ING Marathon NY

[hyndmanstrider79]

Has anyone ran the NYC Marathon? I'm interested in running my first Marathon but I'm not sure which one. Does anyone know how tough it is to get through the application process? I've heard that you can run for charity as well. I'd do either one but I'm such a newbie and looking for some advice first..

[kevinspradlin]

Marathon priority: No.1 - train for a MINIMUM of 4-6 months. 2 - don't pick a race that will have you start behind literally thousands of people you should be starting ahead. If you're going for the "experience of it all," pick New York. If you're going to run well, go somewhere else (like Philadelphia in November)...

What are you running now? (weekly mileage for the past 8-10 weeks as well as what you could run in a local yokel 5K tomorrow). Are you targeting a marathon in 2008? Do you have a goal time?

There's lots to consider. Of course, some people decide marathon morning to do a marathon, walk to the start line and finish 26.2 miles later and think nothing of it. There are lots of ways to do this - smart or ... not. Which do you want?

[hyndmanstrider79]

My base mileage is 30 per week. I've been moving it up the last 2 months. Now I'm at about 45. I race at around a 7:15 mile pace(give or take a few seconds). I ran about 5 races over the past year and my best was a 22:05 5k. I appreciate the advice..

[hyndmanstrider79]

My goal right now is to finish under 4 hours, but I'm not sure whether or not I'm aiming too low.Ultimately, I would like to finish comfortably and have a great experience. But, don't get me wrong, time is important to me. I just want to train smart. The ING is in November so according to your recomendations I have enough time to train, right?

[mertz]

I would talk to rob smith. He just ran it last year. He said he liked it alot.

[frojoe23]

I also am thinking about running New York this year - it really depends on how well Boston goes. I think that somewhere in the 3:45 - 4:00 range is a good goal. If you get the mileage up, that range should drop. A lot of it is just being comfortable with running for that long.

[kevinspradlin]

hyndmanstrider79, your pace and weekly mileage sounds a bit like mine. I'm in Ellerslie ... if you're up for a training run, let me know...Usually hit Cooks Mills Road 2-3 times a week (it's great for bad weather days because of very limited traffic)

Anyway, you seem settled on New York. So be it. Go into this, however, with a "Plan B" in that in case something happens - freak injury, work responsibilities, etc. - you don't suffer a post-marathon mental breakdown if you can't hit your goal pace or, in fact, can't race at all. It's good to have a plan b.

With that said, focus on Plan A - run like He** in NY. Because our weekly mileage and race pace (and age) are all similar, I'm thinking a 4-hour time is an achievable goal. Now, what kind of 40+ miles a week are you doing? Are you including any workouts, i.e. intervals, hills, tempo runs, etc.? That's important, because if you're training slow, you'll likely race slow. You can only fool the body so much - and it's much harder to fool the body over 26.2 miles rather than 3.1 miles. Any experienced marathoner will acknowledge that fact.

Are you keeping a training log? If so, what details do you keep and for how long have you been recording training/race results in it? How long have you been running? To date, what's your previous longest race and training run (and times) (in your current spurt of training? Lots of questions, but training for any distance is an individual thing. While there are fantastic "guides" and rules of thumb, each individual training plan should be tailored to, yup, the individual.

Like frojoe said, there is plenty of time for NY. 253 days from 2.22, in fact - about 36 weeks (applications are available MONDAY Feb. 25 at www.nycmarathon.org/home/index.php. About NY, though, remember - people fj's speed have less people to manuever over, through and around. You didn't say you were stuck on NY but didn't say you were open to others either. What's the NY fix - no offense, just wondering.

Your responses will likely spawn even more questions. Sorry. But it takes time and knowledge to thoroughly respond to your query.

[baldisbetter]

Dave is right... New York was phenomenal. Having said that, I would not have enjoyed it as much if it was a first marathon experience. The different components of the race are spread over the City. Experience with race lodging, packet pickup, race transportation (to the start and from the finish), food, and recovery are critical in New York. You won’t be using a car in New York so getting around takes planning.

The entry process is a lottery. I believe the NY gets something like 100,000 apps then they select at random for the most part. Their are guaranteed entries, you can read about that on the site.

I was in one of the first corrals and it was still very congested for many miles.

Honestly, I would begin with a smaller marathon. Look for a marathon with a couple thousand then move on to a major. The experience you gain from the smaller race will make New York a memorable marathon.

[hyndmanstrider79]

Kevin,
To answer some of your questions. I run cooks mill all the time. I live in Hyndman, so if you'd like to do a training run, let me know when. To answer another, I'm not stuck on New York, I've been looking into other options(theres a marathon in ohio for plan b), but New York is not too bad of a drive, and I could probably talk someone into going with me since its NY. There's the logic.. My weekly mileage consists of long runs(20), tempo runs(5-10), and recovery runs(10-15 not pushing it, enjoying myself). I don't do hill work, instead, I run Gooseberry Rd near where I live a couple times a week and its a steady climb the whole way, sometimes I run 96 from hyndman tword Cumberland. Thats the closest thing to hill work that I do. What do you mean by fooling the body? I keep a thorough log on my computer with Runners World, to answer another. I've been using it on and off for a year now, religiously the last month or two. Been running on and off for 3-5 years. I've been slooooowly increasing my mileage over the past two years when I changed from trying to lose weight to "Runner". Longest race was The Allegany and I ran around 7:15 per mile. Longest training run so far is 16 miles@9:00 per mile. Thanks for your interest, I really appreciate the advice, let me know when you want to do that training run..

[kevinspradlin]

By fooling the body ... I mean that if you're doing 20 miles a week and decide, on a whim, to do a weekend 10K or even half-marathon, you can fool your body despite lack of training and probably complete it. There's a much higher chance you'll feel awful afterward, but you'd likely be able to do it.

In a marathon, well, that's competely different. The distance is just too far and too difficult for most to fool their body. Even if a 20-mile-a-week runner is able to complete it - and that' something I'd discourage anyfrom from betting on - odds are greatly increased that the experience would not be an enjoyable one.

Anyway, glad to hear there is a Plan B. After all, even the best laid plans go awry every once in a while. Sounds like you're on a good training plan no matter which marathon you choose to race.