18 too young for marathon?

Frank3142

Some of my friends and I are thinking about running the 2012 Dublin marathon. We are all 18 and I was just wondering is 18 too young to run one? Will we do damage to ourselves and which will cause problems in future? We are all fit and athletic. Thanks for your replies!

gerard65

No. If you prepare well, do the training, 26miles is not too much.

notsofast

and make sure you wear the correct shoes.

sleapy235

Frank3142 wrote: »

Some of my friends and I are thinking about running the 2012 Dublin marathon. We are all 18 and I was just wondering is 18 too young to run one? Will we do damage to ourselves and which will cause problems in future? We are all fit and athletic. Thanks for your replies!

I'd stay away from marathons and road running in general at that age. Besides everything else it will have a detrimental effect on your sprinting speed.

gerard65

sleapy235 wrote: »

I'd stay away from marathons and road running in general at that age. Besides everything else it will have a detrimental effect on your sprinting speed.

With all due respect, thats bullsh1t. Lydiard proved it and there are people here who have run ultras and can still pack a punch at shorter distances. Eighteen is old enough to road run and training for a marathon at that age will improve endurance/aerobic systems for shorter distances later.

thirstywork2

Have to say I disagree gerard65.Why not spend time bringing your 5k/10k and half marathon time before having ago at a marathon.

What has Lydird got to do with this?

Look at any top level marathon runner and they didn't run a marathon at the age of18.there has been more Africans run the half marathon at 18 but this trend is due to the large prize money available for road running.


Haile and Tergat ran the 10k on the track till they could no longer improve their times or where being beaten by the younger generation.
Both went on to break the world record forthe marathon.
If both had taken upthe marathon at 18 years of age I don't think they would have coem near the world record.

@ gerard65:
people who can run ultra's can still pack a punch is correct but can they compete at the highest level in marathon running???
Going off the topic here but if the OP wants to run it for fun then why not.If they wish to have a future in athletics why not try something shorter and work your way up ???

MrCreosote

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Look at any top level marathon runner and they didn't run a marathon at the age of18.there has been more Africans run the half marathon at 18 but this trend is due to the large prize money available for road running.


Haile and Tergat ran the 10k on the track till they could no longer improve their times or where being beaten by the younger generation.
Both went on to break the world record forthe marathon.
If both had taken upthe marathon at 18 years of age I don't think they would have coem near the world record.

More likely they would have improved the marathon world record by even more. The whole age thing was because the prestige and money in the 90s was in 5k and 10k track races. Older athletes who couldn't make the grade were put out to pasture to the marathon.

Totally different now with the marathons having the prestige and financial rewards. The current crop of top ma rathoners are much younger.

The greatest marathon ever run was the Beijing 2008 by Wanjiru who was 21 at the time.

thirstywork2

The greatest marathon ever run was the Beijing 2008 by Wanjiru who was 21 at the time.[/QUOTE]


Wanjiru was something special !!!
Broke the world half marathon aged 18 and won his first marathon aged 20.
He wasn't 18 when he ran his first marathon !!!

Patrick Makau current world record holder aged 27
Haile aged 35 breaking the world record
tergat aged 33
Khannouchi ages 31/32
Ronaldo da Costa aged 29
Steve Jones aged 29
ron hill aged 32

gerard65

This thread will soon go way off topic:( The OP asked was he/she too young to run a marathon - I don't believe he/she is. We then had myths thrown into the mix - it'll blunt OP's speed. My reference to Lydiard was he proved that myth false - an example was Peter Snell.
If the OP wants to run a marathon at 18, I say go ahead, imo your body should be mature enough to take it - this was the question.
I was 18 when I ran my first marathon, followed by my best XC season and then my best track season over 800/1500, that was my experience of running a marathon at 18, so I'm just passing on my experience.

Krusty_Clown

Frank3142 wrote: »

Some of my friends and I are thinking about running the 2012 Dublin marathon. We are all 18 and I was just wondering is 18 too young to run one? Will we do damage to ourselves and which will cause problems in future? We are all fit and athletic. Thanks for your replies!

Gerard65 is right; you could run a marathon. But the real question is: should you run a marathon? Tell us about your running history. It doesn't matter a damn what age you are, if you don't have a history of running (specifically long distance).

tunguska

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Why not spend time bringing your 5k/10k and half marathon time before having ago at a marathon.


Look at any top level marathon runner and they didn't run a marathon at the age of18.there has been more Africans run the half marathon at 18 but this trend is due to the large prize money available for road running.


Haile and Tergat ran the 10k on the track till they could no longer improve their times or where being beaten by the younger generation.
Both went on to break the world record forthe marathon.
If both had taken upthe marathon at 18 years of age I don't think they would have coem near the world record.

@ gerard65:
people who can run ultra's can still pack a punch is correct but can they compete at the highest level in marathon running???
Going off the topic here but if the OP wants to run it for fun then why not.If they wish to have a future in athletics why not try something shorter and work your way up ???

Agreed. It depends on what you want, I mean if you really wanna run a marathon then run it but you'll do a far better one if you spend a few years hammering your 5 and 10k times first.

YFlyer

Wanjiru was a 13:12 and 26:41 man.

Condo131

YFlyer wrote: »

Wanjiru is a 13:12 and 26:41 man.

Sammy Wanjiru died on Sunday May 15th 2011 and, yes, he was a gifted and talented athlete.

MrCreosote

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Patrick Makau current world record holder aged 27
Haile aged 35 breaking the world record
tergat aged 33
Khannouchi ages 31/32
Ronaldo da Costa aged 29
Steve Jones aged 29
ron hill aged 32

Here's a list of the fastest marathons

http://www.alltime-athletics.com/mmaraok.htm

A few things stand out:
Most of the times are in the last 4 years.
The majority of the fast times are from people in their mid twenties 23-27, not old codgers.

My point is that the marathon has changed in the last few years, becoming the most prestigous long distance event. So younger faster athletes enter, and this has shown the old wisdom that you have to be old (30+) to be fast in marathons to be a load of rubbish.

Fire1985

No problem to you. Go for it. 18 year olds play all sorts of sports and athletics.
Train hard and u will succeed

YFlyer

MrCreosote wrote: »

Here's a list of the fastest marathons

http://www.alltime-athletics.com/mmaraok.htm

A few things stand out:
Most of the times are in the last 4 years.
The majority of the fast times are from people in their mid twenties 23-27, not old codgers.

My point is that the marathon has changed in the last few years, becoming the most prestigous long distance event. So younger faster athletes enter, and this has shown the old wisdom that you have to be old (30+) to be fast in marathons to be a load of rubbish.

If you look at Wanjiju running history you'll see that he got his 5000 and 1000m times down before he moved up in distances.

ecoli

YFlyer wrote: »

If you look at Wanjiju running history you'll see that he got his 5000 and 1000m times down before he moved up in distances.

If you look at that you also saw that back in 2005 the opinion was still that Marathon was not the focus until you finished your track career (Geb and Tergat and even to a lesser extent Khannouchi who debuted at 25)

However the emphasis has changed an example of this would be feyisa lelisa who debuted at 19 and has now gone on to be one of the top marathon runners in recent years since his Dublin debut. I remember an interview after Dublin where he summed up that basically what was the point in getting 500 dollars for running a sub 13 5k somewhere in Europe when there are smaller marathons such as Dublin offering up the likes of the 20,000 prize money. Money talks and that is why the East Africans have flocked to the marathon of late, there is more opportunity to make a living and provide a more stable financial future for themselves

Vincent Kipruto is another who debuted at 21 along with Wanjiru aswell as Bazu Worku who was 2nd in his debut marathon at 18

The last 3 years or so have re wrote the book on marathon running both in times and attiitudes towards it. No longer is it seen as an option only when you lose the speed to compete on track. This is why there has been a small decline in 10k standards (in terms of depth)

But getting back to the original question its safe enough to do as long as you prepare correctly (IMO 20 weeks is not enough time to prep without a running specific running base already built up). Will you get the best times jumping straight away probably not however there are examples where the base have worked for people

Snell is an obvious one using marathon conditioning prior to his 800 specific work but Dathan Ritzenhein is another example who went from a 13.16 runner prior to Marathon training to a 12.56 after 3 years of Marathon training.

My best advice would be if you do plan on doing it dont be killing yourself for a time (the enthusiasm of youth can cause this) and just try focus on getting around safetly

rom

ecoli wrote: »

My best advice would be if you do plan on doing it dont be killing yourself for a time (the enthusiasm of youth can cause this) and just try focus on getting around safetly

99 times out of 100 that lesson is learned the hard way.

TFBubendorfer

rom wrote: »

99 times out of 100 that lesson is learned the hard way.

Yup, but that has nothing to do with youth

paulmcd1973

Young lads at the age of 18 shouldn't be running Marathons. You should be drinking cans in a field, or a rhyming couplet (naggin and a flaggin) and joy-riding! ;-)

More seriously, 18 years old, you'll have a great time. Nothing like your first Marathon. There are literally thousands of 18 year olds who've done Marathons and it hasn't done them any harm. First year I ran Dublin, it was an 18 year old who won the race!