Anybody here ever run a marathon?

[erub]

My friends and I are considering running the Rock Marathon, on Sunday December 9th in Dallas. That leaves us 5 weeks to train for it. Currently we just finished cross country season (5K's), so were in pretty good shape, but definitely need to increase our mileage. We've run about 5 miles a day for cross country (although we did taper a little at the end of the season). Is this going to be possible? We're not looking to go out and win; just to finish. Any training tips?

 

[worth]

I know there is someone here on Anandtech who runs maratho. I think he's 50 or so years old... I can't remember his name, I just recently cleared my PM list.

 

[SWScorch]

I am planning on running a marathon come spring. I am a senior in High School, and just finished my XC season as well. for training, I'd advice slowly increasing your mileage until a few weeks before the marathon you start running around 20 miles a day. Since you only have 5 weeks, run about 5-6 miles the first week, then 7-8 the next week, and so on and so forth, 2-3 times a week, and do easy runs the other days. See if you can keep a nice easy mile pace, say 7-9 minutes for at least 15 miles. If so, you should be in good shape.

 

[worth]

Oh man ... 7-9 minutes for 15 miles? I can hardly do 8 minutes for a mile

 

[erub]

i think we're going to go for the slower end of the spectrum, around 8-9 minutes a mile for the first half, then just try to perserve for the second half (maybe walk/jogging). I was thinking we should run 1 hour a day 3 times this week, then 1 hour 20 minutes next week 3 times next, 1 hour 40 minutes the following week, and then 2 hours the 4th week, finishing up with a couple 2 hour runs the week before, and taking a few days off before the race. My friends and I are also seniors...now the only problem is if we have the motivation (well we should have that) and be willing to put aside the time to train for it over the next month, with everything else we have going on.

 

[awsheat]

Well, unfortunately right now I am fat and out of shape lol

working on gettin back in shape slowly but surely

anyway, I have been a runner and weight lifter in the past and I can tell you a marathon is nothing to play with..

Truthfully, I never have run one but i have run a 30k before and that was horrible.. before that the most i had run on any regular basis was a 10k. Be sure you have run AT LEAST close to 15-18 miles a couple times before you go for the big marathon distance.. If you can run 75% of the distance before the race, you should be able to finish the last quarter on pure guts hehe..

 

[SloppyB]

I did a half about a year ago with out training for the most part...it wasn't too bad...but that was only a half. My wife runs them...did one last month. Just do a 20 mile run about 2 weeks before...if you can do that you should be fine.

 

[KaBudokan]

To do it right - 5 weeks is WAY too short to go from 5 miles/day to 26.

In order to avoid risking injury or embarassment, I would shoot for a goal a little further off. Check this schedule for a SAFE training schedule.

MarathonTraining.com
Good luck.