How to Hack a Marathon | Hacker News Reader

How to Hack a Marathon

andrewgertig.com

70 pointsGertig28 comments

I have complered four marathons with times of 4:22, 4:15, 3:56, and 3:36. Only the last of those really felt like I "ran" the marathon. It required an average of 42 miles/week of training (peak week of 60 miles) for 16 weeks.

So, sure, go complete a marathon, it's a great experience. But if you want to truly "run" a marathon, for god's sake, do it right.

I agree that if you want to tell someone you didn't stop during the marathon for a break or to walk that you should train for it. What this post demonstrates is that it is possible to complete something that most people avoid out of fear.

The marathon should not be feared, but it should be respected. 26 miles 385 yards is a long way. One should also be aware of hyponatraemia which tends to happen more often to the ill-prepared who may not be aware of its cause. (Losing lots of fluid via sweat and replacing it only with water.)

Anyway, completing a marathon is quite an endeavor and it seems to me it's worth doing well, not just to say you did it.

I agree completely. I didn't do sports in high school or college aside from some casual fencing, but I've started running in the last few months. I've been surprised at how much of a mental activity it really is.

Would people be interested in an article on "How to Run a Marathon the Hard Way"? There's a ton of stuff out there on how to run a marathon in four months and survive it, but not very much on how to spend two years gradually working up through the shorter distances so you can feel completely prepared for the marathon.

I think there's a lot of enjoyment from the shorter races that it's easy to miss out on from just moving straight up to the marathon. The camaraderie in most local road races and running clubs is great, and can really improve both your social life and enjoyment of running.

I was never into running but until this past summer when I logged around 25 miles/wk. I ran my first 'official' 5k at the end and curiously felt like I was being dragged through it (for all the reasons runners much more experienced than me cautioned I would). So I can 110% appreciate your experience.

4 Advil before the race? This is a bad idea, from experience. I took 2 Advil before a 10K and felt great, but within an hour after the race, I was in complete pain. My stomach was cramping and I couldn't get up out of bed for at least 45 min. If you Google "Advil" and "running", you will find many articles that warn you about the mixture. I've ran two half-marathons without pain killers, it's definitely the way to go.

Watch out on the Advil(ibuprofen)! While that probably really helped your run, you can end up with a condition called exercise-induced rhabdo if you don't hydrate properly.

Here's a readable article http://www.trailrunnermag.com/article.php?id=193&cat=3

This might be more of a problem for ultrarunners because of the lengths of the events, but on no training at all anything can happen :)

BTW, your strategy of taking a walk break through every water station is a great one for your first marathon, regardless of whether or not you've done the training.

I do marathons and ultras, but I usually do them pretty slowly.

Many people run/walk a marathon at around 10 mins/mile. I think our bodies are better suited to doing that. Most good beginner running programs start with run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes and build you up from there.

Running is incredibly hard on the body and most of the work is just building up your muscles, tendons and bones to handle the strain of constant running. The benefits are awesome. Tests have shown that people who have run at least 10 years in their life have 30% more calcium in their spines when they die [Tim Noakes, The Lore of Running - aka. The Bible]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with walk/running a marathon and if you're starting running, that's the only way to build yourself up.

My personal goal is to average under 8 minutes per mile on my daily runs. I've met one real runner. The guy at my local running shoe shop runs a 4:10 mile for University of Oregon.

The first point says it all, "1. Don’t plan on running the whole thing." He completed the marathon at an average speed of 5.8 mph. I'm not a runner but am a hiker, and know that most of us can hike at around 3 mph, over rough terrain wearing heavy hiking boots. Speedwalking on pavement with sneakers at twice that speed for 4.5 hrs sounds entirely reasonable.

Actually he switches between slow running and regular walking, which is easier. Speedwalking that fast is harder than jogging.

This is the technique that olympic marathoner Jeff Galloway teaches.

There's nothing wrong with Gallorunning -- heck, there are sub-3 Gallowrunners ... but they still train! :)

Q: What's an easy way to bench 1,000 pounds?

A: Lift 100 pounds 10 times.

There's nothing wrong with taking it easy, and in fact I think you should if you're just starting out. But at some point you have to ask yourself whether you're in the race because you're passionate about it or whether you're in the race because you want to tell you facebook friends you ran a marathon.

Being in the race and finishing would necessarily imply some sort of passion. Most likely the source of this passion is wanting to tell yourself you can (and did) do it.

Finishing a marathon is a big deal and something to be proud of. Don't belittle it with your awful analogy.

Of course it is. I'm saying that maybe the guy investing his time hacking the long run would be more gratified giving his all in the 10k or half marathon. What about that (innocuous?) piece of advice unnerves you so much?

This is good hack and I used a similar plan to travel 9 times this distance (240Km) in as many days ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/collections/7215762379... the hack described will not work for completing consecutive marathon distances without some modifications.

My hack involved breaking the day down into "do-able" tasks, following some simple routines and good level of fitness to start with. You need to increase your level of basic physical fitness: cardiac (stamina to do the distance), joint & muscle (to avoid foot & muscle damage) and mind (won't quit).

Physical Prep: Before I started I'd marched some 1600km on foot slowly building up stamina so I could regularly do 32km per day for days in a row. I did this in hilly terrain with weights ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157623445003205... This is my hack to take this to another level. You have to be physically able to take the repeated distances and you can only do this with extra training to condition your muscles, joints and mind.

"1. # Don’t plan on running the whole thing"

The team was divided into 2 groups - runners, walkers. The runners would run anywhere from 13km to 20km in the morning and doing an additional 20 or so kilometers in the afternoon with a break for lunch ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4665359650/in/set-7215... Then completing the rest of the day together. I chose walking the entire distance not because I couldn't run the mornings but because I knew the chance of injury was pretty high. Instead we'd leave much earlier than the runners and beat them to the midday RV. Only 2/12 runners completed the distance because of injury.

"2. Take 4 Advil an hour before the race"

to blunt any residual soreness but the problem can also mask injury.

"3. Take a walking break at every mile marker"

we'd break for lunch but the more important break was stretching ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4665736877/in/set-7215... At the start of the day, at lunch and any time your calves would tighten I'd do 3 stretches of the calf, hamstring and quadriceps. In between we might depending on how we felt take a 5m timed break every 2 hours ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4665462901/in/set-7215... The longer or more often you stop, the longer it takes.

"4. Eat half a banana whenever you see one"

Eat small amounts regularly. Small amounts so you can digest it. If you fail to eat you will fatigue quicker and recover slower. Meal times was as many calories as possible. I'd also take left over food/drink to keep in case I got hungry. I used specialised rations (MRE/PRE ~ actually PR1M ~ similar to this Australian D ration "click Austalian" to view ~ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/04/weekinreview/2...) when we got into the heavy climbing sections ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4549780731/

"5. Take two waters at ever water station"

Carry you own water. Drink on average (varies by climate) 1-2Ltr/hr and verify this with the "piss-test" - if your urine is clear you are drinking enough. We had 50litres of water on hand and various additives to replace minerals.

"6. Eat no more than 3 Gu energy packs because our stomachs didn’t like them"

Small amounts at regular intervals to avoid such stomach aches. I made up some homemade "rat-packs" ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4549780725/ to eat at regular intervals to make sure I had enough energy.

"7. Take bathroom breaks."

Never forget doing a #2 under a bridge only to find a live electric fence very close.

"8. Walk every hill"

We actually tried to push hard up hills because the country was undulating but other times the hills stretched up to 15km up so there was no choice. Hills add about 1hr for every change of 1000ft so moving fast down also helped.

"9. Meet interesting people and use conversation to kill the pain"

That works but sometimes you can be on your own. On the second last day we traveled > 40km mostly uphill without a stop and most of that was by myself. You've got to like the pain.

"10. Put bandaids on your nipples to prevent bleeding"

Foot care is more important. An old rule is never wear anything new so all my kit was broken in, boots ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4418965410/in/set-7215... pack etc. At all main stops taking your boots off & letting your feet & socks dry in the sun avoids this type of problem ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4413036580/in/set-7215... This is what happens if you dont ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4998112005/in/set-7215...

11. We kept going until end of distance

While we had a van for stragglers or injured we had to finish the days course on the day. This turned out to be the hardest aspect. Finishing. You can see it in this shot, shattered legs ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4666299830/in/set-7215...

About the runners: What types of injuries do they mostly had? TY!

"... runners: What types of injuries do they mostly had? ..."

Usual for hard surfaces, long distances - knee and calf issues mainly. For the knee we had ligaments going, tears in calf, no ankles though and exhaustion. Most carried old injuries of some sort. I'm not sure if lack of conditioning could explain it. My reckoning with some other experienced distance movers put it down to "knowing" the limits of how far you could push yourself at any given time.

The two that ran all or pretty much most of the running leg, Dave (ex-forces) seen here on the left ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4566748995/in/set-7215... and Steve (serious amateur athlete), seen here in the white top/shorts ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4566748995/in/set-7215... I would class as both as serious athletes who would have done marathons before & could push on 15-20km/day running on hard surfaces in late 20 to low-mid 30 celsius, NSW outback heat, day after day.

I think myself, Dave and Steve are the only ones who did the entire distance without some sort of injury.

Electric fence? Try poison ivy some time...

I was ready to hop all over this and point out errors. Honestly - there isn't really anything wrong with this plan at all.

I thought the experiment and the write-up interesting, but to say there isn't anything wrong with the plan is tantamount to claiming that training for a marathon is a waste of time. There are dozens of ways you can get injured by running that much without preparing. If the author had merely sore legs for a few days (as he says in the comments), I'd say he was lucky.

Thanks!

Something that's left out that, as someone who has trained/run a marathon, you should appreciate is adrenaline. His plan is great, but when you're nervous/excited and taking on something that seems insane, you can count on a little extra in the tank. That said, I'd love to know how he felt the last few miles. :)

My friend had told me about "the wall". I found it.

http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/latta.htm

Or, build up to it. 3 x 1.5 hours and 1 2.5 hours per week should get you ready.

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