I registered in a full marathon in June. Unknowingly there’s this 70.3 distance near our hometown and I wanna be join. It’ll be my 1st 70.3 distance since this is just my 2nd year in multisport.
Is it possible? or I will change the FM to HM and continue to do 70.3 or retain the FM and just joing the half 70.3 distance (1km-44km-10km)
I would appreciate all the advices and info here. Thanks!
You’ll be able to finish both, but your 70.3 performance will be very much dependent though on how hard you run the marathon. Even if you sandbag that marathon, you may still be recovering from the effort by the time of your 70.3.
Not having any idea what your goals are for either race though, I’m not sure what else to tell you.
You just wanna finish, do whatever you want.
Wanna do good 70.3, hell no. Go after a good training plan and what’s recommended there. An oly 2 weeks before 70.3 worked well for me.
Planning a full marathon 2 weeks before pretty much anything, other than a vacation or a massage, is a bad idea.
It is possible to still have 2 good races, just very hard to pull it off. You will suffer through the 70.3 and it will not be as “easy” as if you were to taper for it. I have done an IM and then 15 days later a 70.3 the past 2 years and it went pretty good.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!
There will be no possible way you can get a true “A” result in the HIM after the marathon that soon to it.
If you don’t care about having an “A” HIM result though, you should be able to finish the HIM no problem if you’re in shape.
Most people run no more than 1 marathon every 4 months due to the beatdown it takes on the legs. There’s a marathon manic crew that runs a lot of them week after week, but they tend to be pure runners used to a lot of mileage, and run them at “B” or slower pace. If you’re doing triathlete run mileage (<35mpw), that marathon will beat the heck out of you even if you run it slow.
I did my first 50 miler 2 weeks before my PR marathon.
Are you an experienced marathoner? For me the turnaround is not very traumatic as I have done it so often and nothing is new.
Make sure you have a post-race rubdown and mid-week full massage. Swim and bike(moderate intensity), but do little running in the re-taper.
Best of luck.
I registered in a full marathon in June. Unknowingly there’s this 70.3 distance near our hometown and I wanna be join. It’ll be my 1st 70.3 distance since this is just my 2nd year in multisport.
Is it possible? or I will change the FM to HM and continue to do 70.3 or retain the FM and just joing the half 70.3 distance (1km-44km-10km)
I would appreciate all the advices and info here. Thanks!
It depends on how much you have trained and how fast you recover.
Last Oct I ran the Chicago marathon and 2 weeks later did an IM70.3. No problem. I didn’t push the pace in Chicago but I did BQ. I was back to normal training 2 days later. At the IM70.3 I had no fatigue or issues from Chicago.
In the past, I have run marathons every month in the winter. But, that only works if you have no injuries, including the small ones.
So it is doable, if you have trained adequately.
2nd year in multisport…were you a runner before? Are you an experienced marathoner who knows what happens to your body afterwards? If so, than go right ahead. If you’re new to running long distances as well, I would run the half marathon. Are you thinking about Princeton 70.3? If that’s the race, then we live in the same area. There are loads of marathons within driving distance in the fall. You could do a 70.3 in the summer, recover, then go full steam ahead for a marathon in the fall. You could peak for both and race them at your maximum potential.
Your 70.3 run will suck if you truely race the open full. I don’t see any way around it. Around mile 4-6 I expect your run form will pretty much fall apart and you’ll walk a good part of it.
You will fair better if you weekly run volume is at least 50 mpw including another 5-6 hours biking and swimming 2-3 days a week.
I’d sacrifice swimming for running 6 days a week and biking 4-5 days a week.
Ditto to those who said a marathon takes more than 2 weeks to recover from. You said this is just your second year in tri’s so that not a lot of base work. Unless of course you’ve been running for years and know that you’ll recover. Racing the marathon will sap your strength and speed for the HIM. If it we me and I wanted to race well in the HIM I’d race the half distance as my last long run before the HIM .
I did oceanside 70.3, 2 weeks after IM Los Cabos and had the worst run ever
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I am usually the kind of guy that says yes. But a fast marathon leaves me more sore than any other kind of race (including an Ironman).
So maybe if you jog the marathon.
But they why do it?
Half IM-marathon seems more feasible. But not in the cards.
Bad Idea.
When I ran marathons years ago, even with some 90 mile weeks of training in my legs, I couldn’t run at all for at least a week. It would take months to fully recover.
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I personally wouldn’t do it. The three marathons I’ve done all left me pretty wrecked. Far worse than any other race I’ve done, including IM.
I suppose most people with decent fitness could finish both events 2 weeks apart, but the HIM would suffer, especially on the run.
I did that last May / June with 3 weeks rather than 2 and PR’d in both… Not that my PR’s are anything to brag about…
My advice would be to not run at all the week following the Marathon and really focus on recovering and rest… Then maybe one or two short runs the week of the HIM…
was overwhelmed by the response here. thank you so much for great and valuable inputs.
i think i got the point most here advised about, I’m not a runner before that’s why its so hard to decide. Now im more looking forward to run the half marathon rather than the full. I’m not a fast runner neither, just an ordinary aspiring triathlete want to finish an ironman event.
so most likely half marathon two weeks before 70.3 is a good way to go. making the half as a long run options 2 weeks before.
i stay in singapore. its the sundown marathon which starts midnight will morning. quite hard to think about it actually cz the fatigue on early morning run and humidity level here.
Thanks!
im just an average weekend warrior. so with A level training on both, I don’t think running the full marathon would do any good to my HIM. i think i need more base training.
cheers
I am disappointed in you Rob 
I did Austin 70.3 then 6 days later I did IMFL and had a pretty solid run…FWIW that run at Austin I felt a lot worse since it was 13 days after an IM I think each individual is different and it is all about how you approach each race and what your goals are.
I think his idea now of running the half marathon instead of full is a better decision if he wants to do well at the 70.3.