Advice for overweight marathoner?

In article said:

I am seriously out of shape and overweight, and pretty unathletic as well (never played any
organized sports in school). A couple months ago I set a goal of completing the NY marathon in
2004. I began training in late October doing 14 mile weeks, walking 3.5 miles
4x/week, and slowly running more and more of that. In two months I am up to 2.5m running/1mi
walking. My short term goal is to get to about 20-25m/week comfortably by March and then switch
over to a more formal marathon training program.

My question is whether this is hopeless? I 42yo, am a large person (6'4", 270lbs) with extremely
flat feet (no arch whatsoever). I'm hoping the running will get me down to my college weight of
215 or so by the fall, which should help with the strain, but it just seems my body type is so
fundamentally wrong for running that I'm kind of looking for encouragement that this is even a
reasonable goal.

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

I'd recommend spending a year running shorter races and losing some weight before attempting a
marathon. It will probably take a year or so to get back down to 215, and you'll need to diet in
addition to your running to even do that.

If you live near New York city, my recommendation would be to join the New York Roadrunners club
(now if not sooner -- I think you need to be a member from Jan 04 to qualify for 05), run your 9
qualifying races which will make you eligible for 2005. To be eligible for 2004, you have to win a
marathon lottery. Not sure off the top of my head if you can even enter that at this stage.

An open-entry race near NY to think about is the Philadelphia marathon. It's an open-entry race and
it's an easier course, and later in the year so the weather is better. But you know, it's not the
New York marathon.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

(John) said:

My question is whether this is hopeless? I 42yo, am a large person (6'4", 270lbs) with extremely
flat feet (no arch whatsoever).

Apparently a cross dresser too Paulina/John.

Yes, buffalo can jog in marathons. And dwarfs can play in the NBA. And blind folks can drive race
cars. And...

John said:

I am seriously out of shape and overweight, and pretty unathletic as well (never played any
organized sports in school). A couple months ago I set a goal of completing the NY marathon in
2004. I began training in late October doing 14 mile weeks, walking 3.5 miles
4x/week, and slowly running more and more of that. In two months I am up to 2.5m running/1mi
walking. My short term goal is to get to about 20-25m/week comfortably by March and then switch
over to a more formal marathon training program.

My question is whether this is hopeless? I 42yo, am a large person (6'4", 270lbs) with extremely
flat feet (no arch whatsoever). I'm hoping the running will get me down to my college weight of
215 or so by the fall, which should help with the strain, but it just seems my body type is so
fundamentally wrong for running that I'm kind of looking for encouragement that this is even a
reasonable goal.

I agree with the consensus that aiming for the marathon in 2004 is much too soon. Your weight,
unalthletic(your term) are additional lines of difficulty. Spend 2004 allowing your body to adapt
slowly to the changes. Rhetorical but what is the hurry? Set a shorter goal such as a 10 mile or
half marathon in the fall and if you like to run in the winter( a good time of the year foe long
runs) train for a spring 2005 marathon. You should have a good solid year or more of training before
you undertake a marathon.

--
Doug Freese "Caveat Lector" [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Yes, buffalo can jog in marathons. And dwarfs can play in the NBA. And blind folks can drive race
cars. And...

And...androgynous anencephalics with both thumbs up their ass can still type newsgroup messages...?

Dont take advice from treadmill joggers.

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article said:

I am seriously out of shape and overweight, and pretty unathletic as well (never played any
organized sports in school). A couple months ago I set a goal of completing the NY marathon in
2004. I began training in late October doing 14 mile weeks, walking 3.5 miles
4x/week, and slowly running more and more of that. In two months I am up to 2.5m running/1mi
walking. My short term goal is to get to about 20-25m/week comfortably by March and then
switch over to a more formal marathon training program.

My question is whether this is hopeless? I 42yo, am a large person (6'4", 270lbs) with extremely
flat feet (no arch whatsoever). I'm hoping the running will get me down to my college weight of
215 or so by the fall, which should help with the strain, but it just seems my body type is so
fundamentally wrong for running that I'm kind of looking for encouragement that this is even a
reasonable goal.

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

I'd recommend spending a year running shorter races and losing some weight before attempting a
marathon. It will probably take a year or so to get back down to 215, and you'll need to diet in
addition to your running to even do that.

If you live near New York city, my recommendation would be to join the New York Roadrunners club
(now if not sooner -- I think you need to be a member from Jan 04 to qualify for 05), run your 9
qualifying races which will make you eligible for 2005. To be eligible for 2004, you have to win a
marathon lottery. Not sure off the top of my head if you can even enter that at this stage.

An open-entry race near NY to think about is the Philadelphia marathon. It's an open-entry race and
it's an easier course, and later in the year so the weather is better. But you know, it's not the
New York marathon.

Cheers,

Dont take advice from treadmill joggers.

Donovan Rebbechi said:

In article said:

I am seriously out of shape and overweight, and pretty unathletic as well (never played any
organized sports in school). A couple months ago I set a goal of completing the NY marathon in
2004. I began training in late October doing 14 mile weeks, walking 3.5 miles
4x/week, and slowly running more and more of that. In two months I am up to 2.5m running/1mi
walking. My short term goal is to get to about 20-25m/week comfortably by March and then
switch over to a more formal marathon training program.

My question is whether this is hopeless? I 42yo, am a large person (6'4", 270lbs) with extremely
flat feet (no arch whatsoever). I'm hoping the running will get me down to my college weight of
215 or so by the fall, which should help with the strain, but it just seems my body type is so
fundamentally wrong for running that I'm kind of looking for encouragement that this is even a
reasonable goal.

Thanks for your thoughts on this!

I'd recommend spending a year running shorter races and losing some weight before attempting a
marathon. It will probably take a year or so to get back down to 215, and you'll need to diet in
addition to your running to even do that.

If you live near New York city, my recommendation would be to join the New York Roadrunners club
(now if not sooner -- I think you need to be a member from Jan 04 to qualify for 05), run your 9
qualifying races which will make you eligible for 2005. To be eligible for 2004, you have to win a
marathon lottery. Not sure off the top of my head if you can even enter that at this stage.

An open-entry race near NY to think about is the Philadelphia marathon. It's an open-entry race and
it's an easier course, and later in the year so the weather is better. But you know, it's not the
New York marathon.

Cheers,

"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

It has close to 4000ft of elevation gain with a 1500-ft uphill just before mid-point - a lot
hillier than typical big city marathons.

LOL! Is there an "understatement of the year" award category?

DrLith said:

"Dot" <dot.h@#att.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

It has close to 4000ft of elevation gain with a 1500-ft uphill just before mid-point - a lot
hillier than typical big city marathons.

LOL! Is there an "understatement of the year" award category?

I'll have to admit I get a chuckle out of some of the course maps of "hilly" city marathons 🙂 I
usually put my glasses on or magnify the image. The flip side of Equinox marathon (oldest in Alaska,
about 41 yrs) is the new one in Anchorage (small, but growing) - where they claim to be flatter than
most big city marathons - almost apologetically. It's just not Alaskan, but there's a lot of newbies
in the state these days.

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people" -Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope