How fast could you run a marathon right now? The rules are....

Firstly, kudos for the creativity of this thread. there should be more like this.

I've had a pretty harry hard week thus far, ran balls to the walls yesterday, and have already gone 9 miles today.

I'm guessing pretty slow. 8:45 pace, mainly from lack of motivation! I've got a party to go to tomorrow!!

I'm tapering for the Napa marathon right now. Other than the fact that it's 8:30 p.m. which would be a terrible time for me to start a marathon, I could run a PR which for me would be a 3:29 or maybe a bit faster.

average healthy male runner wrote:

Was gonna head out for my run in about an hour, already ran 11.5 miles today. Right now I'm eating "lunch" at 4:00, so I would take the time to use the bathroom and change, then run the marathon.

I've been training hard since december for Boston (goal - another sub 2:30, maybe even a 2:26:xx PR) Right now, I would probably just run at a moderately-fast pace to complete it (tired from training) so around 3:15-3:30.

You are clearly a good runner so I am not mocking you, but I wonder about two things?

1) you can eat and run again in an hour? I can't run within 3 hours of eating, unless it is just cereal and juice, or something like that that. And even then it is a problem if I run longer than 30 minutes, I get a stitch.

2) you consider 2:17 per mile slower than current marathon pace to be moderately fast? I would think that (especially at your level) anything slower than 7:00 pace would be jogging, or easy running? 2:30 is 5:43 pace?

dontflushwhileyousit wrote:

I know one thing is for sure - I wouldn't waste my time warming up for 15 minutes. Do you really need to warm up for a marathon? The answer for just about everyone should be no.

I can't go faster than 8 minute pace the first mile of a run or my back will tighten up. I can probably run under 7 minute pace for a marathon so I would be giving away one minute the first mile by not warming up. That extra mile isn't going to affect me hardly any at the end of the race.

As for this marathon, I could probably go 3:15-3:20. I love concrete.

I did a plateful of 400s tonight, so that would start to hurt pretty quickly.

I could that marathon in...2:59:59

1) at my house, so shoes/clothes a non issue.

2) just finished eating: large bowl of red beans and rice, half a bag of chee-tos, a pint of chocolate ice cream, all washed down with a few gulps of chocolate milk. i've also already put in 11 miles today, so that 15 min would be me puking everything up.

3) 105ish laps to run, i would switch direction every 5 laps.

4) i would take viso (an energy drink) every 5 laps.

i would run 3:00-3:30, in my best estimation. i would be shocked if i did run under 3hrs.

1) yeah, I usually don't have any stomach problems if I go #2 first thing in the morning and once before my run. My lunch was a pb&j, chocolate milk, and a banana do nothing too fatty or heavy, but it was filling. I guess I've adjusted to feeling full on a run, but I don't eat close to harder workouts

2)My mistake for saying moderately fast - obviously running that pace for a marathon won't seem fast to me. But, since I'm tired from my training and probably already ran twice, up to 20 miles, I don't think I would mentally have the motivation to actually try to run it fast, so I wouldn't try too hard.

Also, I do a lot of my easy runs, especially recently, much slower than 7:00/mile, usually around 7:30-8. I wasn't the type to do easy runs too slowly, but now with a lot of volume I just focus on nailing the tough workouts each week and take it easy and carefree in easy runs.

Being able to change makes this too easy. It's not much different from asking - what did you eat and what shape are you in?

When I was running in college people would sometimes ask me if I had run a marathon. When I said no some people took it to understand that I was a good runner but I couldn't run a marathon. I had to patiently explain that I was perfectly capable of running 26 miles but that it wasn't practical to do so when training for 5-10k. Sometimes I would just tell them that I could, at that very moment, get up and run a marathon. In whatever condition I was physically, with whatever shoes and clothes I had on.

If I could change, like you said, I think I'd run under 3 hours. If I couldn't then most of the time I'd be ok, but right now I'm wearing flipflop sandals, so I'd have to slow down to keep them on or maybe ditch them and run barefoot.

How fast could you go if you had to run 26.2 right now? Stand up and start running.

I have a 2:55 marathon, and right now am in training for another. It's been going well, but I'm right in the middle of hard work right now

So, the questions are:

1. How much worse off am I in the middle of a training block, vs tapered and race-sharp? I am going to guess that if I had to race tomorrow MORNING I would be good for 3:00-3:05, although the possibility of blowing up and DNF seems strong.

2. How does the huge buffet lunch currently in my guy affect things? I think I would use that 15 minute warm-up to get things moving and hopefully take a crap before the race started, but much more likely is a crapsplosion at 23 miles.

Overall, best bet is DNF :(

I agree with other posters that a 15 minute warm up probaly isnt needed with running this particular marathon. I would like to think that I could itleast break 3 hours. Im running around mid 40s with an off day and trying to heal a nasty posterior tendinits. The concrete may be an issue

DNS

I would only run a marathon on an indoor track if you paid me in cash, up front, at least $1,200. Then I'd go out and run a studly 3:45, great value for your money. What the heck, I'm 55 next month...

Now, ask me about a mile or 1500 indoors, I'll even pay an entry fee!

I just got into work after running 11 this morning... Think I could 'run'/walk a 4:30. If I had some sort of cash incentive I might be able to 'run' a 4:00, but it would hurt a lot.

Just ate a big bowl of oatmeal. I'm thinking 2 minutes to power-drop a duchess, 2 minutes to get dressed and 45 seconds in-house travel time. Legs are in crap shape after a winter battling an injury and I know for a fact that right now 15 feels like 24, so I'm saying 3:10 and utterly hating every moment of the last 6 miles (like that's any different.)

McMillan says I would go 2:37 or better. I have my conference meet tonight and the van I'm riding down leaves at 12:30, so 2:40. I would need to get changed NOW. I also haven't packed for the meet yet so I would need to drop like 15 min so that I can pack. What sucks, I just finished a fairly large breakfast...

wait until you get old wrote:

As for this marathon, I could probably go 3:15-3:20. I love concrete.

Since I already ran a marathon mostly on concrete less than 6wks ago, I suppose I would have an advantage going into this race. I've only put in about 45-50 miles avg (with a peak of 57) since my last marathon and have been doing some speed work. Therefore, since I had an off day and the concrete got to me at the half way point of my last marathon, I should be in better condition going into this race (you know, having some experience racing on concrete and it's an indoor track), no wind to contend with, etc) I definitely feel great this morning, maybe little sore from the 800s yesterday but I think I could manage a sub 3:30.

I think some sort of incentive would be a good addition to this mental exercise. If there was a chance of getting paid, the effort that I would exert at this moment would be substantially higher than otherwise. Maybe $500 for an effort within 110% of one's PR, $1,000 for an effort within 105%, and $2,000 for a PR?

For reference, someone with a PR of 2:30, 110% would be a 2:45 and 105% a 2:37.5. For a PR of 3:00, 110%=3:18 and 105%=3:09.

asaccc wrote:

IN any case... i am starting marathon training for a race at the end of april. i did a solid 14 mile run around 6:30 pace on monday. its my longest run in about 9 months. my goal marathon pace is 5:59. Yesterday was an easy day. I would say I would be able to run 2:45 if i ran a marathon today on a flat course. 6:18 pace

Ok. After my 10 mile run in the afternoon, I can give a better estimate of what my time would have been. My legs were beat and i ended up feeling fatigued averaging 6:50 pace. I think i probably could have a run a 2:54 marathon yesterday but not much faster. 6:40 pace i think

just downed 1 gallon of coffee and 4 eggos... Im good for a 2:30