When I was 18 years old I did a marathon. I was very fit and well-trained. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Conditions were great. The route was well supported. I was going well and at the half-way point ran near to my PB, however, faded after about 20 miles and just missed a sub-3 hours! (I think that must have been the “wall”). Many decades later I ran another one and went much slower. I think that is a natural part of getting older, having more time constraints for training etc. I think during the training you work out whether it is something you are going to enjoy or not. I also think that in the “old days” people were far better prepared for doing a marathon but there are many training programs out there now that do not adequately prepare people (especially the older runner). They are generally too lax on the long slow miles that you really need to be able to cover comfortably and generally expect you to be able to go from nothing to marathon distance in less than 6 months. I personally think it takes the average person much longer to comfortably run a marathon distance, and a much slower build up is necessary so as not to hurt yourself.

It would take incredible discipline to train and run in a marathon. Would be good to hear from running marathon mums.

no i have never participated in a marathon though. i don’t have the time to dedicate to training for it lol. too many kids