Question:What's the least amount of training anyone has ever done and completed a
full marathon?
10 miles/wk? 20 miles/wk? Zero miles?
Answer:
I suppose it could be done with zero miles if you were willing to go slow enough.
I certainly have walked 25+ miles with no real training for it (not marathons but
hiking).
I've got a hiker friend who bandited the Boston one year for the hell
of it. Didn't finish very fast (4:20?), but finished. No training,
but 18 years old and very fit.
Zero. some numbskull here in Ottawa did it a year or two ago. i remember
reading the article in the paper... he described his experiences in just
enough detail that the average person could deduce that this guy did the
wrong thing. sure he was young-ish (20's, i think), and pretty fit from
other sports. but he knew nothing of carbo-loading, hydrating before and
during the race, little about running-specific stretches, and so on. he
did none of the preparation: no long runs, no track workouts, no hills,
no tempo runs... nothing. he just did his usual easy-going few
"workouts" of team sports each week.
his goal was to prove that a person could do the marathon without
destroying the body by doing "all of that pointless training" (or a
quote very similar to that). yeah, he proved that he could finish the
race - feeling physically sick to his stomach, with massive pain
throughout his body... and of course, we never heard how he fared a few
days/weeks later. like were there any (lasting) injuries?
ok, so he can say he did a marathon, and in a pretty decent time. i
think he finished it in less than 5 hours... can't recall the exact
time. somewhere between 4 and 5 hours, i believe. but his point was to
do one marathon and that's it. no longer-term goal of continuing to run,
run marathons or other races.
So he felt like the average marathon runner.
I guess this is an example of the different reasons and timeframes for
running. I don't really understand it but he was the one who did the running.
The bottom-line is he finished...
So, now my question is this...If this guy finished with absolutely NO
marathon training, how is it that there are people who DO train, who
ultimately don't/can't finish the marathon they were training for?!?!?
Good points made in this thread already. The only thing I can add from my own
experience is that the regular training alone, and its psychological and
physical benefits--day to day, completely apart from racing--are at least as
important to me as the marathon itself. Running a marathon without training is
an interesting gimmick "choice" in life, no doubt, like hot-dog eating
contests. Making and keeping the commitment to train adequately for a marathon
is a more interesting journey entirely.
Assuming you are serious, the guy you're referencing was apparently a
fit, young guy who had regular workouts, just not marathon-oriented. He might be
able to survive a round or two of boxing, too, but that wouldn't make him a
boxer, and it sure wouldn't prove he was smart. Cam's point about the mystery of
that runner's condition days, even weeks after the marathon, is excellent.
Of the people you mention who train but don't finish, it's pretty easy to deduce
that a significant portion of those suffer foot/leg injuries or heat- and/or
hydration-related disasters during the race--which can happen to anyone under
the right (wrong) circumstances, no matter how highly or not-at-all trained, if
they push too hard or the temperature is too high. World-class runners have
dropped out of elite marathons numerous times.
Enclosed, perhaps unintentionally, within your last question, is a hint: many
times, people "don't/can't finish the marathon they were training for" because
in fact they didn't run the marathon **they trained for**....instead, they tried
to run some mysterious other marathon that was faster, on a different surface,
or included different fluids and food than the one for which they apparently
trained.
