Marathon and they usually went well. But two or three weeks later, I still feel kinda "empty" and can't train hard yet. Eventually the shape is coming down. Also, there is usually a lack of motivation before I can resume.

Please don't feed the trolls

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