First time I ran the MCM you could still sign up the day before the race. Now it's a ridiculous lottery system that fills up nine mos. before the race and they reserve thousands of slots for charity teams, which then solicit the lottery losers and make them raise or pay $1000 to get one of their reserved slots. I've run the MCM three times and will never do it again, even if I ever get back into distance running. Seeing a bunch of walkers with the Team In Training shirts on when real runners couldn't get in drives me nuts. But I digress.

Best marathon I ever did was Berlin. I slept in my rental car for two hrs. the night before the race, it poured rain the whole time I ran and I had nowhere to change afterwards, just got back in the car and drove to Leipzig. Sure slept well that night.

I did the Chicago marathon recently. No training. I have run, most my life, but took the past year off due to job obligations. So it was somewhat cold turkey for me with the marathon. I finished with no issues.

From the post I have to presume that you like I was simply content with finishing and not trying for any sort of time that could be considered competitive. I considered it to be something fun to do.

The body is a machine. Put fuel into it regularly and keep under your cardiovascular limit and one foot in front of the other and you should have no problem finishing a marathon. Enjoy!!!

In ultra-distance running the mantra is "how slow can you run". For marathoners with little or no training this is key to achieve finishing the run.

From another angle, consider this. Hiking. Folks go hiking up in the mountains for hours with no problem. What I'm trying to bring up is consider thinking in terms of time spent doing strenuous exercise not distance. Hiking up in the mountains usually is a strenuous 8+ hour event. Marathon running takes anywhere from 4-6 hours for the non-competitive. If you can hike you can run a marathon.

Good luck and enjoy!!!

Hash House
 

Rick, it's not quite as bad as that -- the registration only opens 7 months or so ahead of time. And yes, you typically have to get to the website in the first few days to get a spot. However, it's not really difficult to find a bib through craigslist or asking running friends for spares even up to the last second. I have my own problems with marathoning and the running community. But expressing them typically gets me labeled as an elitist, so I'll refrain.

Esel, I was trying for the best time I could do. It's tough to define "competitive" when there are 20k finishers and the winner is running 40 minutes or so faster than I could every really hope to.

Austin, On On!! I usually do 2 hashes a week. We have a very strong hashing community in DC. If you're ever in town, drop me a PM and we can meet up at one.

Well, I was never a real competitve runner. You've met me and know I'm not built like those Kenyan cheetahs that win all the races. My PR is a 3:40, respectable for my build, and I did run Berlin and MCM about three weeks apart and crushed them both. But I have no room to claim I was a serious contender. It just drives me nuts to get those damn postacards in the mail saying something like "Couldn't get into the MCM? Run with us and raise money for this or that". Yeah, I couldn't get in because those non-existent teams get so many reserved spots and then use them to find runners and raise money. Why not just have a charity marathon for those folks and leave the MCM to the runners who just want to run?

It's a business. The five biggest marathons in the US are New York, Chicago, Honolulu, LA, and MCM. Except for LA, those are all heavily advertised by Team in Training. So why wouldn't someone running a marathon reserve spots for them? You get TONS of free publicity.

So what if the average finishing time has ballooned by an hour since 1970 (3:32 to 4:32 for men in 2005)? So what if 30% of your field either doesn't bother to show up or doesn't finish?

Eh, my elitism is showing. A couple of good reads:
http://www.marathonguide.com/features/Articles/2005RecapOverview.cfm
http://www.slate.com/id/2149867/

i fail to see how boston marathon does not make that top 5 list but nevermind... i ran it once. only once.... will prolly never do it again, but hope to someday run another one (something 'flatter' ;) ). back then i was young and dumb, didn't train, wasn't even a runner... but, straight out of hs, in good shape, no vices etc etc...

want to run one more sometime in the future if for no other reason than that it would make me get myself into a healthy routine. forget smoking, drinking, late nights... the whole wretched (but fun) lot.

that's a great finishing time and an even more impressive avg, dave! i hope that someday, in the far far future, i manage to squeeze in under 4hrs... CONGRATS!

Second link was great! Favorite line:

"The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, for one, has bands performing every mile to keep bored runners entertained. Maybe if people ran faster they wouldn't need Zeppelin cover bands to keep boredom at bay."

I ran that one in San Diego a while back and Bill Rogers was the master of ceremonies. I remember getting on the plane at Dulles and seeing all these giddy girls with their Team in Training shirts on, carrying water bottles and talking like they were about to compete in the Olympics. Alas, that was my worst marathon, as I got stranded in the desert the previous day and got severely sunburned. The whole race I felt like someone was holding a hot blow dryer over my body.

}{. Boston's #6 on the list. It's probably only that far down because you have to qualify for it. In my age group, you have to do 3:10 to qualify. That's fast.

ahhh... that makes sense... i was pissed about that... nearly died from the experience and didn't even have a f*&*)*ing number to show for it.

but when i heard i first have to run one two weeks before the real one just to run w/ a number, i gave up on wanting *that* souvenir very quickly :D