Brazil 2016

Hello, I am an 18 year old runner from London and I am training for the 2016 Brazil Marathon; yes i know very ambitious. I went for a run today and did 10 miles in 1 hour and 10 minutes which was disapointing as I still had alot more in the tank at the end (cloudy, flat surface overall). I know the time I ran the 10 miles in is poor when I'm thinking of Olympic level but i've read on hear that I should expect to be better under racing conditions as opose to normal training.  

I would like to hear other people's oppinions of what my chances are of qualifying for the Olympic games. I would rather you told the truth and said that I have very little chance of competing in the Olympic games then to lie and say that I will make it.

Thanks

There were seventeen under 20s with sub-60 10 mile races last year...

Samir, thats quite an improvement over yesterday where you managed 8 miles in 1 hour.

As cougie said, you have a very slim chance of qualifying for the marathon.

Most marathoners start at the middle distances (5k and 10k) and then move up to the marathon distance.  If you are serious, you need to focus on the 5k distance and complete a road race in under 15 mins, before moving up to 10k etc.  NB I'm not sure what the current international 5k standard is, but a quick look at a couple of small, local 5ks I ran had the top runners coming in just over 15 min, so you need to be faster than them - its probable you need to be a good few minutes quicker than this to be international level.

Have you thought of pursuing your football or boxing ambitions?  Not only do they have more competitors in the GB team, so you must have more chance of getting in, the marathon is probably the most physically demanding of all events to pick. 

I'd say you have little chance of 2016, unless you have an undiscovered amazing talent for marathon running.

The A standard for the Olympic marathon is 2hr 12min and anyone who can hit that is going to also be capable of running sub 14 for 5k and sub 30 for 10k.

However as cougie said, you're young, for marathon running your peak age is going to be around 30, so 2020 and 2024 would be more viable targets.

It'll take a lot of work, but you'll never know unless you get started, and even if you don't make it, make sure you train to the best performance you are capable of, which is a good reward in its own right.

Join a club and see what they say, that would be your best bet.

1hr 10 for 10 miles is good but not great, in my local 10mile race id did 1hr 6mins in 2011 and that was only good enough for 160th out of 600.

The young chap who won it did about 51 mins and he wasnt good enough for the Olympics.

If you are serious, you need to join a club, a club that has good standard runners and can offer coaching,. You need to be coached by people who can improve your basic  speed, Plenty of track races, from 400 metres upwards - unless you are someone like Paul Evans, and from your 10 mile time you are not (Paul Evans off a football training background ran 33 minutes for his first 10K race and ended up with a 27:47 10K time, a 46 minute 10 mile time and a 2:08 marathon time, won the chicago marathon a couple of times and ran 10K in the Barcelona Olympics -

But if you are really serious then there is no reason why you can't give it a go.

10miles in 70mins is an easy run for a decent runner

Just check out top runners blogs or runnerslife and their training schedules. Those guys are already running sub 30min 10ks and 100+mpw.

Samir, same answers as per on the other thread, and also the Mike Rushton thread.

How are you measuring these mileages by the way, not to doubt you, but from your other reported runs/mileages you suddenly have gone up a fair notch.

map my run is decent yeah, a GPS would be ideal though.

Samir Haddad 2 wrote (see)

. For the race I'm hoping to run the 13.1 miles in 1 hr 8 minutes in october. That will only happen if my theory of running in front of people works and I do ALOT of training oh yea and get a pair of Y - Fronts.

Is there a digit missing in front of the 8?

Check out the half marathon rankings of 2012, and see if 1hr 08 in 9months is realistic (remembering that millions and millions of people run)

http://www.thepowerof10.info/rankings/rankinglist.aspx?event=HM&agegroup=ALL&sex=M&year=2012

never mind the spelling young chap, you have some race result expectations to reign in.

Is the Mike Rushton thread still on the go?

He's still thrashing the park runs Grant, but finding that after the initial smashing of pbs, the next stage of progress is where the real work kicks in.

1hr 8 mins is definatly not my current performance it's just wishful thinking which I think I have a chance of reaching in the future.

Samir, it just seems a random figure.

As world class would need to be almost 10mins quicker.

And generally when people pick aims, they go under a rounded number, say 1hr 15, 1hr 10.

So 1hr 08 seems an odd pick? It's not even a round number pace per mile, as a 1:08:00 is 5.11 a mile

That's a little test, try and run 1 mile at 5.11

the reason I that number is because you need a time of 2:18 to qualify for brazil so at the half way point at 1 hr 08 is a good start (Assuming you can repeat that). Anyway just entered my first Half Marathon for this year September can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!! They asked me estimate my finish time on my application which I didnt like doing becasue you know me. 11 miles in 1 hour is a must before the race starts.