discuss... here or on-topic, it matters not.

The Pinball

i think the guy's a DH, but to his point, i'll never enter nor run a marathon cuz i'd feel more disappointment than accomplishment with the outcome, i am sure. if i run a marathon, then i want to run the thing, not run walk, not wear a big giant weiner on my head and skip, not skate it, not run it backwards and topless, not tatooed or high heeled, heck i don't even want to gallowalk the beeyotch. i want to run it. and i can't. so i won't. still doesn't make that guy any less of a dh. he reeks of dhedness, i hate elitist snobs in any walk of life. i think he needs to be stuck behind the big giant parade of weiners in a boston marathon and made to stroll it wearing pink tights and getting a non-finish time cuz the course has closed, but he couldn't pass cuz there wasn't room to get around the weiner parade. that would be justice rendered in 6.5 hours.

and no, if i can't run it, then it's not getting done. but that has nothing to do with the fear i'd degrade the sport. i'll degrade the sport all i want in every 5K i RUN, i couldn't care less if i'm degrading the sport. he's a whiney bastage. we can't all run on water.

The Movie Geek

Member

The Movie Geek

Pyromaniac

Canadian Bacon

Excelent

I ran my marathon nearly five years ago. I trained and focused on it for nearly a full year. I dedicated a lot of time, and energy to it.

As I found a little over a year later, it could have killed me, so I am glad that I had the opportunity to run one when I did. It wasn't a race against others, it was a race against myself, I won.

PRESIDENT

And how do you improve if you don't enter the race and compete against others and yourself? Training ain't the same sometimes.

Puppy Love!

I ran mine to prove to myself that I could do things that others told me I could not do (I tore my hamstring in college and was told I would never run again)... it was a confidence booster for sure and made me fall in love with running.

My time in my first was 5:52 and some change. I trained like a MO Fo and lost my job with 8 weeks to go, then got a sinus infection and blew my knee out at mile 9. I finished and I am proud of that. I overcame a lot to cross that line. MY time sucked... horribly and I am not proud of the time, but that I finished despite all that had happened.

My second one, I played it safe, but when my hubby messed up his ankle, I stayed with him to help him finish... 5:15 and some change...

I've not broken 5 hours, but I feel that what I did says a lot about my character and my willingness to tough it out.

I dare anyone to ever tell me that I'm not an athlete or that I'm not a real runner or that I didn't run those races. Believe me, they;ll wish they didn't.

ok. end rant.

AZhat

This author is really obnoxious and I don't care for his opinion at all.

my boys could swim

coach

ten foot pole

subject at hand.

While I am super competitive, I find this author to be an assclown. Each person runs for their own reasons. Period. And yes, I have found dissappointment in each of my marathons, but I'm still glad I ran them.

Frightened Inmate #2

Member

I think we are getting way too upset over this article, it's obviously written very tongue in cheek. But it also raises some genuine concerns about undertrained runners who injure themselves or damage their health by trying to run a marathon when they are not ready.

Most non-runners wouldn't know the difference between a 3:15 finish time and a 5:00 finish time anyway. So the only people that would be impressed with your time (or even bother enquiring about it) would be fellow runners. 99% of people would be just impressed to hear that you completed a marathon, they would not care about the time. So if Oprah finished a marathon in under 3hrs it would be meaningless to most people, just the fact she completed it would be impressive enough.

Therefore the public would rather hear about Oprah finishing a marathon than Runaroundsue who ran a 2:56.

Think about why you want to run a marathon. Is it for fitness, personal ambitions, public acknowledgment, one-upmanship or a combination of these. If it's mainly for fitness and personal achievement, then that's great. If it's for public acknowledgement and one-upmanship, that's okay too, there's nothing wrong with ambition. Just remember though that only a tiny percentage of the population cares if you run a sub 3.00 or a sub 6:00. Most people wouldn't care or they might even question your sanity if you told them you ran a marathon. In fact other's might even think you were a wanker if you went around bragging about it.

The idea that the marathon is somehow cheapened and diluted by allowing the standards to drop. This has already happened, look at the way the word Marathon is used to describe things like marathon meeting, marathon discussion, marathon drinking session, etc.. The word has become synonymous with anything that takes a long time to do. There is no recognition of the distance anymore, it is purely how long it takes. So in this respect someone who takes longer to complete a marathon maybe deserves more recognition than someone who completes it in less time.

e.g. Wow you ran for 4 and 1/2 hours, thats fantastic. As opposed to : What you only ran for 3 and 1/2 hours that's nothing compared to this other bloke. This is conveniently ignoring all the hard work and years of training that the 3 and 1/2 hour guy put in to get to that level.

And maybe 4 and 1/2 hour bloke does deserve the recognition because of the fact that he is burning the much harder to convert fats for most of the race. Whereas 3 and 1/2 hour bloke is burning the easier to convert Glycogen for 90% of his race, he only has to endure the last 10% of the race in fat burning mode.

But this is the way the Marathon is seen by most people, it is an endurance event, and the most important part of endurance events is the actual completion, and secondly the time.

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