Brighton Marathon

Hi guys,

   In a matter of weeks I finish University leaving me with nothing to do, actually nothing to do. I'm currently about 60 pounds over weight give or take a few (6 foot 4 inches and 245 pounds) and can probably run continuously for about 150-200 metres (I know) and was planning on commiting the next few months of my life to moving around to the eventual goal of running a marathon around this time next year. 

 I plan to enter a few 5k/10k/half marathons before hand, but the end goal would probably be the 2013 Brighton marathon that would give me from the 8th of May (Dissertation hand in) until the actual race day this would leave me with about 48/49 weeks to train, and I am more then willing to put in the hours/effort, yet I was mostly worried about the impact that this will have on my body. Will pushing from one end to the other cause injury? Or will I be fine? Would it better to aim for one further back?

Any help information and tips will be helpful

Thanks

Hi Nicholas,

It's a great goal, Brighton is a really fun marathon.  You certainly have enough time to train.  You might find the training easier, the results faster and yourself less injury prone if you combine it with a weight-loss programme.  Have you considered this as well?  This is not meant to be patronising, but running does stress your body, so the less to carry the better. 

Hi Rosemary,

Thanks for the help. I'm hoping that the marathon will be part of an overall effort to lose the weight and an incentitive to do as well as possible. Currently on the sign up page have a small bout of nerves!

Thanks

Go for it!  It's a lovely marathon,great support and Brighton is small enough that it isn't difficult to get around with tired legs, meaning the location of your hotel is less of an issue than  it would be in London.   The great thing is that the more you lose weight, the more your performance improves and the more encouraged you are to lose more weight.  Virtuous circle! 

I think you can do it and you do have enough time, but not by much.  That means that you can't afford to get side tracked and stop running for a period of time, then expect to jump in and be ok for Brighton.  You will need to work your distance up to 20-30 miles/week (gradually!) and then sustain that until you start the marathon training program.  Usually marathon training programs are about four months long, so count back and figure out when you will be starting that.  Then look at the 3-4 months before that.  Those are months when you need to be locked on to 20-30 miles/week.  That means from now until that point is your time to get from 150 meters to 20 miles/week.  I think it will help you to put this all on your calendar so you can see your time frames.

And weight loss will definitely help.  Running burns calories, but early on, you will not be running far enough or enough days/week to burn a lot.  Be very careful not to fall into the trap of allowing yourself to eat more because you ran.  Also avoid the calorie-filled electrolyte drinks at first.  You won't need them for months.  Plain water is just fine until you get much longer distances (10-15 mile runs perhaps).

Good luck to you.

I say go for it! As long as you're basically healthy, you should be fine as long as you're happy to take it easy, train sensibly, and not plan for a really fast race. Don't worry about the extra weight as it will come off gradually as you get into the training. Are you sure you're very overweight at all, as by my reckoning 245 lbs is only 17.5 stone, which doesn't sound like an awful lot if you're 6'4". Even if you typo'd and are actually 345 lbs, that's not too outlandish for your height.

To put the height/weight thing into perspective, my chubby boyfriend is 5'8" and hovers around 18-19 stone (not all fat, he's a ridiculously strong ex-rugby player but with a build totally unsuited to running!) and he managed to trundle grumblingly round a 10K in 1hr20 with minimal training.So if you're willing to put the training in, you should do great!

Hi! Go for it I've entered Brighton next year and am also bricking it!