elite marathon women and men please answer

I want to know how many marathons are too many for a normal, non drug taking, athlete to conquer in one year? I'm not talking about average joe's out for a 5 hour marathon. I'm talking about women distance runners who are running under Olympic Qualifying Standards: 2:36-2:42.

I'm curious because I know of a woman in San Antonio who has run 5 marathons this year, in the last ten months. She has also ran atleast 15 road races between 1/2 marathon and 5k in their too. How is she doing that and why isn't anybody asking how as well?

November 2003 2:42PR

December 2003 3:35.48 cr/50k

Feb. 2004 2:36.18Pr

April. 2004 2:36.2?

Aug. 2004 2:50 Olympics Hot

November 2004 2:44

December 2004 2:38

April 2005 2:34.40PR

Are these performances naturally possible?? Please elite women answer. I need to know.

LOL..

another letsrun drug dog , on the case.

These results are well within the possibility of an elite female marathoner. In this case, Lisa Hunter-Galvan is quite capable of these types of performances. There are and have been others who have done even more.

after a little research I am guessing you are referring to Liza Hunter-Galvan of New Zealand. She has run a few other 50ks over that time span too, looks like she is coming from an ultramarathoning background maybe? The times there don't look to be so out of control. She is after all almost 20min behind the WR. If you heard of a guy running 4 2:26 marathons in a year would you be rattled?

What about the amount of time in between marathons. Name even one American Distance runner out there who can put out a pr performance or reach within a couple of minutes of one every 2-3 months.

you're assuming that she is going all out on these marathons which you really can't do here. and also we dont know if she ever really trained properly for them in the first place. it could be she did marathon specific training or some speedwork this time around in the winter of 04-05 and lowered her pr then. i think it is just likely she could be a lot faster than her times indicate but chooses to race a lot.

Michael Wardian runs a marathon nearly every month within a few minutes of his PR (2:22-2:26). He also competes every weekend in local 5k & 10ks. He is definitely not using any performance-enhancing drugs.

It is the mentality of this running generation that competing often at a high level is in someway performance-hindering. That is a concept fueled by the "fitness" generation.

I agree with the others here. If you think that this series of performances is substantial evidence of drug use, you probably don't know much about marathoning. Sounds to me like a woman of fairly modest ability who just likes to race.

No drugs in Wardian. He runs hard even outside the filler 5/10k's he does. He just recovers 3x faster than a normal person, has a high pain throeshold, and stays injury free. That's his strength. If he trained for a specific race the way most people do I'm not sure he'd be too much faster.

She is the number one New Zealand athlete and would be top ten in the USA. I think that she is very serious.

Come on she is 36 yrs old and and has 10 kids!!

It's bizerk, she competes everywhere

the answer is yes. wrote:

It is the mentality of this running generation that competing often at a high level is in someway performance-hindering. That is a concept fueled by the "fitness" generation.

for most people -- even elites, it probably is, or we would see khannouchi, tergat, gebrsellasie and a dozen others running marathons every month. they are not waiting longer in between because they are "fitness runners"

dildong wrote:

Come on she is 36 yrs old and and has 10 kids!!

It's bizerk, she competes everywhere

Actually not really, other than Olympics, she rarely has ventured outside of Texas.

But her little bitch boy Perrone at Fila will come on here crying about how great of a person she is (he still has a crush on her, has since college) and how nice her and her husband is, blah, blah, blah.

Liza is a back-stabbing bi-otch. I dunno how she races so much with what 4 or 5 kids.

I have watched her run for 15 years from College to now, she has never been anywhere near this level talent wise, and now, all of a sudden after four kids, she is world class in the marathon, 2:34. She still can't break 34:40 for 10k or 16:40 for 5k. Running charts say she should be 32's and 15:50, whats up with the longer stuff. I guess performance enhancement drugs really work well with the marathon. Her body type has become very lean and the zits are present. But who am I to say, just another slow poke in SA. As far as going out of town to race, she goes to purchase, I mean race, in Mexico alot! I'm just a spectator in this whole scheme of running, but I'm not an idiot either!

she doesnt look THAT skinny:

http://www.iaapweb.com/

she...is ah...

very attractive though no?

too many wrote:

She is the number one New Zealand athlete .

You're right. Kim Smith who?

Lay off of Paul. Guy has given more than his share to the sport. Sounds like you\'re the one with the insecurities.