Half or full marathon? Help!!

BobDylan

Looking for advise from you helpful people.

Background: 53 year old male, kept fairly fit all my life in an unstructured way. Started running regularly last March, doing on average around 25 to 30 miles per week for past few months. Longest run so far was 13.1 ( just me and my Garmin!) yesterday in 2:14:32. Slow, I know. First 6/7 miles run at a conservative pace as I wanted to ensure I would finish. Felt fine afterwards and feel recovered today.
So, my question is...... Should I target running a full marathon in Cork next June or concentrate on reducing my half marathon time? I can train 4/5 days per week. Thanks in advance.

ThePiedPiper

Go for the marathon sure, why not... To be able to comfortably cover 13 in training now would make a great place to start a marathon training program..

However I would also say jump into a 5 or 10k and work a bit on your speed too.. Enjoy

rom

June is a long way off and it looks like you have been doing well to date. There is no reason why you need to choose now. Have you any racing experience ? You should structure races to build up. Having your first race Cork Marathon would be a bad idea as everyone makes little mistakes and those build up races is where you make those. It is also what your goals are. If it is to complete the marathon then between now and June should be fine if you are doing that sort of distance already but it sounds like you have a time goal in mind.

BobDylan

Thanks guys.
Absolutely no racing experience whatsoever. Just fell into running and loving it. Goal time would be something around 4:45, it's in my head to do it sub 5 hours.

RoyMcC

Get a 10k and a Half under your belt. You'll learn a lot from that experience. A full Marathon is an entirely different kettle of fish. You're at a good starting place but race experience will stand to you before you start with the big mileage.

rom

Are you near Cork? I presume with you targeting the marathon. If you are then running some of these races would be a good idea http://corkbhaa.com/calendar/

Colonialboy

Firstly get a heart screening and full health check, its the responsible thing todo given your age.

congrats on completing your first half-marathon, wethere you did it in a race or on your own its still 13.1 miles. You will have to change the thread title ;-)

I think you could target Cork, its a long ways off and you seem to have a good base.
Dont worry too much about a target time, its your first , just get around, enjoy it, relax dont be wound up about beating a time. Theres too many variables for a novice, other stuff you need to watch out for in your prep and on the day for you to be also watching the clock too much.


I know of very good 'older' marathon runners who base alot of their training on very long walks, less jarring but the odd 2-3 hours walking is as good as any run session.

Find a marathon program that matches where you are now and see if you can do the sessions and not feel wrecked .

Do a few of the fun runs and BHAA races, you will get chatting to people and gain some confidence, if you meet other people in your age bracket fitness bracket who have completed marathons and who you are able to keep with in the fun runs then you know you have it in you.

And think long term, dont just think about next years Cork marathon, think to yourself, you will enjoy running and fun rns and halfs and the odd full for many years to come, so dont try to rush your progress, a gradual build will last you much longer than some short term immediate gains that you cant sustain the routine.

good luck, I love to hear of peopel who are gettign a buzz out of trying new things