Is marathoning safe?

I've actually been thinking about trying to run in one eventually (I do about 12-15 miles/week for PT right now), but I don't know. This thread gives me something to think about.......

 

Running in one is just one of those things I thought of doing while I was running one day. I used to weigh almost 290 pounds (now am between 205 and 210 and want to be close to or under 200) and I think it'd be a cool deal to do a marathon after I weighed so much.

 

Good luck with it. I run between 2 and about 6 miles per run, three or four times/week. Depends on the mood my bosses are in (let's just say my job requires me to do PT multiple times per week). I think my things would hold up and Lord knows I wouldn't quit, but I definitely would need to build up to it. It's a long-term goal of mine, but like you, I'm not getting any younger.

 

Long-distance running was without question one of the very best things I've done in my life. I wish I still had the knees to do it.

I doubt that the marathon was what killed any of these people. If you've trained properly, you put in a few 20-mile practice runs before a marathon, to condition the body for that kind of effort.

 

I ran four, and each time, my legs were what was in far more pain than lungs or anything respiratory or pulmonary related. By the last three or four miles, after "the wall," I simply wasn't able to go fast enough to stress my heart and lungs. Legs were just burning too much to move that fast. Now that I want to go for a little more speed, though, I'm wondering if that will be the case. I know my friend's brother-in-law had to get treated for some sort of respiratory attack at the end, although he was trying to qualify for the Olympics - the 2:20 range, if I recall. Then there's the Ryan Shay death.

Sometimes it seems like the safest way to run is to be out of shape, if that makes any sense.

But I think that DD's data probably clinches it for me. Knock on wood.

 

The more important point here is that all marathoners are participating in an extreme physical event. Running or walking for three, four, five, six, seven hours is not normal, nor should it be, and if you want to run or walk a marathon, you should undergo a physical, at the very least, before you start your training.

Know your family history. Know your personal history. Get your heart and your blood checked out. Spend some time with your doctor and uncover as much about your body as possible. If you have a clean bill of health -- if you don't have an enlarged heart or some other such rarity -- then draw up your 18- or 20- or 26-week training plan and get after it.

You need to know if your body will allow you to raise your heart rate that much for that long and, if it will, you need to plan accordingly. Don't just open the door one morning and run a marathon.

Marathoning is safe, with the right precautions and planning.

 

This guy ran a marathon without training, and tweeted during the whole thing.

http://imgur.com/gallery/xPDir

 

Well, you're half right, depending on your source and your time frame.

If by normal you mean what humans have become in the last 100 or so years, then you're right in that running or walking 3-7 hours a day is not normal.

But according to the anthropologists that devotees of the primal lifestyle quote, our bodies are designed to walk about 5-8 hours a day...which is what humans did from about 5-million until about 5,000 years ago; however, we are NOT designed to run more than a full-on sprint to the nearest tree, or about 200-500 yards max. Running 5Ks are terrible for your overall health, much less running a marathon. Or at least says the primal theory.

 

I was definitely referring to our current (mostly-)flabby world.

 

A woman at the Chicago marathon this year finished as she was having contractions and gave birth soon after.

A 100-year-old Indian man finished the Toronto marathon this year. Took him eight hours.

Pace youself. It's not race organizers' fault some people aren't too bright.