Deciding you're ready for a full marathon

[MeridaAndAngus]

I've been researching, debating, wondering when/if I'm ready to sign up for my first full marathon. I've already decided that I want to do my first full marathon at Disney World, but I'm debating whether I'm ready to try for it this year, or if I should wait another year. I'd love to do the marathon this January, as it would make me a "marathoner" just before a landmark birthday. It would be a real personal victory for me.

My question boils down to this: How did you decide it was the right time to train for and run your first marathon? I've read a lot about the minimum weekly mileage you should be running before you start training for a marathon, and about how many years you should be running before your first marathon, but I'd love to hear some personal stories and experiences from fellow runDisney fans.

A little background on me: My first long-distance race (and foray back into getting myself back in shape after many years of long work hours and grad school) was the Disneyland 10k in 2014. I then ran my first half marathon at Disney World in January 2015. I've since run 4 more local half marathons and several other local races (10k, 15k distances). Right now I'm training for the Dumbo Double Dare in September, and the Infinity Gauntlet Challenge in November. I'm following the Galloway plans, so at present I'm averaging 2-3 mid-week runs of about 35 minutes, and a weekend long run (alternating weeks between shorter and longer mileage). Long runs on weekends typically are 8 - 13.1 miles, short weekend runs are typically 3-5 miles.

Now, when I say "run" I must preface this by saying that I'm still on what I call a fitness journey. I use the Galloway run-walk method, and I typically run 1-2 minutes, and then walk 1 minute. Depending on how bad the heat is, my pace is usually slow by "runner" standards: 13/min mile if it's cool out, and closer to 14 or 14:30/mile in the summer months (the heat really drains me).

I also do "flow" style aerobic yoga classes (typically 60 minutes/class) about 3-5 days/week. These have really helped me gain lean muscle, and also have helped me strengthen my legs and hips and helped me to correct my form and avoid running injuries.

After all that rambling about me, I'd love to hear some input from you guys on your experiences deciding to train for and run your first full marathon!

 

[Warm Hugs]

Good luck. Question you probably should ask yourself is: after you finish a half, do you feel you could run another 13.1 miles? If you feel you can't and keep up the required pace for the next 13.1 miles, a little more training might be in order. Personally, I am waiting until I can actually run the full marathon.. I.e. I don't want to say I ran a marathon when I walked half of it. But that's just me.

Maybe go back to what made you decide you were ready for a half and signed up. Is it same feeling/motivation you have now for a full?

 

[Barca33Runner]

No one is really ready for their first marathon before they sign up (I mean this in the best way possible). I certainly wasn't, but it was one of my favorite decisions in hindsight.

My entrance into running was after many years of a very sedentary lifestyle. My sister was looking for someone to run the 2012 WDW Half with her. I had no idea Disney had races, but thought it would be a good excuse to go to Disney World with my 3-year old nephew. I signed up, underestimated the training required and vastly underestimated my own personal fitness (no reason for this, I'd always been overweight and have never been an athlete). I finished, but the race really kicked my butt and drove me to actually start running and taking it seriously.

I knew when I crossed the finish line that I was going to sign up for the 2013 full marathon. The addiction had taken hold, probably more for the Disney experience than running but running too. I knew if I was going to keep moving forward I needed a bigger challenge or my own personality would have allowed me to become complacent. Fortunately, my sister was of the same mindset. I trained the next year, took it seriously, started losing weight and getting in better shape; both of those for the first time in my life.

Despite this, the weather was rather hot and that first marathon was a miserable experience for about 26.19 miles. But oh, that last .01 and the finish line. That feeling made everything else totally worth it.

We were planning on signing up for the goofy the next year, but they introduced the Dopey and we knew we had to go big. Despite running the three other races, I managed to cut one hour and 50 minutes off my marathon time in 2014.

I don't really know if there is a right way to come to the decision to enter your first marathon. For me, I knew I wasn't ready but I also knew I probably never would be if I didn't sign up. I wouldn't have done the proper prep if I was wavering and I never would have kept coming back if I wasn't driven to do better and keep improving.

Hope that makes a little bit of sense. My personality probably required me to sign up before I was at all ready; but I needed that big, seemingly unattainable carrot out there to possibly get to the smaller one right in front of me.

 

[Neoflynn]

its really all about how dedicated you can be to training, honestly there is no magic thing that suddenly makes a marathon easy. You are going to have to train and its going to be hard. The nice thing is you know you can do a half so now you just need to train your body to run or run/walk double that distance. The thing about making this choice now is yes you can certainly sign up for the January marathon and you have plenty of time to train (my plan for instance will start on July 27th). I will respectfully disagree with the person that said use your halfs as an indicator, you haven't trained for running 26.2 you have trained for 13.1 so there is no way you are going to feel like yeah i can run another 13.1 your body isn't ready for it...that's what a training plan is for... if you want to know more about my personal journey to make the leap check out my blog below or my wish journal HERE

 

[DOOM1001]

If you finished your half marathons without issues,you weren't dying and wishing it was over by mile marker 9,you finished healthy and mentally you felt strong then you can do it.My first race ever was the Disney full,no 5K's,10K's or half marathons,I went 10-14 miles several times training for it, 15-16 miles twice and one longer run of about 17-18 miles,by that point I felt just being in Disney running around all the parks would get me through,there's a bunch of Disney marathon youtube videos that will give you an idea of the whole experience,check out Lee Hoedl's Disney marathon weekend videos,he's got them from like 10 years ago through 2014,I don't think he did it this year.The full was actually a lot easier than the 17-18 mile run by myself,you're running through 90% of Disney with 25,000 people, that right there makes it so much easier and entertaining.I never follow any kind of training plan I just try and consistently run on the treadmill and get the long runs in,before doing that first full I've been running 3-5 miles on the treadmill for years at the gym which I also did in addition to those outside long runs so i just knew myself enough to know that I was strong enough to do it.For Goofy this year I pretty much did the same thing,but at that point I was also doing more half marathons in addition to the training runs,but overall it wasn't that much more than I did for my first full but I did know that at that point my body was just more used to the longer distances so when maybe 3 years ago I may have needed 3 days to recover from a half,I knew after doing a bunch of other halfs that I barely felt any stiffness after 13.1 so I was confident enough going into Goofy,the monday after doing the full in the Goofy challenge was another story,I was limping around for a good day and a half,which is why Goofy or Dopey won't be a yearly thing for me.I'm running my first full outside Disney later this year and it's the first race I feel a bit worried of how I'll handle the distance outside Disney,but trust me when I say there's no better place to run your first full than at Disney.If you've already done a half and can get several 8-12 mile runs and at least a couple of 16-18 mile runs in then there's no reason you can't finish the Disney full.

 

[Keels]

I don't, personally, think you can put a timeframe on it. As @FFigawi told me, if you're already thinking about it - you're ready to do it.

I was planning for my first full to be this January at WDW. But, my goals also changed as my training has gone and I decided to go Dopey (like a dummy) instead of just the full marathon.

Since I started running in December '14, I've done three halfs and five 10Ks. I thought my first-ever half marathon would be Disneyland. Right now? On any given weekend, I can roll out of bed (after I set a WAY TOO EARLY alarm) and do a half marathon. Again ... it's not a super-fast one, but I keep shaving serious amounts of time off my race times.

Distances can be scary. I cried HARD before my first 10K, because the most I'd ever done was a 5K and I was nervous. I cried EVEN HARDER two days before my first half marathon, because the most I'd ever done before THAT was a 10K and this was just three months after I started running. Now? Nothing.

Am I scared of a full marathon? Of-freaking-course! But I have enough runners in my life to tell me all their awful stories (um, one pooped themselves in NYC around mile 12 ... right after a bathroom stop), so I know all the terrible things that can go wrong and I'm willing to do it.

The only person that can make this decision is you.

The only person that can train for the race is you.

And the only person running the race will be you.

But ... if you're already thinking about it - maybe it's time to jump and embrace the ultimate challenge.

We're all here to support you!

 

[FFigawi]

If you want to do it, then you're ready for it. I think it's really as simple as that. You don't need years of running and all that before signing up to do a marathon. You just need to want to do it. The caveat to this is that you also need to be ready to commit to the training it will take to get you to and through your first full. That's really the hard part - putting in the time day after day, week after week. Running the race is easy compared to the time and effort you put forth in training.

Since you asked, here's my story of signing up for my first full. Apologies in advance for the wordiness. When my wife and I began dating, she was 3 months away from running her first full. I wasn't running at all. On race day, I was the water boy and biked all over the city with a backpack full of water, gel, socks, shoes, etc, in case she needed anything along the way. She never did. The next year, I signed up to run a 10k with her in April and started running from scratch in February. In May, when she signed up for the marathon again (the marathon is in November), I signed up too for two reasons: 1) I didn't want to be the water boy again, and 2) I figured if she could do it, so could I. It wasn't any more complicated than that. No years of running with some sort of minimum miles, no testing a half first. I thought I could do it, wanted to do it, and went out and did it.

I'm not a big believer in the theory that you should run half(s) first to see if you want to run a full. I think that makes the full seem like more of a challenge than it really is because you get scared by thinking "OMG, I have to run twice as far as I just did?!" Yes, the full is a challenge and a lot of hard work to prepare for, but it's not an insurmountable goal. Anyone can run a marathon as long as they put in the training. It might not be fast or pretty, but it can be done. Since you already think you want to do it, go for it!

 

[nervous1sttimer]

I know people who went from sedentary to full marathon in a year (they run-walked as well). The full is all about the training. As long as you put in the miles beforehand, you will finish and feel great. Good luck!

 

[Ariel484]

This won't be very helpful for you...but I just knew, and I just wanted to do it.

 

[tinkermomto3]

Agree with the above. My husband and I didn't even start WALKING until February 2014. In the beginning of April my husband got it in his head that he really enjoyed running and should sign up for some races. His very first race he signed up for was the full marathon this past January. He only did one other race between April and January (a half in September for proof of time) and was VERY dedicated to training. He finished the full marathon with approximately a 10:30 pace. He's one of those "If I say I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it" people. He's running goofy this year and I'm running the half. We have 3 small children and I know I can't devote the time it takes to train for a full (and honestly I'm not feeling that NEED to run one that would tell me I was ready).

 

[derekleigh]

Like others have said, its really an individual question. Running is more mental than it is physical so if you think you can, you will.

I ran my first full at this year's WDW Marathon weekend. Several factors influenced my decision to finally sign-up for a full:

1. My kids were old enough to be semi self-sufficient and not needing a parent all the time. Doesn't seem like a big deal but when you start getting into 18-23 milers that is a serious chuck of time to be away from one's family.
2. I had run over a half dozen half marathons, most under 2:00. Thus I knew the next step in my gradual evolution as a runner was the full.
3. I knew 2015 MIGHT have been our last trip to WDW for a few years and I wanted Disney to be my first full.

If you're thinking about a full, seems like your heart is telling you you're ready but your brain is questioning.

 

[Slogger]

You have to either WANT to do it or be extremely MOTIVATED to do a full.

One of the hardest parts is actually signing up.....once you do that.....the rest has a way of working itself out. Don't overthink it...if you want to do it....JUST DO IT.

My brief story: DW was an active runner and did multiple 5ks and 4 mile runs each year. We decided to do a 5 mile event. 5 miles seemed like from here to the moon. But we did it, sat around the celebratory dinner table that night and talked about the half marathon and marathon event taking place the next morning......everyone said let's run the half marathon next year, and silly me....I said I think I will just go ahead and run the full. I had a whole year to think about it, train, and get ready.
But then I seem to enjoy a challenge. Best of luck with whatever decision you make.

 

[Slogger]

I forgot to add that running is addictive.
And RunDisney events are addictive x 10 !!!
Once you do your first, you will want to do more.
You may even want to join us for Dopey 2018!!!

 

[Castle2Castle]

I'll echo much of the above around wanting to do it and being ready to commit the time to train for a marathon.

Our path to the Disney marathon: I ran a 10-miler in early 2012, before which another runner told me about how she was getting ready for Marathon Weekend in 2013. I'd never heard of the Disney races as the runDisney brand was only just being created then, but we enjoyed our trips to Disney and looked into it a few weeks later.

Initially we reckoned that I could get another 3 miles out of my legs and that my wife could pick up from zero to do a half marathon over the next 8+ months. But of course the 2013 marathon was an anniversary and we could run through all four parks. Between the generous 16:00/mi pacing requirement and reading up on marathon training, we figured we could shoot for the marathon -- which somehow led us to signing up for Goofy.

We were committed to our Galloway training, although my wife missed a few long runs due to bad shin splints in the fall; I think we could chalk that up to the lack of running experience if you want a cautionary tale for those looking to go from zero to 26.2. But we made it through the weekend -- which was a hot one as mentioned by Barca33Runner -- bringing up the rear of both races. The race conditions were miserable, but we immensely enjoyed our talks with the other runners along the course, running through each of the parks, and ultimately earning our medals to wear throughout the rest of our vacation.

You already have more running experience and development than we did, so I absolutely believe you can do it if you put in the time to extend your mileage for the distance. Our max marathon training runs are 20 miles, which at my wife's pace can easily eat up 6 hours of the day running. Tack on another few hours -- if not the rest of the day -- of serious lethargy recovering from those runs. That, to me, is the biggest challenge of preparing for a marathon. If you can do that, you can complete the marathon.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I was a runner when I was younger, but had totally stopped for about 10 years as my career and young family took over my life. One day my wife made a comment about my weight and I realized that I had gained over 50 lbs. This was really a shock to me as I never noticed my weight gain and was not the least bit concerned about it.

I decided to start running again. Before my running was shorter distances, and for speed. I was young and in great shape, so it was certainly not for "exercise". Since running now was for something different, I did some reading and decided to run a marathon. Not having taken a running step in a decade, I signed up for a marathon 6 months away. I told everyone that I had registered and asked them all to help me stay on track by asking how my diet and training were going frequently. This would force me to do the work or lie to everyone, and lying to people that I loved was not an option.

I bought the book "No Need for Speed : A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running" and followed the included training plan. I finished the marathon (Myrtle Beach), running every step of the first 20 miles, and most of the remaining miles (though the last 6 miles felt like death). There was a great deal of pain after that run and I swore that I would never run another marathon, but I was hooked on the training. I have run many marathons since, but it is still the daily runs that I love most.

 

[Z-Knight]

Dont think of it as a full marathon - think of it as just nine 5Ks...you can do it!

Btw, I signed up for the 2016 Dopey never having run more than a 5K...and now I'll be running 48.6 miles (sixteen 5Ks...ouch). I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT! That's how excited I am about it and if I have to crawl at the end and drag what is left of me over the finish, so be it. I got into running to lose weight so that I could get some courage to ask someone out - I never got the chance, but now running is something I do for fun and I can't imagine anything being more fun than Disney.

 

[bumbershoot]

How did you decide it was the right time to train for and run your first marathon?

Well, you're already training for it, right? If we train for a 5K we're not JUST training for that 5K. We can always extend the miles. So you're already in training for whatever you end up doing.

If you WANT to do a marathon, then go for it.

I have absolutely utterly ZERO interest in running anything more than a Half (and I don't really want to go 13.1 miles as it is), so I'm not training for a marathon. But YOU already are, because that is your goal.

 

[LSUlakes]

The good news is the upcoming marathon is only 78-80% full, so you do have a little time left to make your decision. It looks like your getting 20-25 MPW which is a great idea during the summer. As it cools down you'll have a solid base to start marathon training. I think you are ready to take on the challenge. The training is the most difficult part, the race is really the reward for your hard work.

I ran my first marathon a little over 1.5 years after I started running. A few things I learned from that first marathon. If the course has hills, run as many as you can find. (very few hills in South Louisiana). Your goal should be to finish and not to concentrate on time. Sunscreen! The last 6.2 miles is tough, but exciting because each step forward is a new PR in distance. (Assuming your longest training run is a 20 miler). Go for it and good luck!

 

[Waiting2goback]

As it was said earlier, you aren't ever ready for your first until you do it. It's like having kids. People tell you what it's like but until you experience it for yourself you don't really know. It doesn't mean you can't do it. And you will most likely make mistakes along the way. But, if you decide to do it and want it bad enough you will make it across the finish line and it was be one of the best feelings of your life.

My story: My wife told me she wanted a divorce in the fall of 2013. She told me I was a fat, lazy, slob during the process. I was 250lbs of unhappy and unhealthy. My life was turned upside down and at this point I had been trying so hard to save the marriage that I had lost myself. I didn't know who I even was anymore.

So, I needed to get back to finding myself. I also wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone. I turned to Disney for both. I love Disney. I joined this site. I decided that the getting out of my comfort zone was going to be signing up for a Disney race. I knew I would do the work if it meant I could go to Disney. I picked the 2014 Tower of Terror for one simple reason. It was the shortest of the major races. I didn't think I could even do 10, never mind longer. I decided to sign up in March before I had run a step. Then I did a 10K proof of time race in June and as I was running it I decided I could do a marathon. So, I signed up for a marathon in October, just 2 weeks after the ToT.

So, I went from fat, lazy, slob to marathoner in just 7 months. It was hard. I didn't train as much as I should have (one of the mistakes I referred to), and my time was awful as a result. But, I could have quit and I didn't.

Now I am addicted to running. I am doing the 2016 Disney full marathon. And I have set a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon this year as well. All of this after I turned 40. So you can do this if you want to. You just need to commit, put the time in, and get ready to feel unbelievable when you cross that finish line in January.

 

[Keels]

As it was said earlier, you aren't ever ready for your first until you do it. It's like having kids. People tell you what it's like but until you experience it for yourself you don't really know. It doesn't mean you can't do it. And you will most likely make mistakes along the way. But, if you decide to do it and want it bad enough you will make it across the finish line and it was be one of the best feelings of your life.

My story: My wife told me she wanted a divorce in the fall of 2013. She told me I was a fat, lazy, slob during the process. I was 250lbs of unhappy and unhealthy. My life was turned upside down and at this point I had been trying so hard to save the marriage that I had lost myself. I didn't know who I even was anymore.

So, I needed to get back to finding myself. I also wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfort zone. I turned to Disney for both. I love Disney. I joined this site. I decided that the getting out of my comfort zone was going to be signing up for a Disney race. I knew I would do the work if it meant I could go to Disney. I picked the 2014 Tower of Terror for one simple reason. It was the shortest of the major races. I didn't think I could even do 10, never mind longer. I decided to sign up in March before I had run a step. Then I did a 10K proof of time race in June and as I was running it I decided I could do a marathon. So, I signed up for a marathon in October, just 2 weeks after the ToT.

So, I went from fat, lazy, slob to marathoner in just 7 months. It was hard. I didn't train as much as I should have (one of the mistakes I referred to), and my time was awful as a result. But, I could have quit and I didn't.

Now I am addicted to running. I am doing the 2016 Disney full marathon. And I have set a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon this year as well. All of this after I turned 40. So you can do this if you want to. You just need to commit, put the time in, and get ready to feel unbelievable when you cross that finish line in January.

Not to hijack @MeridaAndAngus' thread ...

But you're a real inspiration, @Waiting2goback. Congratulations on all of your accomplishments so far!