Can I run Cork marathon in 2012?

neiliog93

Hi,

I know this is annoyingly off topic but I need a bit of help, or rather, an expert opinion. I searched for "marathon forum" to ask questions and this is what I got, apologies for the inconvenience.

So here it is - I was watching the "Saturday Night Show" (yes, I have no social life) and one of the guys being interviewed with Ray D'Arcy had recently run (well, walked briskly) a marathon - while weighing 30 stone (420lbs or 192kg). He had weighed 42 stone six months before that, when he had started training.

Naturally, I was inspired by such a tale. I was very fit when in school, and had always wanted to run a marathon but had continually put it off. Now I'm 18 and just started college, but the leaving cert/summer/college life haven't been kind to me physically. I'm not playing organised sport anymore, and didn't for most of 6th year either. Less than 18 months ago I was 6'3" (191cm) tall and 14 stone (192lbs or 89kg). I'm now 6'4" (193cm) and a little over 18 stone (255lbs or 116kg). I'm not as strong in the gym either and my fitness has taken a considerable hit as well. I do have a naturally very broad build and have a decent reservoir of muscle, and I actually appeared to be skinny at 14 stone - but I'm under no illusions - I'm overweight.

Which is why I'm asking is it realistic for me to run the Cork marathon on the 4th of June 2012 if I start training now and gradually build up the intensity of the training? My goals include weight loss, feeling better about my appearance, regaining and improving upon my old fitness levels, proving to myself I can run a marathon (I've always wanted to do it) and proving other people (particularly family members) wrong in their assertions about me and my character (lazy, given up on exercise too early etc etc).

I have started going to the gym over the past month or so, so some foundations have been laid in terms of fitness, and even though it's worth little I've been doing a lot of walking as well.

I've got iron willpower when I truly set a meaningful goal, and I've been very fit before (but not at marathon standard). I know about training schedules and having the right shoes + diet, and would be willing to invest in anything I need as this is a really personal goal of mine. However, I;m concerned I'm being unrealistic and that I might get injured/just not be fit enough to complete the task.

What do people think? Is it doable?

Apologies for the inconvenience and off-topicness again, and thanks.

RayCun

You're 18, why the June 2012 deadline?

Start running, follow a couch to 5k plan or join a local fit4life group, run some shorter distances, and then when you've built up some fitness and can happily run a 10k, start thinking about a marathon. (Or decide that you don't need to do a marathon for another few years you'd rather become good at 10ks)

RacoonQueen

Maybe Ray can split the thread?

Are other peoples doubts/opinions of you your motivation behind wanting to do the marathon? (either way, you really shouldn't worry about what other people think of you. Let them think what they're like, they're probably wrong).

There's also a half marathon in Cork, if you're adamant to do a marathon why not build up to the Cork half marathon and then build up toe DCM 2012 from there? 26 miles is a long way, the guy you're talking about took a LONG time to do the marathon.

What would be better, proving them wrong by finishing the marathon by running/walking in 8 hours or losing 6 stone, showing a years worth of hard work and dedication and running the entire thing in 4 hours or so?

I get the feeling you're going to do it anyway no matter what we say.

RayCun

If you don't care what time you do it in, you could do Cork in 2012. You could do it tomorrow, if you're happy to take 6 or 7 hours.
Or you could build up your training, run different distances, and do a marathon eventually, when you think you can put in a good showing.

What is your goal? To be a fit and healthy runner? Or to get a Cork 2012 finisher's medal?

AEDIC

Neil - best I can do for you is relate my own experience and let you judge from there...at the end of the day there is only one person going to be able to get you over the finish line and that is you... but there isa lot of good advise out there (and particularly in here) to help you to do that.

Back in January 2011 I decided that I was going to take up running again to lose some weight.... as a 40 something who had had a very sporting background but had done nothing for a large number of years.

I set my self the target of doing Ballycotton 10 in March and the Half Marathon in Cork in June.

Long story short... I lost 3 stone and not only did both runs without stopping (ok the time are not going to break any records) but I also went on to do several other runs in Ireland and abroad.

My goals for the coming year are to run the same races again but quicker, I might even aim for an Autumn/Winter marathon depending on how it goes.

You are considerably younger so there is not reason you can not exceed what I did.... however, take it slowly...as Ray said...do the couch to 5k program and move on from there maybe do the half this year and aim for the full next year..... check in with your doctor first just to make sure.... and join a club if you can as the help at doing tempo sessions etc will be priceless....

And good luck... remember... the mind will give up long before the body does

rom

the marathon being the only goal is a bad idea. 5k 10k 10 mile 1/2 should be the way you go. What county you are in then you might have bhaa races to do first.

Rantan

answer is yes but my 2c - forget about a marathon (for a while anyway) - find out if you actually enjoy running first, you are young so have tonnes of time - I would suggest spending a little time learning to enjoy running purely for the experience of it rather than as a mechanism to prove something(not that I'm saying thats wrong or anything), I dont know ,,,it just seems a shame at your age to waste time that you could be out on the lash sitting in on a saturday night eating rice cakes watching brendan f88kin O'connor and debating whether you'll run the long bit of the ring road with the right hand camber that jingles your ITB first or last in your long run in the morning...(sorry - OK maybe not everyones saturday nights are like mine...):o

Pisco Sour

There's more to athletics than the marathon. I'm sick of all this "I need to do a marathon to impress others sh1te". If you want to do it then great, but do it to impress yourself, and yourself only. And with that attitude you dont need to be doing marathons at all. Go down to your local athletics club, and try out all the different events (sprints, jumps, middle distance) and do which one you ENJOY the most, not just so you can impress a bunch of kn0bs who seem to think lowly of you!

Murta

Don't worry about the critics Neil.
04072511 is having a pointless rant as Neil has said that he always wanted to run a marathon and would like to prove to himself that he can so obviously isn't "doing it for impress others sh1te".
I was in a similar situation to yourself in '09. I started to learn to run in April '09 having never run before. Was moderately fit (regular walking). I started doing a beachfit class twice a week that introduced me to running. I ran the Ladies mini marathon in June and progressed onto run the addias mini series in the Phoenix park (5mile, 10mile & 1/2 marathon) and went on to run DCM that same year despite everyone telling me I was crazy. At first I just wanted to reach the gaol of being able to run for half hour (started off on a walk to run program), that progressed to an hour. Doing the 10k race in June, i started to dream that maybe I could run DCM but decided to take it one step at a time hence targeting the addias mini series while slowly progressing my long run (with marathon in mind). I managed to run DCM that first year but I was in pure agony from the 18mile marker, bits of me progressively brokedown forcing me to continually drop my speed. Body litterly in bits crossing the finish line. Calves in horrific knots (took months to sort out properly). When I collected my baggage and attempted to put on a pair of trackie bottoms, my left calf went into a mighty spasm. I did DCM last year and was plesantly surprised that my body didn't breakdown at all and I knocked over half hour off my previous year's time. Also, post recovery was much quicker was back runnign a few weeks later).
I wouldn't advise anyone to run a marathon their first year running. however, if you really want to and training is built on slowly, target the shorter distance races first and progress from there. Learn to listen to your body and take a break from running when your body needs it to prevent picking up avoidable injuries. Don't try to rush your running fitness in an attempt say to fit in a 20/22 miler before cork marathon. There's plenty of marathons later in the year such as DCM which is a fanastic one to choose as first marathon (the support along route in second to none).

thirstywork2

Why not aim for a half marathon next year???
At the moment you would put your body under alot of pressure and tress running at 18stone.
The time frame is very short coming from your fitness levels.
You could get around the marathon but i don't think you would enjoy the experience.
Aim for 5k race and build up gradually.Join a fit2life group in a local runnign club as they cater for beginners and joining a club can be daunting for alot of people.If you need any info pm me.
ps you have the mental ability to achieve what you want coming from your post and at 18 you have time on your side to make changes so you can have a healthy life.

RayCun

Murta wrote: »

went on to run DCM that same year despite everyone telling me I was crazy... I managed to run DCM that first year but I was in pure agony from the 18mile marker, bits of me progressively brokedown forcing me to continually drop my speed. Body litterly in bits crossing the finish line. Calves in horrific knots (took months to sort out properly). When I collected my baggage and attempted to put on a pair of trackie bottoms, my left calf went into a mighty spasm.

I did DCM last year and was plesantly surprised that my body didn't breakdown at all and I knocked over half hour off my previous year's time. Also, post recovery was much quicker was back runnign a few weeks later)

I can understand wanting to set a meaningful goal, but maybe 'I will run a marathon in 6 months time' is not the best such goal to set.
The process is much more important than a result like that. Running consistently 3/4 times a week from now to June will do much more for you than crawling across the line in Cork. Plus doesn't have an end date, while if your goal is just getting your Cork finisher's medal you might think "right, crossed that off the list, back to the couch for me!"

But if you do want a target, how about running the Cork half in under 2 hours. Completely attainable, but will require consistent training.

Rantan

RayCun wrote: »

I can understand wanting to set a meaningful goal, but maybe 'I will run a marathon in 6 months time' is not the best such goal to set.
The process is much more important than a result like that. Running consistently 3/4 times a week from now to June will do much more for you than crawling across the line in Cork. Plus doesn't have an end date, while if your goal is just getting your Cork finisher's medal you might think "right, crossed that off the list, back to the couch for me!"

But if you do want a target, how about running the Cork half in under 2 hours. Completely attainable, but will require consistent training.

Neil, this is solid advice and makes sense - if i were you I would take this on board.

opus

RayCun wrote: »

I can understand wanting to set a meaningful goal, but maybe 'I will run a marathon in 6 months time' is not the best such goal to set.
The process is much more important than a result like that. Running consistently 3/4 times a week from now to June will do much more for you than crawling across the line in Cork. Plus doesn't have an end date, while if your goal is just getting your Cork finisher's medal you might think "right, crossed that off the list, back to the couch for me!"

But if you do want a target, how about running the Cork half in under 2 hours. Completely attainable, but will require consistent training.

Good advice there.

Coincidently I decided to do something similar two years ago & started running in Nov with the aim of running CCM in less than four hours the following June. But I had been going to the gym regularly for around 6 months before this so my fitness wasn't the worst & I'd already lost a few unneeded kg.

IMHO yes you could do it but it might not be the most enjoyable experience.

ThePiedPiper

Neil, my answer would be yes, you could run the Cork Marathon in 2012.

However, I'll put the question back to you, do you really want to? I'm sure you want to have run a marathon by this time next year, but that's only about 1% of what it actually takes to get there. If you were to actually commit to it, you would need to start building a bit of a base now, not after Christmas and certainly not at the start of some magical 12 week programme. You might find that if you go out for a run now, you might manage 3 miles in 35 minutes. You might be less or more fit than this, this is just a guess. Are you prepared to abandon nights out with the lads in college, lazing about, or whatever it is you currently do to concentrate on spending up to 8 hours a week running. Will you have exams in May that will mean you have to miss out on the key 18-20 mile long runs?

I came to marathoning after college. I loved college, the mad nights out, getting out of bed at 1pm, bumming about, going to festivals at the weekends. I'm happy to have left it until I was 23 to get into running. I suppose I always did a small bit even in college so my very base level of fitness would have been running 6 miles in 50 minutes or so.

Why not just do some running for a few months 3-4 days a week, see if you really like it. Make a decision in a few months about the marathon, or the Longford or Dublin or any other marathon.

seanynova

i started running last year saying 'feck it ill run a marathon'.....and i did, and i ran 2 more....but now ive decided to only race 5k's....ive trageted a 5k race in may 2012.....that give me a solid 6.6 months to train.

for the marathons i ran 6days a week typically, doing long runs, tempo(faster) runs, interval(even faster) and recovery(slow) runs etc.

do you know what training i will have to do to run a 5k race??? (bear in mind its approx 1/11th of the distance, and i have over 6months)

thirstywork2

do you know what training i will have to do to run a 5k race??? (bear in mind its approx 1/11th of the distance, and i have over 6months)[/QUOTE]

everything is relative to the target you put on your goal.
for example you might want to break 20minutes or just complete a 5k.

For me or anyone to tell you what training you have to do for a 5k unless you tell us your goals, given 6months prep is a long way away.

Track session,longer intervals,maybe tempo runs and hill work before you hit the track.long run sunday and the rest keep it simple.

seanynova

thirstywork2 wrote: »

do you know what training i will have to do to run a 5k race??? (bear in mind its approx 1/11th of the distance, and i have over 6months)

everything is relative to the target you put on your goal.
for example you might want to break 20minutes or just complete a 5k.

For me or anyone to tell you what training you have to do for a 5k unless you tell us your goals, given 6months prep is a long way away.

Track session,longer intervals,maybe tempo runs and hill work before you hit the track.long run sunday and the rest keep it simple.

the point i was trying to make was that it can be every bit as chellenging to complete 5k as it is a marathon....ultimatly ill have to do the same type of training as the marathon, long runs, tempo, interval recovery etc....

id be of the opinion that launching into a marathon, while sounds good, its better to run shorter distances first. as i first started with marathon training i may sound like a hypocrite but i also have experience in the matter.
a guy weighing 18stone, never run distance before etc, completing a marathon is a big achievment but running a 5k race would be equally as big an achievment.

if you feel you need to go long then 1/2 marathon is ideal, but raycuns advice is prob the best...get your general fitness in order(withough specific targets) then you could race 5k, 5m, 10ks etc every week and have great fun doing it, while reaping all the benifits for future goals.