Can “anyone” really do a marathon?

Probably. But I'm not sure it does the body any good pounding tarmac for 5/6/7 hrs. (Plus the training). The amount of people I know who have knackered themselves doing marathons and the training is ridiculous.

Shorter runs and sensible trail runs are probably better for health.

I ran the London marathon last year aged 66. They give you a really good training plan and it’s well organised. I was slower than when I was younger but the atmosphere is brilliant!

The whole point of the human endurance running is that we could run down ANY prey. in the long run, ( literally!) so no, it wasn't limited to a certain number of km a day, it was until we caught whatever we were chasing. And if that was an ungulate, it was likely to be in the tens of miles, and it was likely to be all ages and both sexes running.

But do you really think the tens of thousands of people who ran the LM today are unhealthy extremists? Not ordinary, fitter-than-average people having a brilliant time?

depends on how much effort you are putting in. I have a running mode I call "armchair" in my head, and it is slow and comfortable and I just think of it as sitting in an armchair watching the world go by. I can do that for hours.

Of course once you start adding hills and timings, and speed, everything changes.

Not ‘anyone’, but with your current experience I would think that you could, unless you got injured, knees weren’t up to it etc.

I had done several halves before I thought about marathon training and still found the step up quite hard, mostly in terms of the time commitment needed for training. I followed a training plan from a book called ‘Four Months to a Four Hour Marathon’ to the letter. It really worked for me - different plans for desired times between 4 and 5 hrs. I came in at just over 4.5 hrs and was in the top 25% of women at London, despite not being a particularly athletic type in many ways. Being very stubborn helps!

True @Tophelleborine. And interestingly, I'm NOT a natural runner. I'm a natural swimmer. I took up running very late and after a few years it sort of clicked. I think because it was sold to us as a sport, rather than recreation, I thought it mattered how fast I went or what distance. And since I wasn't fast, I assumed it wasn't for me.

Now I have a happy 30-60 minutes, three times a week, plodding through a forest, listening to music, clearing my brain. I lope along, don't care how fast, don't care what distance. Go for tea with the group, chat about nonsense. Which is probably as close to hunter gatherer as you can get!

A lot of the menfolk I know are all comparing runs, hurting themselves, shaving a minute or two off their time, buggering their feet, moaning. Training for this or that, never just keeping fit, always trying to get fitter. Honestly I swear my DH runs at activities full-pelt, until he hurts himself then moves to something else. Running, weight lifting, martial arts. He's much better than me at all of them, but he always does something to himself.

I don't think anything is healthy to the extremes. You'll find former marathons runners who thinks the same as well.

Haha this is me too - l do love watching it though and it is inspiring from the comfort of my sofa!!

No worries. I totally take your point, and I do agree that covering 26.2 miles of London roads in sub-4 hours is a very long way from our ancestral running habits.

I just generally take issue with the "don't run long distances, it's really bad for you" narrative, when humans are more sedentary than we've ever been (in wealthier nations even more so), and that has a negative impact on our mental and physical well-being on so many levels. We're meant to move, an awful lot more than most of us do. Anyone who has ambitions to move more, and faster, should be celebrated and encouraged, not put off.

It’s whether you have the time and are willing to do the training imo. I would need to be doing 2 hour long runs even to train for a half marathon I think and I just don’t want to. It would be fantastic on the day to run London especially or perhaps another well supported marathon but only if the training had been done and so it would feel like a victory lap.

DH has done 3 marathons and he is much faster than me so it isn’t so bad but it still takes big chunks out of Sunday mornings every week for months plus all the shorter evening runs etc. A big commitment that affects family life.

Yes, anyone without disabilities can do a marathon, with training. The whole human body is designed for long distance running, we can run further than any other animal on the planet. This is why the Man versus Horse marathon cant be longer than 22 miles, not the full marathon length - to be an actual competition.

Any further, and it is unfair on the horses, they don't stand a chance.

Yes, I think anyone without considerable health issues or disabilities could train to run or run/walk one. Most able bodied people could train to run one reasonably well with enough time and support. But I don’t think running is necessarily the best sport for everyone.

Sorry @Tophelleborine I totally x-posted. I agree it's really interesting.

Not a chance for me
I ran for a club as a sprinter but I have never ever been able to do any form of distance. Even when doing 100m/200m competitively, I would struggle doing 5k
Now I'm overweight I can still beat most people in the gym at 100m!

My friend on the other hand can do virtually no training and bang out an ultra like it's a walk in the park

Humans evolved to run very long distances, slowly

@Tophelleborine Humans are designed to run, there's no question about that. I do question 'very long' though. Somewhere in the region of 5-20k would seem 'normal' for hunter gatherers in a day. But hunts weren't every day things for many groups. Scavenging would also have been important and that involves getting to a carcass quickly than bigger predators, somewhere in the region of 30 minutes. Again, nowhere near a marathon.

Gathering was the most reliable, everyday source of calories. Hunting may have been fairly sporadic and seasonal. Once a week or less in many cases. And hunter gatherers were pretty leisurely. A few hours of 'work' a day if that. Walking long distance is probably far far more typical. Foraging/gathering would have taken place every day.

That's also assuming who the typical hunter gatherer was/is. A 20 yo male Australopithecus would be different to a 40 yo female Inuit.

And yes, running marathons is better than being obese in terms of health. But ideal, surely, is somewhere between those two.

Yes, you're definitely right about the stopping and starting thing. I bet they would have covered marathon distance and more though!

That's what real long distance running is like for the vast majority of people who do it though - you're not going flat out in zone 4/5 all the time.

There's a book called "born to run" which is really eye-opening in terms of reframing our relationship to running. It's completely changed my attitude towards it, and my enjoyment of running has increased tenfold.

I ran my first marathon last weekend at the age of 55. I’d spent a couple of years doing 10ks, then last year ran a couple of half’s .

The key is to build up gradually, and listen to your body. There is probably an element of luck - anyone can suffer an injury.

The thing is - I really love running. I love the headspace it gives me, and getting out in nature, so events are an excuse to disappear on my runs.

My marathon didn’t go to plan - I got very bad cramps at mile 19 - and I finished in about 5:16 when I’d been hoping for under 5. I think I need more strength training. And yes, I’ve entered the ballot for London.

You absolutely can! I have ran about 10 now and an ultra, I started on couch 2 5K and progressed from there. I am what I would call a plodder, my fastest marathon is 4 hours 35mins, slowest was about 5 hours 30 mins. The sense of achievement and accomplishment is like nothing I have ever experienced. Definitely get one booked, the training can be exhausting (I only ran 3 times pew week btw) but absolutely achievable

I've had a go at reading that but my brain doesn't cope very well with scientific academic language unfortunately!

I think there's running and there's running. I don't doubt that there are people who approach marathon running in a way that puts their heart under unnecessary strain, but I don't think it has to be that way.

I run exclusively on fells and trails, so it's a very different sort of exercise, and most training is done in zone 2 - so not raising heart rate excessively for long periods of time. In addition, the mixed terrain and varying gradient is so much softer on your musculoskeletal system.

I'm no sort of scientist so light well be talking out of my arse, but the fell running community is populated by lean, energetic people with low heart rates (because we do talk about our heart rates!) and who don't seem to get ill all that often. Many people in their 60s and 70s still running regularly, albeit not very fast!

I couldn't do a road marathon I don't think - I'd struggle with the pounding on my joints, and I'd get bored. But I'd happily run (slowly) all day in the hills.

Edited for typo.

Oh that is interesting about the hunter-gatherer thing. Mind you I highly doubt our ancestors were running 26 miles (or whatever a marathon is) to hunt prey!! The energy expended wouldn't warrant it, they'd have to eat so much to regain the calories lost over such a long run that they'd need to be hunting and eating a woolly mammoth! Yes they hunted far and wide across fields but they'd take breaks, not non-stop running on concrete/tarmac for several hours.

Obviously being overweight brings health issues, that goes without saying really.

Thanks. It is a shame, if he'd stuck to 10k he'd have been fine

Yes, you can. If you (a) want to, and have the right mental approach to the training and (b) do the training.

It's not easy - it's months of hard work. But if you want to do it and go about it the right way, then it's doable.