WTF Is "marathon maniacs"???

Yes, the difference between a 6 hour marathon and a 2:30 marathon is minute. They both *suck* at running. You are either an olympic runner or a hobby jogger. There is no reason to try your best and break your PRs, whether it is a 4 hour marathon or a 2:40 marathon.

"In the grand scheme of things..." such a cop out.

If you pull back the focus wide enough you can see why running anything is totally meaningless, even winning NYCM.

The fact is, it's more difficult to run as fast as you can. (We used to call this 'trying'.) To do this you must train, you must focus, you must hurt; you have to lay your guts out there. All this with the really big chance that you will not hit your target, so this whole thing could end in disappointment.

So people like you forego all that, avoid any and all risk, and just run a lot of easy marathons. You sit the goal low enough and you'll always hit your target, right?

Yep. Like only running one or two marathons a year (or zero). That's a pretty low bar to hit. Some of us strive to achieve more.

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:

You sit the goal low enough and you'll always hit your target, right?

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:The fact is, it's more difficult to run as fast as you can. (We used to call this 'trying'.) To do this you must train, you must focus, you must hurt; you have to lay your guts out there. All this with the really big chance that you will not hit your target, so this whole thing could end in disappointment.

So people like you forego all that, avoid any and all risk, and just run a lot of easy marathons. You sit the goal low enough and you'll always hit your target, right?

I agree that it's a bit annoying when people treat walking a 6-hour marathon as equivalent to racing a 2:30 marathon, just like I'm sure it would be annoying to golfers if people mixed up shooting under par with shooting 150.

However, it's a pretty trivial annoyance. I'd still rather people walked 6-hour marathons than stayed home to watch the 6-hour Duck Dynasty marathon. Walking a marathon is a genuine accomplishment for most people and a healthy and positive way of spending their time. The world is plenty big enough for both competitive runners and "marathon maniacs" going for a long supported walk/jog.

maniac wrote:

Yep. Like only running one or two marathons a year (or zero). That's a pretty low bar to hit. Some of us strive to achieve more.

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:

You sit the goal low enough and you'll always hit your target, right?

Try racing once it a while, you might see that you are better at it than you think.

Try running a marathon every weekend (sometimes two in a weekend) and see how low a bar it is.

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:

maniac wrote:

Yep. Like only running one or two marathons a year (or zero). That's a pretty low bar to hit. Some of us strive to achieve more.

Try racing once it a while, you might see that you are better at it than you think.

maniac wrote:

Try running a marathon every weekend (sometimes two in a weekend) and see how low a bar it is.

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:

Try racing once it a while, you might see that you are better at it than you think.

Traveling 26.2 miles in 5 or 6 hours is not "running." It sucks.

What is worse is when these marathon lovers that are fat, slow, and don't train hard tell you how they are better for completing marathons every weekend. You rarely see fast guys go up to the "maniacs" and tell them how much better they are. I don't give a crap what people do unless they continually tell you how much better they are. See: crossfitters and marathoners.

maniac wrote:

Try running a marathon every weekend (sometimes two in a weekend) and see how low a bar it is.

I did a 20 mile long run with an average pace of 6:44 last weekend. Legs were beat on Sunday (still ran 7 mi easy). Back to a hard 12 mile marathon pace workout on Tuesday. I could easily run a 3:30-45 marathon every weekend. My sub-elite ultra runner buddy does 25-40 mile runs almost every weekend and sometimes during the week too. He usually settles in at 7:00-7:30 on his long runs. Running slow marathons every weekend is not a big athletic accomplishment. It is closer to collecting souvenir spoons from every state than to an athletic achievement.

It's not about winning the race. It's about giving your best effort. You can't give your best effort in a race when your training is sub-par.

You can run a 4:00 marathon with the propr build-up

or you can run three 6-hour marathons within 90 days.

The 4:00 marathon represents your athletic best.

The three 6:00 marathons represent sticking to a plan. [quote]maniac wrote:

So you run one mediocre marathon a year. What's your point? Neither one of us is going to win the race. I enjoy the comraderie of the marathon and doing lots of them (on pace for 35 this year). No. I'm not going to win (neither are you), but that's not why I run.

In the grand scheme of things, neither one of us are very good at running. However, one of us apparently has come to terms with this.

[

First, everyone knows that 20 miles is only the "halfway" point of a marathon. Kudos to running 7 whole miles on Sunday. lolzSecond, saying you could do it and actually doing it are two different things. Put up or shut up.

Precious Roy wrote:

maniac wrote:

Try running a marathon every weekend (sometimes two in a weekend) and see how low a bar it is.

I did a 20 mile long run with an average pace of 6:44 last weekend. Legs were beat on Sunday (still ran 7 mi easy). Back to a hard 12 mile marathon pace workout on Tuesday. I could easily run a 3:30-45 marathon every weekend. My sub-elite ultra runner buddy does 25-40 mile runs almost every weekend and sometimes during the week too. He usually settles in at 7:00-7:30 on his long runs. Running slow marathons every weekend is not a big athletic accomplishment. It is closer to collecting souvenir spoons from every state than to an athletic achievement.

Precious Roy wrote:Running slow marathons every weekend is not a big athletic accomplishment. It is closer to collecting souvenir spoons from every state than to an athletic achievement.

Fine. You're superior to spoon collectors. Happy now?

Personally, if people want to collect spoons or walk marathons in every state, I don't care. There are certainly worse ways they could spend their time. It's self-evident that running a marathon competitively is physically more difficult than walking it. So what? I just don't see any point in running down healthy and harmless pastimes even if I have no interest in them myself.

If you don't doing a marathon (or two) every weekend iis not giving your best, I can't help you.I give my best every weekend, not once a year.

gggfgdsss wrote:

It's not about winning the race. It's about giving your best effort. You can't give your best effort in a race when your training is sub-par.

You can run a 4:00 marathon with the propr build-up

or you can run three 6-hour marathons within 90 days.

The 4:00 marathon represents your athletic best.

The three 6:00 marathons represent sticking to a plan. [quote]maniac wrote:

So you run one mediocre marathon a year. What's your point? Neither one of us is going to win the race. I enjoy the comraderie of the marathon and doing lots of them (on pace for 35 this year). No. I'm not going to win (neither are you), but that's not why I run.

In the grand scheme of things, neither one of us are very good at running. However, one of us apparently has come to terms with this.

[

maniac wrote:I give my best every weekend, not once a year.

I've been trying to defend you guys, but you have to know that if you run a marathon every week you are not running your best if you define "best" as the fastest time you could run.

If running a marathon every week if what you like to do, that's great with me, but you are not optimizing your marathon time by doing that.

Personally I think to get credit for running a marathon, you have to actually run it. I also have a problem with people who climb Mt Everest with $10,000 worth of gear and use a Sherpa to carry it half way up the mountain...those are my personal standards.

Pre once said that running anything less than 6 per mile was a waste of time; that was Pre's standard, which is way above mine...it's all relative.

AnonymousPseudonym wrote:

People that do this "stunt running" have totally lost the purpose of the endeavor. Since they lack the fortitude to train, race, and hurt in an attempt to run faster, they take the easy route and run run a lot.

I agree there's a lot of posers out there who really aren't legit runners. However, there are some of us who really are pushing the limits of both quantity AND quality. THIS is a talent in itself- if you're up for the challenge, give it a try. Otherwise, life is too short to only run 1-2 marathons a year, which you may or may not run any faster than if you ran a marathon every other month or few weeks. Most people hobble after only 1 marathon. Try doing them on back to back days (breaking X time), or back to back weekends, and repeat that over and over again. It's not easy.

[quote]maniac wrote:

So you run one mediocre marathon a year. What's your point? Neither one of us is going to win the race. I enjoy the comraderie of the marathon and doing lots of them (on pace for 35 this year). No. I'm not going to win (neither are you), but that's not why I run.

In the grand scheme of things, neither one of us are very good at running. However, one of us apparently has come to terms with this.

[quote]

See, here's a perfect example of a marathon maniac's mentality. Unless you win you're an also ran, and all also rans are created equal.

Well, I'd rather run one or two marathons at 2:30 - 2:31 in one year, and maybe take some time to run fast for 5K 10K for several years, than to run 30-50 3:30 to 4:30 marathons in a year. If that's your thing, fine. Just don't go rubbing your slow, mediocre times, in everyone's face.

not that easy wrote:

I agree there's a lot of posers out there who really aren't legit runners. However, there are some of us who really are pushing the limits of both quantity AND quality. THIS is a talent in itself- if you're up for the challenge, give it a try. Otherwise, life is too short to only run 1-2 marathons a year, which you may or may not run any faster than if you ran a marathon every other month or few weeks. Most people hobble after only 1 marathon. Try doing them on back to back days (breaking X time), or back to back weekends, and repeat that over and over again. It's not easy.

Again, you are confused about the purpose of the endeavor. You still think running a marathon is about "tough", it's this point where I different with the ultra folks too. Running isnt a contest of "easy v tough" its about running faster- period.

As far as "easy"..You know what else isn't easy? A contest to see who can drive the most nails into your hand. Fastest to push a wheelbarrow full of concrete blocks up the Grand Canyon. Seeing who can take the most baseball bat hits to the groin...

Samsonite Luggage wrote:

See, here's a perfect example of a marathon maniac's mentality. Unless you win you're an also ran, and all also rans are created equal.

Well, I'd rather run one or two marathons at 2:30 - 2:31 in one year, and maybe take some time to run fast for 5K 10K for several years, than to run 30-50 3:30 to 4:30 marathons in a year. If that's your thing, fine. Just don't go rubbing your slow, mediocre times, in everyone's face.

Yeah, isn't it understood that anyone can run farther much much slower? Heck there are folks that hike the entire AT in a matter of days, but we dont call them 'runners'.

And yeah, if someone is incapable of telling the difference between a 230 marathon and a 4-6 hr marathon I don't know how you can get them to understand. Obviously they dont know, and dont want to know about the sport.

I'm actual a part of this group, we look down on anyone who is "fast" this group is about fun, if you are busting your azz to do it quick you aren't accomplishing anything and are no better than my 6:15 marathon last sunday (Unless you win). So even if you're a 2:20 marathoner, your on my same overweight level of 6:15 catch my drift?

Also, yes most of us are overweight and walk them, but who cares, are goal isn't to win it's to just walk it, afterall i've done more marathons (walked 32 now) than most of you peices of garbage cross country kids who could NEVER even walk a marathon.