Extend Yourself...Slowly

At the Army 10-Miler last weekend I noticed that a lot of people shouldn't have been there. They were either unprepared or they were not conditioned enough to handle a 10-mile race. Many of them probably signed up for wrong reasons: somebody told them to; to see if they can run a two-digit distance without training; to say they did it.

A better reason to race would be to test your abilities and to see if you've properly trained for the race. Races are tests of mental and physical endurance. If you trained right, you'll succeed; if you didn't, you won't.

Many people have the idea that longer races are necessarily more challenging and more worthy of their time. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard of people who start running and then within a year are participating in long-distance events. I asked a woman the other day how many half marathons she had done. Zero, she answered. Yet she's running a marathon in Jacksonville in February.

At the two half-marathons I've participated in, I've seen marathoners walking around mile 10. I can't believe they have another 16 miles to go. Many marathoners overestimate their physical capabilities. Not only do they block other runners, but they get discouraged or injured, and end up ruining their running careers. Doing a marathon as one of your first races is a fast way to burn out, not a fast way to run.

Why is going longer and slower more worthy than going shorter but faster? Running long and slow for four hours is hard, but so is running fast and hard for 40 minutes during a 10k.

And why stop at marathons? What makes the marathon the Holy Grail of running? Why not do an ultra? Don't stop at 42k (marathon distance). Do a 50k. Do an 80k. Do a 100k. Do a 24-hour event. Do several marathons in a month. What makes 42k so special that runners think they have to do it?

I suspect many people gravitate towards the longer distances because they don't like the pain of shorter distances. Short distances are tough. They aren't long, but they hurt. Ask Roger Bannister or Steve Prefontaine, two great short-distance runners. Running long and slow, however, relieves some runners of the deep breathing and burning lungs that are always present during fast runs. Four hours of shuffling is just a mental test.

I wonder where the division is between "running" a marathon and "completing a marathon." Anybody can walk a marathon. That's 4 MPH for six or seven hours. Running a marathon means you are working hard for 2.5-3.5 hours, not walking or shuffling for several hours.

I wish runners would take a more gradual approach to running. Your first race should not be a half marathon. Your first race should be a 1-mile or 5k run. That's completely manageable for a novice runner who wants to participate in an event. Gradually novice runners can start running 10ks (the hardest distance in my opinion), then half marathons, and then marathons (if they ever choose to go that distance).

Get fast and fit in the shorter distances in order to run the longer distances. If you race long and slow, you'll always run slow. If you master the shorter distances and do a lot of speed work before you attempt a marathon, your results will be much better. You'll have a much stronger base of endurance and speed work. And your body won't be used to "long and slow."

Kevin