Tapering for a marathon...

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Tapering for a marathon...

Pretender
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
Kansas, OK
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 100

Tapering for a marathon... Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 8:33 am

I'm running the OKC Memorial on April 24th. It's relatively flat and fast. The Hogeye Marathon in Fayetteville is April 3rd (3 weeks earlier). Some guys at work are going to run a four man relay at the Hogeye. One of them has injured their knee and now they want me to take his place. It sounds like alot of fun, but I dont' know. My leg of the relay would only be 6.6 miles. I'm scheduled to run a 20 mile training run that weekend. The Hogeye is an absolutely brutal coure (the elevation map looks like an EKG graph!), so would a hard run hilly 6.6 miles be enough? After that weekend, it's all tapering until OKC. I have a call into the race director and have asked about letting me do the relay and then just unofficially keep running for probably a half marathon. What are your thoughts?

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Tapering for a marathon... Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:47 am

I think if you're taking your prep for the OKC Marathon super seriously, and want to extract your absolute best possible time there, it would be best to skip the relay. But in the real world of hobby runners that we inhabit, I'd say sure, go for it! It sounds like it'll be a lot of fun to run with your friends. There's the risk you might twist an ankle or something, or simply over-exert yourself, but you'd still have three weeks to recover afterwards. A hilly 6.6 mile run won't give you the same training effect as a 20 mile long run. Tacking on some extra mileage, as you suggested, sounds like a good idea. It still won't be the same, since you'll be running 6.6 at race pace and on a hilly course too, but in the big scheme of things one modified workout isn't going to affect you that much. On several occasions, I've raced a half marathon 3 or 4 weeks before racing a full marathon. In fact, I did it this time around too. I don't think it's unreasonable.

Pretender
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
Kansas, OK
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 100

Re: Tapering for a marathon... Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:17 pm

Thanks. I got a call back from the race director. He suggested I run the first leg of the relay and do a half marathon. The half marathon is going out 1/4 of the way and turning around. I don't know. Two of the three other guys in the relay are pretty slow so they are just trying to finish. So I wouldn't necessarily run that fast for the 6.6. If I did, I couldn't do the half, that's for sure. It sounds like fun, but more $$$. He said I could just keep running as far as I want just as long as I didn't cross the finish line and mess up the time. I will give it some more thought.

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