How do you respond to the question, "why don't you do marathons?"

You could say, "I recognize that the marathon is an impressive achievement because of its distance. But, because I enjoy the competitive aspect of running, I focus my training on the distances at which I believe I'm most competitive. Some runners excel at marathons, or even 100-mile races, and some excel at sprints. Like many others, I think I perform best at distances somewhere in between those extremes."

Or, more succinctly, you could say, "Training for the marathon would be an interesting challenge, but I think I'm more competitive at shorter distances, so that's where I focus my energy."

If they're non-runners, tell them to ef off.

fred wrote:

If they're non-runners, tell them to ef off.

Insecure much?

Blow

Reasonable response wrote:

You could say, "I recognize that the marathon is an impressive achievement because of its distance. But, because I enjoy the competitive aspect of running, I focus my training on the distances at which I believe I'm most competitive. Some runners excel at marathons, or even 100-mile races, and some excel at sprints. Like many others, I think I perform best at distances somewhere in between those extremes."

Or, more succinctly, you could say, "Training for the marathon would be an interesting challenge, but I think I'm more competitive at shorter distances, so that's where I focus my energy."

Good Post

A whole lot of hard truth here. Well stated. Though I disagree that a 2:36 is worthless. That is a nice achievement--congratulations.

[quote]lookatitthiswaybro wrote:

@thon pride

I totally disagree with you. Training for a marathon takes over your life. If you are married, have a demanding job, or kids (or perhaps all three) you are faced with the most challenging part of running to race a good marathon: TIME. It's not fun, that's the bottom line for me. I'm always making a compromise with the other important aspects of my life, which from the eyes of a non-runner, are more important than a marathon

I gave the mara-thong 1 year of my life and my wife hated me. I was always tired, I had to eat 4000-5000 calories a day, and I was only averaging 60 miles a week. I ended up running a 2:36, my first ever marathon and everyone was so excited for me to run Boston etc. That was 5 years ago and I haven't dared try again. Let's say I gave it a good go for a few years and won some local marathons at 2:23-25 or something? Who cares. Any time that isn't an olympic trials qualifier is the same as a hobby jogger slogging in a 4:00 hour run. Really, think about it, it's no different, just a little faster

I'm happy running my 16:00 minute 5ks and 1:14 half marathons on 35 miles a week and having a more balanced life where I'm not achey and exhausted all of the time. I can happily go on a hike or drink beer and still find glory in little road races.

Elite marathoners are freaks being able to run 4:4x pace per mile, and they are something amazing to behold, but I'm just not motivated to put in what is, for runners like us on these boards, a mediocre marathon time. There's no satisfaction for me

[quote]

no more marathons wrote:

Not that I'm looking for approval or anything, but there's something annoying about nonrunners looking down on any other race distance. Maybe I should just tell them I do 5k marathons.

It's easier to extend the distance than to get fast at a shorter distance.

Because it is easier to extend, the goal of running a longer distance is taken over one with a shorter distance at a faster pace.

So tell them a tougher challenge would be to try and get faster at a shorter distance before exploring longer distance races.

"marathon bling just ain't my thing."

or

"I don't have anywhere to display the obligatory participatory medal."

lookatitthiswaybro wrote:

Training for a marathon takes over your life. If you are married, have a demanding job, or kids (or perhaps all three) you are faced with the most challenging part of running to race a good marathon: TIME. It's not fun, that's the bottom line for me. I'm always making a compromise with the other important aspects of my life, which from the eyes of a non-runner, are more important than a marathon

+1000

This is what I tell people. I don't have the TIME to properly train for one and I don't want to shuffle through just to say I ran a marathon.

My long run each Sunday is typically 12-15 miles and even then it feels like a huge indulgence (time wise).