What’s the least prepared you’ve been for a marathon and how did it turn out?

Well, my doctor had given me a small script of painkillers for the first few days. They always overprescribe, and I don't like taking pills so I hardly touched them after the first 24 hours and had some left over. I specifically asked the doctor before the marathon if the race would further injure me in any way, and she said no, other than causing some extra needless pain from the jostling around. So I made a decision and took a single pill 20 minutes before the race, which helped, but because it was such a small amount, it obviously began to wear off and I was really feeling a lot of pain by the time I quit running. However, I don't think I would have been able to even start without it. So, I'm not that tough.

A few times in my 20s and 30s, to keep a streak of "at least one marathon a year" going, I completed marathons with just three days of training during the previous six months or more:

A month before the marathon, I would run/walk 10 miles. A week later, 15 miles. A week after that, maybe 18 miles. Then rest for two weeks.

On marathon day, I would run at 8-minute-mile pace pretty easily for 18 miles, then struggle for a couple miles. Then walk-run the last six. Sorry, OP, no amazing success story here, but I kept my streak alive.

My first marathon, age 18 (just out of HS). I averaged 49 miles/week the 12 weeks before the race. I had plenty of miles at estimated race pace (6:30-6:50), but when reviewing my training I realized that my longest run had been only 16 miles. I was shocked by the idea of racing ten miles past what I had done in practice.

The next day, eight days before the race, I ran 25 miles, drinking out of hosebibs in peoples' yards and finishing up a 300' hill. I averaged 7:10/mile and still held hope that I could break 3:00.

Race day was perfect and I caught a group of experienced runners at mile 15. I told them I wanted to break 3:00 and the oldest guy said " Stay with us and you will do at least that". We were on 2:45 pace as it turns out. I held on pretty easily until mile 24 when my calf locked up. Had to stop and walk and stretch it out, still ran 2:53. Partied that night ingesting illicit substances and staying up until 3AM.

I barely ran for the next month and entered a smaller local marathon. 2:49.

First time I ran a mary (actually have never heard this term before today's hated terminology thread) was my senior year of high school (age 17) at the end of the XC season. Basically with that base (I was a 17:50 guy and we probably averaged 40-50 mpw) + 1 long run of 1 hour 30 min once a week for about 10 weeks, I went out with no expectations except for a goal of completion. Ended up running 3:10 and suffering from the soreness for about a week.

I didn't get to train much because I was too busy being a DJ and fighting with my kid's school principle about taking them out of school. I was trying for a BQ. It was my last shot. So, I parked my car not too far from the start, cross the start with my chip, drove to the last relay exchance after mile 20, then ran the last part.

I then told myself that I would train for Boston because that'd be a tough course to cut. Well, between cutting local 5k runs for monetary gain and hitting women, I didn't have the time. Was likely more prepared for this one than the last, but I ran a really bad time. Like, over 4 hours.

Since then, I've just spent more time with my wife and family. DJing has been a little slower lately. Might hop into a marathon soon; from mile 0-2, then again from 24-26.2, or any other markers with timing mats, of course.

Mine was black ice as well.. torn labrum in the process...

You don't realize how much you need your arms until you cant use them .

Running on pain killers, that's pretty baller.

In my early 40s I had a comeback but was focusing mostly on 5K and under, and fairly moderate mileages. Base at 40-50 and racing at 40. Finished a race cycle did a two week cutback recovery (one week rest, then next at 15). Then decided to a marathon. Did 55-60 average for 10 weeks and broke 2:45. A few years later Had an 8 week build up (also at about 55-60 mpw) but after 2 months of stress fracture recovery and some delay due to illness and and ran 3:00. The first one hurt but the latter hurt a lot more, and ran a 10 minute positive split in that one.

I like what you did, but the chronology is wrong, so 2/10.

Run a marathon this spring out of mile-5K training (40MPW high-intensity workouts and only one run longer than 15 miles).

The aim was to qualify for Boston, so I run 40 seconds/mile slower than my usual marathon pace and hit my goal time, but last couple of miles felt hard. Pretty sure I would have bombed if I tried to run significantly faster.

My suggestion is to take it very easy and enjoy it as you are not likely to PR anyway.

I was a washed up college runner that ballooned from 165 5' 11" in college to 210 lbs. My hobby jogger brother signed me up for the Sugarloaf Marathon with a lil less than 3 months to train and said we'd run it together. The weekend of the race he said he couldn't get work off and bailed, but I said f it, i'll run til I collapse.

The first 13 miles clicked off suprising 6:50 miles and felt fine. The next 13, especially the last 10 felt like a death march and I could feel the world getting darker at some points and thought I would pass out. However, I kept my vow to keep running until I passed out and somehow made it to the finish line. Ran a 3:24...also one of the moments I more proud of in the race is I saw the finish line and I was way past dead, but I saw a runner in front of me struggling who was bragging earlier he was going to run a 2:40...I kicked it in and passed him. My foot was disgustingly covered in blisters but I did it.

My story happens to have been the Sugarloaf marathon as well (trying to race in all 50 states). Anyway, I was more like 225 pounds having gained 60 pounds over the last few years due to laziness. My goal was a 3:30, and for 30km I was still running just under 5/km . But due to my size and not being prepared, I had massive thigh chaffing and once I saw the 19 mile sign (watch was in KM mode), I stopped and started doing a wide stanced walk. I'd try to run here and there, and when I ran I was still doing 5:20/km, but then I'd have to walk. Around mile 24 water station one of the people actually had little packets of vaseline, but it was waaay too late and I mostly walked it in, finishing in 3:50.

Due to my size at the time and my training (maybe 30km/wk and no runs above 20km), I'm still relatively happy with this.

I'm a masters runner who maxes out at 50mpw with a 3:0x PR. Got a calf strain 2 months out from marathon, and was only able to do light jogging of ~20mpw through the peak 5 weeks. On race day I did ok until mile 21 when I started cramping up badly, likely due to a pace that was ambitious considering my training. I hobbled/walked/shuffled for a few miles and was able to finish okay in a 3:14.

My friends and I decided to run this (my first)local marathon 5 days before. I was a 40-50mpw guy for 3 months before. Won it in 2:24. Ran several subsequent marathons and only bettered that time once....by less than a minute and after months of exemplary buildup of 80+. Gave up on marathons after that!

Darkhelmet wrote:

My friends and I decided to run this (my first)local marathon 5 days before. I was a 40-50mpw guy for 3 months before. Won it in 2:24. Ran several subsequent marathons and only bettered that time once....by less than a minute and after months of exemplary buildup of 80+. Gave up on marathons after that!

I would point out that I had 7 years of about 20-40mpw before this first marathon!

Not me but a work buddy, a body builder goon who constantly made fun of we runners types and bragged that his gym fitness included running endurance. I convinced the 5'8" 210 PD. knucklehead to run NY (about 15 years ago and bet him him he'd DNF. ) waited for 4 plus hours at a bar on First Ave., but mister sculpted calves, big chest and biceps waddled as far as a bar in the Bronx

after 3 hours or so, later cmplaining of bleeding nips, chaffing thighs, severe foot blisters, but still maintained he was fitter than the scrawny runners and if that stuff hadn't befallen him he'd be under 3 hours "easy."

In 2008 I went to Honolulu to work the expo and was offered a comp entry the day before the race. Like an idiot I accepted. I had just come off a decent half marathon a few week before and had hurt my right calf. My training was maybe 30 miles a week...wound up walking a lot, ran a 3:27 and just managed to outkick some lady wearing a bumble bee costume.

However in 2001 while stationed in Honolulu, I had broken my right wrist when I took a nasty fall during a trail race. My right arm was in a full length cast for 8 weeks and I just couldn't run with it. In July I got a forearm cast and was able to start running again. I had applied earlier in the year to be part of the All Army Marathon Team (Marine Corps Marathon) in Oct. I decided at the end of August there was no way I was going to be able to get in the appropriate long runs so I just focused on the Army Ten Miler as I was part of the US Army Ten Miler Team. I sent an email to the Army Sport Director to tell him I was going to withdraw my application. I continued to train for the 10 Miler, with long runs of about 12-14 miles with my training partners. I didn't hear anything back from Army Sports and reached out to them again at the beginning of Oct to make sure they got my email. The sport director said he already had my name on the rental van, and didn't really think he could find a replacement. I told him at best I could maybe run 3:00 hours and I was sure he could find someone faster. He told me just to come and help with the team and run the marathon "for fun"

I think I went out that weekend and ran a 16 miler and that was the longest run I did.

I wound up running around 56:34 for the Army Ten Miler and then proceeded to drink a lot of beer with my teammates as it was AUSA week in DC and that was really an excuse to party. I was hung over on the Thursday the rest of the team headed back to the airport. They all took bets on how they thought I would run...they ranged from a DNF, a 3:15, to a "he's fucking stupid".

I remember the forecast was for 60s and a little bit of humidity...some of the other Armed forces runners were complaining that it was going to be too warm to run well (kinda like we saw on these boards leading up to Chicago (

Part of the long winded post was cut off..

I decided that the weather forecast was still better than anything we trained in Honolulu and I would run 6:00 pace until "the wheels fell off"

I never deviated from the pace until the last few miles when I struggled a bit, but managed a 2:38:40 still my fasted MCM.

Was in decent 5K/half shape, and was planning on running a half in a race where my wife was running a marathon. I waited until two weeks before the race to sign up, and the half was closed -- my only option was to run the full marathon if I wanted to participate. I didn't want to drive all that way to sit around, so I ran the full.

My long run leading up to the race was 11 miles, but I did an easy 17 miler ten days out just to see how it felt (answer: easy but really boring). Ran a weekday 17:25 5K in the week before the marathon, and felt like I was in decent shape.

In the race, I went out super easy, but then clipped off 7:00 miles from mile 5 or 6 to about mile 18. Then the wheels came flying off -- not so much because I was sucking wind or in pain, but more like I felt incredibly bored and disinterested. It was almost a feeling of claustrophobia. I just wasn't prepared for that much time on my feet.

Finished with a bunch of 8:30s and ran like a 3:21 or something. As a point of reference, three years earlier I had run a 3:02 on the same course when fully trained.

Also Boston 2016... Was in the midst of a good buildup in February, tweaked a chronic tendon issue due to having a metal rod in my leg as a result of breaking it in a ski accident, ran less than 150 miles in the next 6 weeks, did a long run of 14 miles a week or so before race day and said hey I can get through this... Ended up running 3:03 after going out in ~1:25 and ran my fastest 5k split of the race over Heartbreak before jogging it in over the last 5 miles. Could have gone a lot worse.