such a misconcetion you have. back in 84/85 I ran three 2:30's in 6 months. Back then we used to party hard and train hard, the two went hand in hand. Would run a road race Saturday morning, float the keg at the post race party, hit Dairy Queen then sleep it off in the afternoon. Then get up for a smoking 20 miler the next day. Now that I am in my mid 40's, those days don't happen too often anymore, and neither do those marathon times, but I still enjoy a beer or two every week and hit McDonalds at least once a week. Everything in moderation.

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Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

Yeah I have run 2.45 but if you think that evryone who runs sub-3 is a mung-bean eating waif, I have two words for you "Dessie McHenry" - a legend here who is 57 and has run 50 marathons in the last 20 years and all but 2 under 3 hours. He is the antithesis of the marathon waif, with a rolling gait and barrel chest (Hiding his 3rd lung I think!), but likes his wine and nights out (He used to be a guitarist in Blackthorn - an irish folk music band who toured US in the 80's). A Legend

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"That which we achieve too easily, we esteem too lightly "Thomas Paine

Have to agree. I run in the low 2:30´s (never managed to break 2:30 though, dang) but i like to live and train 4 times a week.

It´s all a question of genetics... someone who has the genes to run 2:05 can probably party all week before a race, then run in circles around me in an all-out efford...

How "serious" your approach to sport is has nothing to do with how fast you are. Everybody determins how much he is willing to put in his sport on different basis. I´ve seen super-straight people who run 4-hour-marathons as well as really relaxed 2:20 marathoners.

While the 4-hour guy will probably call that wasted talent, the 2:20 guy migt say that his time is so far off being really fast (in terms of making a living of it) that it isn´t worth sacrificing everything for it.



Axel

Just the facts:

- Ran a 2:59:48 in 2003

- Ran 38:15 for 10k last December 30th

- Went to McDonalds on wednesday... :-p

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

170 lbs of rip-roarin', beer drinkin', cigar smokin, cheese fry eatin', 2:54 runnin' U.S. Marine here...Booth.

Pay no attention to those used syringes I hide in my neighbor's trash ;->

Seriously, though...its genetics. Maybe if I did take it more seriously, by eating bean sprouts and fruit, I could run closer to the big (or is it little?) boys...The world will never know. Besides...have you ever seen a 120 lb waif trying to hump an 80lb combat pack?

Nice Paulo =)

Was Sergio pushing you the last 5k of the marathon? =P

I'm with Mike on this one.....

I'd call it extremes or possibly bi-polar. One day you're kicking your ass while that night you're sucking down a keg of beer. Ability to know when to "be bad" and when to hamper down....

Discipline.

Good luck on your race. Did you get in your long SLOOOOOOOOW runs? When is the race coming up? What's the nutrition strategy?

5 weeks.

I'm following the book, "Marathon Training: Five Weeks To Five Hours."

You will be able to follow my attempt online at the summit at littlerockmarathon.com. The webmaster is working on adding a descriptive term just for me to appear on it: "medi-vacked." If I get to mile 19 without you seeing that, I should make it.

My goal is to do it under 5 hours, that, or just completing it and coming home and not having my dogs bark at me.

I started off hoping for under 4, then under 4:15, then under 4:30. But the numbers don't lie.

I did consider instead of running the whole way in this thing, in just going out in a "blaze of glory." They don't use elite starting waves down here. So, I figured on sneaking up to the front, with my "boys," the Kenyans.

If the Kenyans show up, I was going to try to lead the race for 200 yards or so, and go out in a blaze of glory. I could always tell me kids, "I once led a marathon, and put fear in the Kenyans."

However, a running friend of mine wisely pointed out that those guys would probably be throwing in a 5:05 right off the bat, and they'd even stomp me to the 200 yard mark.

My husband ran his first marathon in 2:57 with a hangover. His second marathon was a 3:01. He didn't push himself to finish in under 3:00 that time because he took it for granted that he could finish under 3:00 whenever he wanted to. He hasn't run one in under 3:00 since (he's usually around 3:05 or 3:10 now) and is kicking himself that he didn't push to finish in under 3:00 in that second marathon.

I could, and did, in 1979. 2:57:58 in San Francisco. Now I can manage that pace for 12K and have no desire to run another marathon. Don't think the bod could handle it anyway.

I'm with TriBriGuy on this one...I go about 165-170 (fightin' weight), work hard and play hard. PR'd in Milwaukee a couple years ago at 2:51 and managed a 2:54 at Chicago last year. 'Course, I can't pound beers Sat. night after my long ride/10 mile brick workout and expect to put in a good 20 miler on Sunday...at 38, those days are long gone. Beer is a mainstay of my training diet - carbs and water...it's almost a sports drink, right? My diet is pretty average, and doesn't change much during hard training - although I haven't been to Mickey D's for some time, I do get to jonesin' for cheeseburgers after long workouts/races. Here's a related story - I went down to Peoria, IL to run the Steamboat 15K a few years ago. It's run concurrently with the 4-miler which is the big money pro race. Anyway, we get to the hotel and go downstairs for dinner - loaded up on pasta and bread and such since we had a 'big race' the next day. Well, over at an adjacent table were a couple of very elite looking Kenyans putting away mounds of fried stuff and other food that would have done me in. Guess you go with whatever works for ya'. Best of luck in Lil' Rock!

 
Ever heard of Ed Whitlock?

http://www.runningtimes.com/issues/04apr/whitlock.htm

(did it again at 73 last year)

I think it would be epic if a 4 hour runner, just for the giggles of it, tried to outrun the elites, for the first 2 miles, and then had to pull over and throw up and quit.

Boom. The gun goes off, you are going stride for stride with Kip and Mehippo, and a Ben Kinko and a El Uhreyu, and whoever.

As you watch the sides of the sidewalks pass by like you are going 40 miles an hour, you are in the pack. Eventually the breathing and heaving and spit and snorting would start happening as you break down around them, like an unsound horse. Then, right when you couldn't take the pain anymore, you turn around and say: "Hey Guys, you guys go on, I'm getting back here in the Pace Line."

And then like watching somebody being left behind in a rear view mirror in a car, you drop out back to the horizon and immediately out of the race.

Good way to ruin a race and 80 dollar entry fee and months of training but think of your fame and lore.

Except for the fact that a 4 hour runner can't stay with the Kenyans for 1/2 mile. These guys are running sub 5 minute pace, for cryin' out loud!

To add a funny story, years ago, a friend of mine who was a studly ultra-runner (won Western States twice) took off with the lead pack at a local marathon. At about the 7 mile mark, he went straight when the course made a turn. The leaders freaked, worried that they might have gone the wrong way and were yelling at him. He ignored them and headed off on the rest of his training run, just messing with them. He just wanted to see what it was like to run with the leaders for awhile.

"Fast" is a relative thing. I will share this story again, here. I was recently introduced at a dinner party as a, "Top Ranked Marathon Runner". There were a number of recreational runners at the party and they were freaking out that I had run a marathon in under 3 hours. They thought I was some type of running God! I do have a sub three marathon PR and have even come close to breaking 3:00 in an IM, but I never really considered myself that fast. After all a 3:00 marathon is only 7:00 min/mile. For the REAL top ranked marathon runners - that's their recovery day pace. In fact, world best marathon man Paul Tergat, who I have had the pleasure of meeting, has run a marathon 35 minutes faster than me!! Now, Tergat - their is a true running God. The strange thing at this party was, that no one had a clue who Paul Tergat was!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

My best is 2:37 in 2003, 3 years after my marathon debut of 3:38....I wanted to knock an hour off my time and just made it. My last mile was a 5:25 so I had some gas left in the tank at the end too.

Hoagy is spot on, most people have no idea just how fast the elites are moving at the front of the pack. People think marathon and they think long slow slog. Most weekend warriors couldn't keep up with elite marathoners for a quarter mile.

I love watching road races on TV, it looks like the runners are coasting really easy until you see some kid on the sidewalk trying to keep up and he's sprinting flat out. Good form make 5 minute miles look really easy.

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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill

 
3:38 to 2:37 in a year? What happened the first time? --stopped for a beer (or two)?

I am not sure I want to know that it's possible to improve that fast ... ;) In fact I am getting injured just thinking about it.

Running sub 5:00 min/mile pace for 26 miles is extraordinary. I know this is hard for many to believe here, but the reality is that a marathon is simply a long run for many of the top people - at 5:00 min/mile or faster - and it is a race of attrition as people break and fall off the pace. 5:00 min/mile pace is 30 sec/mile slower than their 10K race pace and about 45 sec slower than thgeir 5K race pace, which if you plug into any of those pace calculators is just about right, all things considered. What you see with top runners is the ability to run at different paces for extended periods of time. They run 5K substantially faster than they run 13.1 miles. What you see with many rec runners, is that they run all distances at the same pace - there pace/mile for a 5K is the same as for a marathon.

What I find even more interesting is that if you stand at the finishline of one of the big marathons( Chicago, NYC etc . . .) you see all the top runners come in sub 2:20, and then there is practically no one for the next 40 minutes - the 2:25 - 2:55 range is a no-mans land were few runners go these days. If you run NYC in, say 2:35- 40, you may end up running most of the race completely on your own!

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

McDonalds?? ICK!!!!!!!! :-D

In my running career (prior to Knee surgery) I ran 14 marathons under 3 hours. My last one was 10 years ago in Austin (2:57) 3 months shy of my 50th birthday. My best (2:43:18) was run in Berlin, Germany with a stress fracture of the tibia. Didn't know it until after the race, thought I had a shin splint. Always enjoyed running, now I cycle more.

Ironjack

Boothrand, if I can turn back the clock and go sub 3 hours in Boston this spring like a few years ago, I get to start the NYC marathon in the "elite group" as I will be 40 for race day at NYC. So in some twisted fantasy, the NYC marathon starts, and all 145 lbs of me towers over the 120 lb Kenyans and Moroccan for about 0.2 miles before I keel over and puke up my breakfast and shuffle the remaining 26 with my tail between my legs :-)

It took 3 years Thierry;....a nice gradual progression.

3:38 Chicago

3:27 Big Sur

3:19 San Francisco

3:11 Dublin

3:04 Boston

2:57 Cal International

2:42 Avenue of the Giants

2:37 Cal International

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"A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy."
John Sawhill