Why run a marathon?

I've found myself volunteered to give a talk on my first marathon. And, lets be honest, why did you do it is going to be one of the obvious questions.

I know what my answer would be, but what was yours? why run that first one? why keep doing it?

Having had to think of my answer, it's made me wonder what other resaons for doing it there are. Over to you... 

Non runner to runner; question 1. Have you ever run a marathon? question 2. Have you ever run the London Marathon? question 3. What's your fastest time? and by that they mean have you broken 3 hours. If the answer is yes to all three, then to them you are a runner. So you do a marathon to hopefully shut them up at least some of the time.

I started with a half as a drunken bet. I'd recently run a (very slow) 10K, and the chat in our local one night turned to longer distances. Someone laughed derisively and said to me 'You'd never be able to do that.' So I did! Then moved up to marathons, then ultras, then triathlons. Currently thinking of entering an Ironman...

booktrunk wrote (see)

Stupidity? ... My first is 19 weeks away

That's a standard given.

My first race was the London Marathon......bloke in the gym suggested I try a 10km, and I said "I've just run 10 miles, I might as well go for a marathon."

Have just clocked up my 10th, so I must be pretty brain dead by now....

I got bored with half marathons and was not sure of my best distance. The marathon was the next distance and the only one I had not tried.

My first was run cautiously and I finished feeling pleased but sure that I could do better. I ended up doing the same UK marathon five times improving mostly. Did Manchester the year before the Commonwealth Games. Got bored again. I found that I qualified for New York so off I went. Loved NY so did it twice, actually went three times but was injured one year so did not run. I have since run Paris and Berlin a few times and went to Boston this year but deferred to 2013 because of the inordinate heat (33C) 

My marathon times have plateaued to some extent. I am now chasing the experience rather than a new PB but may challenge my best time again. At most I only do two marathons a year so that I can run them well. I still do shorter distances and now enjoy them more.

Unlike shorter distances the marathon has not 'bored' me. It is such a long way and the training takes so much time that you must be focused to finish it with a sense of achievement. I love running 20 miles early on a Sunday morning through country.

However I have found that running any distance is like any other training in life. You must take it a little bit at a time, build up experience gradually(distance and speed),  learn about your equipment, learn from your mistakes and realise and accept that your ability may not be in proportion to the effort you expend. What you learn from running can be adapted to meet most things life throws at you.

Mar (marathon) 10K (tenkay) =  Martenkay

1.  because you can.

2.  so you can eat all the cake you want.

3.  to avoid the housework.

4.  becuase you like looking at people in lycra.

5.  becuase you look good in lycra.

6.  becuase you can't play hockey/football/etc (insert random sports).

7.  its a challenge (less than 1% of the population has run a mara)!

8.  because you can't run fast.

9.  becuase you have endurance.

10.  becuase you are training for an ultra.

Does that help?

booktrunk wrote (see)

Stupidity? ... My first is 19 weeks away

Oh yes, I think being a few sandwiches short of a picnic is a requisite! 

I seem to remember my reasons being a mixture of wanting a target to keep me focused in order to shift the excess flab that had accumulated around my bum (I'd just had to buy a pair of jeans in a size I swore I'd never buy) and a significant birthday approaching. So call it the solution to a mid life crisis and you're probably not too far wrong!

PSC wrote (see)

1.  because you can.

2.  so you can eat all the cake you want.

3.  to avoid the housework.

4.  becuase you like looking at people in lycra.

5.  becuase you look good in lycra.

6.  becuase you can't play hockey/football/etc (insert random sports).

7.  its a challenge (less than 1% of the population has run a mara)!

8.  because you can't run fast.

9.  becuase you have endurance.

10.  becuase you are training for an ultra.

Does that help?

All of what PSC said and one more. I started running marathons because Mr LB was doing them and it pissed me off the amount of time he spent training, and thus NOT with the family. He got irritated one day and said "YOU try it then".

And I did. And marathons are like Pringles. Once you pop.........

nice thread

Hi Camlo

hope all is ok

I run a mararthon distance, to make me feel good about myself. Only 1% have ever done it (is the often quoted statistic) and I am proud to be in that 1%.

I am also very stubborn and hate quitting at anything.

Obviously a slate short of the full roof too.....

1) to raise money for a hospice back home

2) because I was drunk when I had the fundraising idea

Had just done my first race, a HM, and saw Adrian Chiles finish London in 3:59, and went, "If Adrian Chiles can do it, how hard can it be?" and promptly signed up for Abingdon .... those were the days before it sold out in 2 weeks.

Like the long training runs, the obsessing, the travel, the medals, the friends...

Of course I found out that actually it could be quite hard to go under 4 hours and it took me 4 more years!

Knackered shoulder, couldn't climb, couldn't play rugby, so started running properly rather than the ad hoc stuff I'd done before.

Running is like climbing, no matter how good you are, there's a blanker piece of rock that you (Ok, I), have to try and climb. And when you can, you just want to do it better....... And then find a blanker bit of rock. Did my first ultra this year, only 40 miles. Now wondering about 100m in a day......Think I might be a tad competitive with myself

Shoulder is fine now after the operation. the running thing stuck though.