Exactly, there are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to target races at different lengths; and rarely is it that they couldn't complete a longer race.
In my opinion, a 5k is the perfect race for middle aged people to target as a way of staying in shape, can easily be done while pursuing other goals, and the training requirements are not that intensive; but at a competitive level is still incredibly challenging, and the biomechanics of some runners will make them better suited to a 5k race than a 10k or longer race.
And even if they can't run a marathon, who cares? Maybe they are improving but haven't reached that level yet, maybe they're a more casual distance runner who wants to partake in a large event and never intend to compete in a marathon.
I wouldn't go that far, but I think a half-marathon is overrated compared to a marathon. The marathon is so much harder to race, not just because of the distance, but because of the risk of glycogen depletion. You don't have to worry about that in a half if you're properly trained.
This is a ridiculous take.
It's like saying someone doing a 5k is admitting they can't do a 10k.
Or someone doing a marathon is admitting they can't do an unltramarathon.
Exactly, there are a lot of reasons why someone would choose to target races at different lengths; and rarely is it that they couldn't complete a longer race.
In my opinion, a 5k is the perfect race for middle aged people to target as a way of staying in shape, can easily be done while pursuing other goals, and the training requirements are not that intensive; but at a competitive level is still incredibly challenging, and the biomechanics of some runners will make them better suited to a 5k race than a 10k or longer race.
And even if they can't run a marathon, who cares? Maybe they are improving but haven't reached that level yet, maybe they're a more casual distance runner who wants to partake in a large event and never intend to compete in a marathon.
The goal is to win the race not complete the distance.
That's not true. A lot of people do marathons as a personal challenge to themselves. They don't care about how they place that much
If we go with that methodology then OP is wrong because the goal now is the distance and the Half Marathon is a defined distance.
Well OP is for sure wrong
Why are you running marathons they are pointless . You need to do ultra marathon
yeah if someone tells me they ran a half marathon im like "ok...... not impressed"
I wouldn't go that far, but I think a half-marathon is overrated compared to a marathon. The marathon is so much harder to race, not just because of the distance, but because of the risk of glycogen depletion. You don't have to worry about that in a half if you're properly trained.
I ran a half marathon at the midway point of my marathon training.
Was I a failure when I ran my half at 1:36:45?
Yes.
I trained for a half-marathon not a marathon. By your logic people who run marathons are failures because they didn't choose to run 100-milers.
The whole thing confuses me. Like is a marathon a certain distance always? Like isnt a half marathon just a short marathon? Probably not
A marathon is 26.2 miles. I'll leave it to you to figure out how long a half marathon is
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Op, have you run a marathon and if so, what time did you run it in?