Doing a marathon only seven weeks before an IM sounds stupid to me. Maybe you are kid who would bounce back in a week or two, but that approach is risky. Having your wife support you at anytime sounds like a great plan whether you are talking about a marathon or anything else. If you do it, you should do it soon.

Doing a marathon is good training, especially if you are hoping to run the whole marathon leg of the IM. Never having been able to do that however, maybe I am not the best person to ask. If I get to mile 15 in Lake Placid this year and I am still running, I will be thrilled.

Fom the title of your post, I assume you're a chemistry teacher? If so, do you know what you do with a dead chemist?

no I don't. I will bite

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Jon Bergmann
http://jonbergmann.com

You would be much better off putting the time in on the bike. There is no need to run a stand-alone marathon prior to an IM. They are two totally different things. Go over to Gordo's board and do a search on the subject as it's been discussed in the past.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

I am not kid (39) so if it is stupid then I don't want to do it. I can run around a local res 3 times and do a marathon. Maybe in mid July or early August.

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Jon Bergmann
http://jonbergmann.com

you Barium :)

I met a guy once, who did a feman in Bangkok. He said he couldn't tell the difference apart from the Adam's apple and bulge in the front of it's dress.

I wouldn't personally attempt one, especially not after a marathon. Some of them are pretty big by all accounts and could turn nasty if one's performance wasn't up to scratch.

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"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

I'm a 3x IM finisher who also has a 2:54 marathon PR. I am also training for GFT again this year after a six year IM layoff. My previous IM training schedules included several marathons in the leadup. I should say that I'm a runner by trade with 54 marathons to my credit as well as several ultras up to 50miles and races 1/2 marathon and shorter too numerous to count. So I'm a runner. But I've also been at the tri game for 18 years now. Here's my previous results from IM marathons: 3:54, 4:30, and 5:12(or something ridiculously slow like that). That 5+ hour effort was the same year I set my marathon PR 8 months prior. I did six marathons that year leading up, but none closer than 10 weeks to the race. Did they help? Obviously not much at all.

So this year I've got the opportunity to race IM again. I hired a coach and am going for a PR and maybe sub 10:00 if I get lucky and have the best possible day. To do that I need to run under 3:45, and hope to run about 3:30. When I was working out my sched with my coach I had my usual 5 or 6 marathons this spring and early summer. He trashed that schedule! Things have changed a lot since I last went long. Or at least I'm getting better educated. I don't think many coaches out there will recommend running marathons for buildup to IM. The current thinking seems to be that you need a strong bike build more than you need long run builds. My longest scheduled run is only 2:30! The wisdom offered is that an IM marathon is less about running fast than about not slowing down. My IM experiences bear witness to this even if I didn't believe it at the time. Oh, and I really think this approach is making good progress for me this year. The proof will be in the racing at GFT, of course.

I don't think that you need to run a marathon to be prepared for your race. Marathons really trash your body. If you run a marathon hard, be prepared for about 4 weeks of recovery. You are better off doing long easy runs and building up to around 3hrs. Bring as many gels or whatever you plan to eat and drink for your race. You can probably carry most of what you need and what you cant, stash in the woods. This way you don't torture your wife. Good luck in your race.