Article Review: My First Marathon
A big thank you to Colin Timberlake who has reviewed my article how to lose weight fast on his blog here. In his review of my article, Colin agrees with my position that you should strive to eat the correct amount of calories for your target weight, but also raises a very good point - not all of us are strong enough mentally to do this, so it is sometimes more bearable to cut calories in a slower fashion and recalibrate daily calorie needs on a month by month basis as the weight comes off.
Colin has written a brilliant article about his first marathon, I think it’s brilliant because it demonstrates the slightly mad outlook that many weight training enthusiasts display - in his case, he just decided one day to run a marathon without any training!
I can very much empathise with this, having done a few half marathons in my time without much training, save a few runs in the weeks before hand. One time, I even had a curry and a night on the tiles the night before, though I did restrict my alcohol intake to just three pints, but could probably have benefitted from an earlier night and zero alcohol!
Colin is a very fit person, doing weights on a regular basis, but by his own admission he doesn’t exactly do lots of running, and certainly isn’t the right build for marathon running - he has muscles! So you’d think it would be nigh on impossible for someone who doesn’t train for a 26.2 mile run and is carrying loads of extra weight (albeit in the form of muscle) around to run the full marathon distance without having done any training, but rather unsurprisingly, it isn’t. It just goes to show that with endurance events (as with most sports in fact) it’s a case of mind over matter. If you have the will power to do it, you will.
I know I have a much greater capacity for pain and am more mentally tough now that I’ve been weight training for nearly six months than I was before, and I believe it is this mental toughness that will see a person through a gruelling 26.2 mile run, with or without training. I suspect it’s easier if you have trained, but clearly if you have the right mentality, you can achieve your goal of running a marathon.
One thing that I would say about repeating Colin’s feat is that he didn’t do any proper preparation. He only had a small breakfast and a cup of coffee (caffeine = diuretic, not good), and he didn’t take any water or carbs with him to help him get through the run. This is not a good idea, because after the first hour of running, he was probably more than 2% dehydrated, which makes a massive difference to performance - mainly because you blood is more like ketchup and so not very good at distributing oxygen to the muscles and it puts greater strain on the heart.
However, he does state that after 17 miles or so, he spots a water fountain, which because he’s running a 2km stretch back and forward, he realises that he could have been getting drinks in all the way through his run! Genius!
I think what the article really does well, is to give inspiration to anyone who has thought about doing a marathon (or even a half marathon) but been put off by the thought of all the training. This proves that you can do one without really training, and that you don’t need to commit to a 16 week fitness program just to get in shape enough to complete it - as long as you have a basic level of fitness and the desire to complete it, you will! Good work Colin!
3 Responses to “Article Review: My First Marathon”
April 15th, 2009 saat: 8:29 am
I think that is the exception to the rule! I would think that most people would pass out or hurt themselves if they tried to do 26 miles non stop without training. It may be possible for some people but it is hardly advisable.
April 15th, 2009 saat: 10:45 am
I think it depends, if you have a general level of fitness (ie, you’re not a complete couch potato) you should be able to run a marathon, if you have the right motivation.
Remember my stag do? Woodsy did a half marathon with no training in less than 2 hours!
April 16th, 2009 saat: 8:16 am
Yes but that almost killed him! Imagine if he was only halfway by the end point. I get your point about goals but I think sensible preparation and training is very important and necessary to all but the odd exceptions. It’s like me going, right today I want to go and bench 120kg. I might have it as a motivation but that doesn’t mean my body will be capable of doing it!
Go Chelsea!
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