I am thinking of trying to run my first marathon since joining the club, and I wanted to do the Manchester Marathon on the 10th of April, and I would like to go under three hours.

I have already entered the Cardiff half which is two weeks before on the 26th March and would want to properly race it aswell as it will be a quick course.

Am I going to be able to recover in that two weeks or do you think come marathon day I would still be feeling it and it would be a waste of an entry and training?


Thanks

Dan

Hi Dan
I've sent you an email with my thoughts.
Tim

Dan

My view would be that it wouldn't be wise to go eyeballs out in a h-m so close to a full marathon. I would leave a gap of least three weeks. Two weeks before a marathon you'll be in the tapering phase.

However, it's each to their own and others may advise differently. Maybe Alex Cowin is the man to ask for advice - he's just run his third sub-3 hr marathon of the year!

Nige

I'm with nige on this...
If you have already paid for Cardiff, I'd say run it at marathon pace, that would be a good tapering session

Good luck

Agree with Nige and Simo. A half marathon eyeballs out two weeks before a full marathon doesn't leave much time to recover. I'd usually aim to leave at least three weeks between a half and a marathon to maximise your chances of performing well at the marathon. As Simo says, if you've already entered it then you could use the half as a marathon paced run.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will leave the Manchester marathon and enter the Rock and Roll or Chester instead, Need to get some races under my belt first as haven't done much for a couple of months!

Don't get too hung up on the 3 hour goal especially if you haven't raced for a while. Have lesser goals in case it doesn't all go to plan. London qualification is still 3:05 for instance.