why do people in their 30s and 40s run marathons?

To kick the shit out of little pricks like you. Nothing more fun than kicking the crap out of snot nose millennials. I am closer to 50 than 40 and still running under 2:40 for marathon when I go up to that distance. Kicking your ass at 5k is fun too.

To answer the original question:

People in their 30s and 40s run marathons for the sole purpose of twisting up the underpants of people in their teens and 20s, thus forcing them to start moronic threads at Let's Run.

johnny bean wrote:

if you don't run competitive times and you're not fast why even bother training for something so time consuming and just run a 5k?

That's just a critique of people who do marathons for participation. It has nothing to do with whether someone is in their 30s or 40s. Look at the results of any marathon, and it's pretty obvious that 30s is prime age for running fast. As for 40s, you start to slow down slightly, but you can compete in the Masters division, which is often easy pickings if you've stayed fit and haven't gained weight.

I run marathons because they're hard and I love running and it makes me feel good and young and calm and strong even though I'm not.

Hopefully you will live to reach 30 or 40 or older, Johnny Bean. Then you'll know why.

I really don't have a problem with people who run marathons and can keep it to themselves and not brag about it when they have accomplished nothing. I've run 10 marathons but I would give them all up to shave a couple of minutes off my 10K PR.

The new obnoxious fad is ultras. All the 30 and 40 year old people too fat and slow for marathons now run ultras. Its essentially a long slow hike on the trails with some jogging thrown in. Uber lame. I'm not impressed.

Not Fast but Furious wrote:

I really don't have a problem with people who run marathons and can keep it to themselves and not brag about it when they have accomplished nothing. I've run 10 marathons but I would give them all up to shave a couple of minutes off my 10K PR.

The new obnoxious fad is ultras. All the 30 and 40 year old people too fat and slow for marathons now run ultras. Its essentially a long slow hike on the trails with some jogging thrown in. Uber lame. I'm not impressed.

Yes- I have a friend who brags about his ultra running. He "runs" about 12:00 per mile. Seriously? Anyone with patience and time can do that for any distance.

Mamo Wolde was 36 when he won the Olympic gold in 1968, and 40 when he got 3rd in 1972.

Alain Mimoun was 35 when he won in 1956. Franjo Mihalić (36) was 2nd and won Boston at 38, while Veikko Karvonen (30) was 3rd.

The list is long and deep.

Karl Hungus wrote:

I'm an old fat hobbyjogger. A 5k for me is kind of boring - it's just a warmup and for 30 minutes I run next to my spouse and we finish together and go get brunch and move on with our day.

You're not doing it right. A 5k should compress all the effort and suffering of a marathon into less than one tenth the time. Start fast, hang on for dear life, then try and out kick anyone with the nerve to run near you on the home stretch before the slight tunnel vision develops into full blown blackout. Good times!

I think you may have some of your time stuff confused. The marathon pace equivalence to a 21 minute 5k is 3:39 ish or around an 8:22 pace. That isn't fast but that isn't walking every few miles. I stopped doing 5k's a long time ago. They really are not my thing. I like longer races such as half marathons and up or something like a triathlon. Some of that has to do with what I am good at but its mostly what I enjoy. I would much rather go for a nice long 10-20 mile trail run than do sprints on a track. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. In competition a marathon is a a different kind of pain than a 5k. And finally I have a very high maximum heart rate, honestly the older the get the more concerned I get with pushing extremely hard. The last marathon I ran my heart rate averaged 186. That was the average over 26.2 miles. The last 5k I did I average 197 with the last half mile at 205. It didn't really bother me when I was 20 or 30 but my max heart rate hasn't budged since I was young and I find it more concerning now.

Also, the more people who run the better. We don't need more overweight people sitting on couches because some jerk makes fun of them when they actually go out and do something. If they run because of the social aspect good, if its to put a sticker on their car good, if its to prove something to themselves good.

johnny bean wrote:

if you don't run competitive times and you're not fast why even bother training for something so time consuming and just run a 5k? you get the same experience and it can be just as grueling but costs almost nothing. most marathons are expensive and if you don't run at least a 21 min 5k marathon pace is just going to be incredibly slow jogging and inevitably stopping every couple miles. i hate when i see women that have social media accounts that say things like "marathon mom! i

Haven't we hashed this thread so many times?

3/10 only because it generated responses.

Hobby_Jogger_999 wrote:

You're not doing it right. A 5k should compress all the effort and suffering of a marathon into less than one tenth the time. Start fast, hang on for dear life, then try and out kick anyone with the nerve to run near you on the home stretch before the slight tunnel vision develops into full blown blackout. Good times!

Well done.

What an a-hole. You are the seedy underbelly of the running community. What difference does it make to any of you? If you are so fast, then you are in your car and home long before any of these folks amble across the finish line. Encourage people to run, help them, cheer them on, even if you think they are stupid and fat and slow. It costs you nothing. And if they post on social media about how great they are for running a 4 hour marathon....so what? It tells you what you want to know about them, sure, but does that lessen what you did in the race, or when you ran in college? I just don't understand why people give a flying hoot about slow runners. Everyone in the pool - the more the merrier.

Dave the Wave wrote:

What an a-hole. You are the seedy underbelly of the running community. What difference does it make to any of you? If you are so fast, then you are in your car and home long before any of these folks amble across the finish line. Encourage people to run, help them, cheer them on, even if you think they are stupid and fat and slow. It costs you nothing. And if they post on social media about how great they are for running a 4 hour marathon....so what? It tells you what you want to know about them, sure, but does that lessen what you did in the race, or when you ran in college? I just don't understand why people give a flying hoot about slow runners. Everyone in the pool - the more the merrier.

This. Besides, if there weren't slow runners in the marathons, I might be last :-)

johnny bean wrote:

if you don't run competitive times and you're not fast why even bother training for something so time consuming and just run a 5k? you get the same experience and it can be just as grueling but costs almost nothing. most marathons are expensive

There's your answer, right there in the OP.

Some of aren't so pathetically poor we would change our interests and goals to avoid a race fee we can make in an hour.

I was a relatively slow HS XC/distance track guy. Stopped seriously running in college (did 2-3 miles jogging at 10:00 pace) and put on weight through the years. At first I dieted and ran to lose weight and reduce body fat to cure overweight-related complications like prediabetes and fatty liver. I kept running as a lost weight and felt better about myself. Then, as my half marathon times came down and I won my first age group award (#5/1000), I set my goal to be a Boston qualifier. After qualifying for Boston, now I want to run sub-3 at Chicago and eventually at all the World Marathon Majors. It is partly about maintaining fitness but also partly about setting challenging goals to train for to make life more interesting. A welcome change from the daily grind of raising a family and working. I like half and full marathons but also do plan to run local 5K and 10K races to compete for age group awards.

This thread is arguably one of the better trolls I've seen on this site, so I'll bite along with everyone else.

Marathoning is my traveling crutch. I'm completing my final majors over the next year (NYC and Tokyo) and I get a lot more out of traveling to a place, running a marathon, and enjoying the vacation than I do just visiting. I couldn't have afforded these trips in my 20s as easily.

I don't really care so much about the local races, although I do enter them for fun weekend activities.

if you don't start imaginative threads and you're not that clever why even bother wasting your time and just masturbate to online porn? you get a similar experience, neither are challenging but porn is more stimulating. most troll threads are transparent and if you don't post anything original the content will just be inevitably stale and subpar. i hate when I see people feeding trolls and giving them hard-ons when the trolls really should be strictly focused on autoeroticism

You people are pathetically easy to troll.