Why you don’t need to run a marathon
Many runners love the marathon, but no one should feel pressure to embrace the distance
Does it sometimes feel like everyone you know is training for a marathon? If you are, too, more power to you–many people make training for and racing marathons their main hobby. But if you’ve never run one, or you ran one and never plan to run another, or you used to run marathons but no longer do, know this: nowhere is it written that, to call yourself a runner, you have to run a marathon.
Don’t all runners run marathons eventually?
In a word, no. Plenty of runners focus on short-distance racing–like the 5K or the 10K. Or cross-country. Or the half-marathon. And some simply run for health, fitness or fun, or to hang out with other runners. (Granted, some deranged folks go well beyond the marathon distance into ultra territory, but that’s another story–and no one should feel they need to do that to call themselves a runner, either.)
Whether you run now and then or you run every day, you are a runner. Period. There’s no reason to prove anything to anyone–about how much you run, or how far, or for what purpose. Running is just running. (And if you take walk breaks when you run, that’s A-OK, too; some experts even recommend it, especially for those who are new to the sport.)
That said, if you’re curious about the marathon, we encourage you to try it, but not without committing to the training. If you want to get something out of it besides an injury, we recommend following a training plan and giving yourself a good 16 weeks to prepare–and that’s assuming you’re in good health, you’ve been running regularly for at least six months and you can run at least 10 km, more or less continuously, before you start training.
Chances are, you’re not going to master the distance on your first try. “Mastering” the marathon might become a lifelong journey. As any marathoner will tell you, they might have run 10 (or 20, or 50) marathons, but they’re still learning–about how to fuel, how to dress, how to race, how to get through low periods on the course… the list of things to learn is endless (and every marathon is different). For many people, that’s part of what they love about the marathon.
But it’s not like there aren’t loads of other things to be learned, from other pursuits. (Or even that you have to learn something for it to be worthwhile.)
Again, you don’t have to run a marathon.
