Marathon indecision...

[skhill]

I'm still undecided about doing my first marathon this fall. It'd be the Columbus Marathon, on Oct 20, and it's high time I make up my mind so I can get training. I feel like it's time I ran a marathon, but is that peer pressure or something I really want to do? And I'm not crazy about all those lengthening long runs in the heat of summer.

On the other hand, my brother will be living in Columbus only for a couple more years (grad school) and I'd like my first marathon to be flatter than Louisville or Cinci (the two closest). And training for my first 10k and first half-marathon were both great experiences, in ways that went beyond the physical.

Of course, it's a joint half and full marathon, and I could just opt for the half and put in some good hard work towards finally running a sub-2 hr time.

Any thoughts?

[Veronica]

Only you can really answer the question about peer pressure or what you really want.

I know it took me along time to decide that I really did not want to do a full Ironman. "It'd be so cool... think of the accomplishment." Blah, blah, blah...

I'd start training as if I were going to do the full and see how you feel about the training. If you find the training fun and rewarding, keep going and do the marathon. OTOH, if you hate it, set your sights on the sub 2 hour. Both are pretty awesome goals.

Veronica

[OakLeaf]

Columbus is a really fun race. It would be a great one to do as your first - tons of crowd support, flat and fast, not so crowded that you can't run your own race.

I was the same way about my first one. I really wanted to have done one, more than I actually wanted to do it.

I hear you on the peer pressure. I guess, part of how I sorted it out, is, is it *real* peer pressure, which I would count as it's really not YOU who wants to do it - like, so many of your IRL friends have done one and they're urging you to do it? Or is it the kind of peer pressure like I was sort of feeling, all these ones on TE egging you on, and coveting a 26.2 sticker every time you see one on someone else's car ... which, to me, wasn't real peer pressure at all, but just external reminders from people I really didn't know, that *I* felt a desire to do it.

I guess I'm with V. The half usually sells out in late summer. The full usually doesn't sell out until closer to race day (but they don't allow transfers once the half is sold out). If you start training now as though you were planning to do the full, you should be hitting those (potentially) grinding 17-18 milers before the half sells out, and you can make your decision then. But I'd keep an eye on whether they're getting close to selling out.


ETA: With the times you've run in other races, I'd bet you could do Columbus half in 1:50. Don't sell your training short. You KNOW you are faster than I am.

Another thought ... Cleveland is in the spring and it's mostly flat. It was my first, it's not as nice a race as Columbus, but if the summertime training is an issue, that would be one to think about. Champaign-Urbana is another flat spring marathon that might not be too far from you - apart from the awful surface and the fact that you can't get there from where I live, that was a really great race.

[skhill]

Part of the appeal of Columbus is the free place to stay, right around mile 5.5 on the course. Louisville and Cinci are both in the spring, and no hillier than the half's in Central KY. And with those, all the local running club have groups training towards them together.... There's still some time to decide, at least. And my brother should still be in Columbus in 2014, too, so I could possible do the half this year, and the whole enchilada next year.

(It's those hills around here that have kept my half times as slow as they are. The big Lexington half is in the hilliest part of the county, one damn hill after another, steeper in the second half. I've never walked so much in a race!)

Thanks, y'all!

[OakLeaf]

Here's something that isn't peer pressure, but a pretty dumb thing I did. Not that realizing it would've probably changed my mind.

It was really hard for me to feel a sense of accomplishment about doing "half" of anything. Doing my first half marathon and my first (and perhaps only) Columbus Fall Challenge three weeks apart was supposed to be a big deal for me, and CFC kind of was, but the run wound up being a little anticlimactic. I think I signed up for my first marathon less than a month later.

If you're feeling like your 13.1s aren't as "real" as 26.2 would be, try thinking of them strictly as 13.1 and banish that fractional language from your thinking.