How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

You respond by learning to keep your gel hole shut at the water cooler on Monday. Nobody needs to know about your marathon running.

You will see when you guys get old how good having put that kind of mileage throughout will do to you.... joints, hips, heart.... different issues but as bad as being sedentary all along....

Btw... why are you running marathons at 50? You are losing every year a bit of aerobic capacity. You should focus on shorter distances where you can make up for this deficiency through leaning on other systems (VO2 MAX in particular)

As a 78 year old who has run around 25-35 mpw for 65 years or so, I can attest that my joints, knees, hips, heart and other organs still function well enough to win the over-70 category in most races (I run 8-9 minute miles these days), but that training for marathons simply takes too much time. So I run shorter races and especially uphill races, which apparently build me up more than they tear me down. It seems to me at 78 that my knees fare best when I run 5-7 times a week, but not longer than 10 miles.

"Find what you love and let it kill you." - Chuck Palahniuk

When people say things like that to me, I agree with them. Marathons are a bit excessive. You can achieve most of the benefits of marathon training by running 30 minutes a day. Unless you have a passion for running and a desire to run the Marathon distance, there is no compelling reason to do so.

I'm in my 40s, so I can't speak for the youngsters, but Marathon training leaves me in a perpetual state of achyness, if not outright injured. I was at a wedding reception, and I was in fantastic shape at the time but hurt so much I couldn't dance. Something is not right about that.

It kind of reminds me of the old-timers who say "back then we didn't know how bad smoking was for you." I call BS. Ingesting hot smoke into your lungs and coughing up brown stuff all the time isn't a red flag? Use your brain!

Every time I run a Marathon I feel like I'm intentionally injuring myself. Common sense says that anything that takes you from the the top of your fitness and back to square one in a day can't be all that good for you. It takes me about a month to feel like I've fully recovered from a Marathon. Let's be clear, I'm not talking about the fools who walk the Marathon just to finish it. I'm talking about the fools, like me, who leave a trail of blood and sweat 26.2 miles long and barely hobble away from the finish line.

So why do I do it? Even though I feel that it's bad for me, I enjoy the process of training and building up, and I enjoy the flood of emotion that comes from cashing in all of that fitness all at once -- all my eggs in one basket. It is an amazing feeling, and the benefits do outweigh the drawbacks when all is said and done. Running IS good for you. My fitness has never been better than it has been when I am at the peak of a Marathon training cycle. One or two races a year that set me back a bit are not going to kill me, especially when weighed against the overall fitness gained from consistent training.

Still, I must admit that Marathons take a good thing a little too far.

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I think they read the 2012 study from that bozo

What did she look like?

Pics?

Kudos to you Sir

Objectively wrote:

I would tell them they are correct.

I think we all agree running 5 miles a few times a week (say 15-20 mpw) is healthy. Running 40 mpw has some marginal additional overall health benefit. So does running 60. After that, the overall health benefits are not marginal. They are negative. You’ll be a better run, sure. But not more likely to be overall healthy.

Same with running 26.2 miles. Not good for you by any objective measure.

By the way, I run a marathon every year. I’m 50. I’ve run 25 marathons. But the heavy training and actual races are not good for you. Your friend is correct.

What a crock of bs this post is. You don’t think the body is capable of 70 mins easy running each day. The impact on an unnatural hard surface and consequences of road marathons are not good for you, but that is not to mean that training a moderate amount for then is unhealthy.

Marathons will beat the snot out of you over the long haul. I did marathons in my younger days and now in my late 50s, I'm running on barrowed time with a plethora of chronic, debilitating injuries too long to list. Shorter race distances and moderate mileage is the way to go for long-term health.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-5k-not-the-marathon-is-the-ideal-race/

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I think they read the 2012 study from that bozo

I'd say I don't do it for my health.

It really is bad for you.

"ok retard"

Agree with them because it isn’t good for u lol

That they are probably right. However, it beats a whole lot of other hobbies/activities/lack of activities one could have instead.

Marathon's are pretty brutal. I agree that for most people, even decent runners, the marathon is not the ideal activity. Unless you have a particular talent for durability and endurance, the marathon does take some miles off your legs. Half marathons, or trail runs are much less damaging to your legs. Trails runs, even when they are marathon length, force you to slow down and as such, are not as brutal as road marathons (I can't speak for trail ultra's since I haven't done any). I think most runners only have a small number of hard marathons in their legs, and after that your body will just not survive the training or will not allow you to really race a marathon to your best ability.

Of course these rules to not apply to every runner, but I think this is the typical trend for the vast majority of runners. Very few people can repeatedly race a marathon. Those who can are usually the same people who can consistently run over 100 mpw. Which is already a small subset of distance runners. Many talented runners crack into the 100 mpw realm for short periods of their life, but can't maintain that mileage month after month, year after year. So for the vast majority of runners who can't consistently maintain 100+ mpw, I think the marathon is a bad event. You can run it well a couple times, but after that, you are better off focusing on half marathons and shorter (or reasonable trail marathons which aren't as brutal compared to racing a marathon on the roads-and by reasonable trail marathons I'm not talking about the kind with crazy amounts of vertical climb/decent).

That's my personal take.

70 minutes of running daily is not a moderate amount. Of course you can do it. But it is not moderate, and it is not optimal in terms of health cost/benefit. Running more than 30 minutes daily is not justifiable if you are running exclusively for health benefits.

One of my wife’s girlfriends wrote:

How would you respond to someone who says to you: “Running marathons isn’t even good for you.”

I think they read the 2012 study from that bozo

I'd say... " you are probably right but it kind of depends on your body type... some people are cut out for that and some aren't"

That's what I'd say.

I'd tell them it's better than sitting on my ass all day. (in an angry tone)

Anything can be taken too far, but I’d rather have a passion for running than anything else. If you don’t choose an occupation, creepy people may try to choose one for you.

Objectively wrote:

Same with running 26.2 miles. Not good for you by any objective measure.

It depends how deep you go to the well. All out marathon racing, not too good for you. Throttle it back or 26.2 in training is fine.