This year's racing

[Chris M]

Basically I'm a bit unsure of whether or not to do a marathon this year, I did one last year (my first) and got round in 3:5x. I kind of ended up crawling home as my legs were dead after 16 miles - I did all my training on trails *not* roads (whoops! learned my lesson there!). At the time I could run 10k in 41:5x so it wasn't a great marathon time for me

Anyhow I have been thinking about maybe focussing more on half-marathons which I feel I can race better. But I'm wondering about maybe doing a marathon and rather than trying to run it flat out, say set a goal of around 3:30 so I can get more experience at running marathons. The other part of me says that I'm still 23 so maybe I should avoid them and focus on the half marathon - while doing 5k races and getting some speed up?

All comment welcome!

[Eric Day]

Chris, why not do them all? 5ks and 10ks are good training for speed; 21k are part of the training for marathon (long runs and tempo). Before trying a full marathon, build your daily/weekly mileage...
First you need to teach your body to run long & hard...

[Sasha Pachev]

Do not run a full marathon until you are comfortably handling 60 miles a week and your half is 1:25 or faster. It would be a much more pleasant marathon.

Also think training then race, not training for a race. With that shift racing becomes a much more pleasant experience overall and you run much faster as a bonus.

[Nathan Bundy]

I have to agree with Sasha, cause I would be crazy (or Clyde) not too! But really, if there is one thing Sasha, Dave, Clyde, and others have taught me, is that the important thing is to log the miles. Don't worry so much about your speed. And run the races for the shirt and the experience, not to win. Leave that to those elites. If you are only 23 you have plenty of great racing years ahead of you. This year would be best spent by working up to 60+ miles a week to build your base. If you can be patient and wait until 2010 to really go at it, it will pay off for you in many ways. Running injury free is the first one that comes to mind...

[Chris M]

Thanks for all your replies - much appreciated 

Eric - I will definitely keep doing shorter and longer races - there's a 5k series right near me, on first Sunday of every month that I will do.

Sasha - I think I will do that and wait till I can run 1:25, I kinda see what you mean about training then race, I will give it some thought.

Nathan - Yeah, I think long term it is better to keep up consistently logging miles, and I'm planning to continue doing this. Plus hopefully in 2010 by the time I run a marathon my endurance will be much better so I can run a marathon time closer to what my half would predict.

Thanks everyone

[Michelle Lowry]

The 1/2 marathon is a cool distance.  You can race lots of 5ks and 10ks as training for a half marathon.