I have run five marathons and think of myself as a fairly regular guy that enjoys running. Non-runners and aspiring marathon runners often ask me, “How hard is it to run a marathon?” or “How much harder is to run a marathon than distance xyz?”
This is how I explain running the marathon distance.
Running a half-marathon (13.1 miles) is twice as hard as running a 10 km (6.2 miles) race.
Running 20 miles is twice as hard as running a half-marathon.
Running a marathon (26.2 miles) is twice as hard as running 20 miles.
So if my math is correct running a marathon is 8 times harder than running a 10 km race. It might seem illogical but the marathon training regimen makes running the first half of a marathon (20 miles) easy. The second half of a marathon (6.2 miles) is exceptionally difficult. Math buster warning: running 6.2 miles after just running 20 miles is exponentially more difficult than just running 6.2 miles.
Have you run a marathon? How do you explain the difficulty to a non-marathon runner?
Nonetheless, with the right preparation and determination I think anyone can finish a marathon. Finally, it is during the last half of the marathon that more cow bell helps keep me moving forward.
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