I've always had the attitude that the Marathon (26.2 miles) is simply too far to be an enjoyable experience. The training required simply takes up too much time, is too boring and is not necessarily good for the body - more stress on joints, tendons, etc than is really good for you. I regard myself as more of a 5 and 10k runner as I enjoy the speed aspect of those two distances and you get more actually competitive racing during the event, as opposed to the marathon where the real competition is done solo on dark nights and rainy mornings - at least here in the UK.
However, having spent a few hours yesterday watching our 'local' marathon in Manchester, (30,000 runners), supporting some friends, I'm thinking that maybe it's time I had a go?
My thinking though is to select a marathon that is run towards the end of the summer or early autumn, maybe October, so that the vast bulk of the training would be done in the summer, when it's warm, dry and light and the training would be more enjoyable. (there's nothing worse that running long distances in the cold and dark) And then the actual event would be hopefully just as the weather starts to cool off a bit. And maybe set my sights on 2025 so I can work up to it nice and slowly. What say you? xx
Comments