Running marathon with wife -- never run for 4-5 hrs before

Use the opportunity to do something funny like wearing a stupid costume. You know, something that would make a good story while you're not worried about jeopardizing your time ("I once ran a marathon while doing ____").

Personally I'm always so worried about time that I never enjoy the race environment or talk to anyone, so now you have an opportunity to run for fun.

NJ Possible wrote:

I've run a few marathons between 3:13 and 3:30 before, but I'm running a marathon alongside my wife in October and will be running 10:30-11 min pace as opposed to my usual 7:15-8 pace. I assumed I'd be fine since it's so much slower, but I just realized that I'll be running for 60-90 minutes longer than I've ever run before and was curious if anyone else has been in this situation before, if you trained differently and how it went. I'm going to run one or two long runs with her one weekend soon, but should I be worried my legs will give out at some point? Do I need to train for time instead of distance?

You race marathons at ~8 min pace, what pace do you do your long runs? Why do you feel it will take your wife this amount of time to run a marathon? Is she beefy? Haven't you been training her properly?

NJ Possible wrote:

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

My advice: she can run without you there to hold her hand.

I don't understand your point. She's asked me to sign up and run with her. It's her first and I think it'll be her last and this was her wish.

If she is so new to running (which it sounds like) why is she doing a 'thon?

You should run your 3:15 race first, then join your wife for the last hour of her race.

Don't do it. Personal pacers are against the ethics (and usually rules) of the sport.

It would be more meaningful if she did it on her own or found someone to share a goal with and do it together. What about a pace group?

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

My advice: she can run without you there to hold her hand.

Talk about a kneejerk feminist response.

Yes, anyone who wants a pacer, especially a woman wanting a male pacer is weak. Just like Paula Radcliffe! (I believe wejo once "held her hand" ?)

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

she can get through it on her own. That's what marathon running is about.

Yes, because if this guy runs with his wife, this will be the first time in history that someone completed a marathon with a friend, spouse, family member, training partner, or countrymen, i.e., not "alone."

(the OP wasn't trying to put down women tRg. Really. He's not Donald Trump. Just a runner who is trying to support his wife running a marathon, and even admitting he might find it challenging, even though slower than he is used to. Relax)

Since you're purely talking about the physical aspects of running a slow marathon: I don't think you will have problems in that department.

Try to find out if you can get some sort of rhythm at this pace as well.

To me it was not much different afterwards than for example when you're visiting a foreign city and walk around a lot: Your legs are a bit tired. The slower pace generates a lot less impact and you're obviously used to much more impact with your higher pace.

Psychologically I (we) had some issues. Partly this could be due to the nature of our relationship but it was also because I got a little bit bored and started talking about all sorts of things while jogging. This apparently was pretty annoying. You never know how someone's going to react when they are physically/mentally suffering so prepare for that as well.

I've often reflected on the length of races for some people and how much that is an effort that I could not make.

e.g. for an overweight woman doing a marathon as her challenge, for example, she might target 5hr30 or so. That might seem like little more than walking to many here. But in fact she will probably be close to her physical limit for a more extended duration than many would be with significantly faster marathon PBs.

Probably, yes. Anybody would have a rough time carrying a lot of kilos over 42k. I doubt if it's a wise thing to do, however. The joints will suffer doing that stuff. Better to 'run' lots of 10-15ks, get the weight down and THEN try for the marathon.

While you're running, keep saying things like "this is really slow for me, but this is good for me" and "it's hard for me to run this slow, but I'm doing it for you". Maybe run back and forth a bit to run faster without getting ahead of her.

She'll love that. She'll be so glad you're with her

"You race marathons at ~8 min pace, what pace do you do your long runs? Why do you feel it will take your wife this amount of time to run a marathon? Is she beefy? Haven't you been training her properly?"

OP, please answer these questions.

Hey, OP! Looking for an award of some kind for "supporting" your wife? Then stop being a patronizing jackass.

elephino wrote:

While you're running, keep saying things like "this is really slow for me, but this is good for me" and "it's hard for me to run this slow, but I'm doing it for you". Maybe run back and forth a bit to run faster without getting ahead of her.

She'll love that. She'll be so glad you're with her

See, I'm not the only one who can read between the lines. Yes, it's normal for people of the same pace to run together, but I just smell trouble when it's a married couple where one is the runner and the other is doing their "first and last" marathon in 5 hours. It just makes me think that she's doing it because running is such a big focus in his life and she feels left out. And knowing the demons that go through someone's head at mile 20 of a marathon, I don't see how this is a good idea.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

See, I'm not the only one who can read between the lines. Yes, it's normal for people of the same pace to run together, but I just smell trouble when it's a married couple where one is the runner and the other is doing their "first and last" marathon in 5 hours. It just makes me think that she's doing it because running is such a big focus in his life and she feels left out. And knowing the demons that go through someone's head at mile 20 of a marathon, I don't see how this is a good idea.

You could be right about that.

NJ patronizing wrote:Hey, OP! Looking for an award of some kind for "supporting" your wife? Then stop being a patronizing jackass.

This. It's fine to run with your wife. But the fact that you post here about it tells me that you won't be able to shut up and just run. You'll make sure that she, and probably everyone else you encounter, will know in no uncertain terms that it's really slow for you and you could run much faster.

I predict that by 8 miles she'll be sick of you running with her.

messi wrote:

NJ Possible wrote:

I don't understand your point. She's asked me to sign up and run with her. It's her first and I think it'll be her last and this was her wish.

If she is so new to running (which it sounds like) why is she doing a 'thon?

Bucket list and/or charity and/or peer pressure and/or fitness/weight-loss

There will be lots of big butt women to keep you motivated.

elephino wrote:

NJ patronizing wrote:Hey, OP! Looking for an award of some kind for "supporting" your wife? Then stop being a patronizing jackass.

This. It's fine to run with your wife. But the fact that you post here about it tells me that you won't be able to shut up and just run. You'll make sure that she, and probably everyone else you encounter, will know in no uncertain terms that it's really slow for you and you could run much faster.

I predict that by 8 miles she'll be sick of you running with her.

I predict she's already sick of him. Her painfully slow pace is a futile attempt to ditch him before he even bothers to signs up.