18 Months To A Marathon Doable?

by Danielle
(UK)

Is it feasible - through hard work and determination of course - for a beginner to be ready for a marathon within 18 months?

At this point I'll be 24 is this too old?

I feel most athletes and avid runners are at their best when they are younger...?

I know I'm not old but I feel I have come into this passion way too late?

Danielle


Answer by Dominique:
Hi Danielle,
Thanks for your marathon running training question.

Roughly 18 months to get ready for your marathon is fine, for most of us. I'll share a few thoughts on this:

1. Are you too old for a marathon?
2. A plan to get ready for marathon training
3. Marathon training

Are You Too Old for a Marathon

First of all, on the question of age. You are absolutely fine. Many people pick up running later in life and run their first marathon in their 30s or 40s.

A friend of mine didn't start running until he was late 40s. He set his marathon PB (Personal Best) last year when he was 64 years old. So, you have plenty of time.

Even when you look at the elite runners. Some of them are really quite old when they set their best times in the marathon. Like a while back we had the Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie. He was the best in the world in pretty much all 5k and 10k races for years and years and years. Won almost every race he did for years. Only in the last few years, in his late thirties, did he start doing marathons. And how! He established a marathon world record!

For sprinters, it is pretty much over by the time they hit 28-30. At that point the intensity of the short distances and the training starts to get to them. But you can do marathons for the rest of your life.

A Plan to Get Ready for Marathon Training

Now step 1 is to get you ready for marathon training. In my view, you can start doing marathon training when you can run a half marathon. That's a minimum acceptable level, I think, to then start training to finish a marathon.

A simple approach to get ready for marathon training., assuming you are starting with zero fitness and zero running experience is the following.

1.Beginners Running Program 3
Start with Beginners Running Program 3 which gets you ready to run 30 minutes non-stop in three months.

2. 10k Running Program
Then you could move on to the 10k Running Program which takes another twelve weeks and gets you ready for your first 10k.

3. Half Marathon Running Program
After doing your first 10k, you are then ready to move on to the Half Marathon Running Program. By the time you finish, another three months will have passed.

So, that's the first nine months covered. If everything goes smoothly. But it's totally doable. I'd recommend doing some strength training to ensure you build up a resilient body.

Marathon Training

In theory, you will do your first half marathon nine months from now. Let's assume a bit of delays and a few issues and let's make it twelve months.

You then still have six months to get ready for your first marathon. You can get the support from somebody like me, a running coach, to get you ready for a challenge like that. See my coaching page for details.

You can also find running programs online that can get you ready for your first marathon. Just keep in mind that many of these programs start all the way at the bottom, e.g. with a long run of 3-5 miles. And they then build up, quite agressively, to get you to do one or two long runs of about 20 miles.

When you have gone through the prep I laid out before, you will be in a much better position, you will have done a number of 10-13 mile runs already. This will allow you to start off at a higher level and build up way more gradually to those 20-milers.

I'd recommend reading the marathon training tips page and other marathon pages on this site for further information.

Whatever happens, just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. Run regularly, day after day, week after week, month after month and you will get there.

Best of luck.
Kind regards,
Dominique