# From c25k to Marathon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-c25k-to-marathon/493605>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 19, 2009, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-c25k-to-marathon/493605 "2009-04-19T08:44:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Klutz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captain_klutz/32/4993_2.png) [@Captain\_Klutz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Klutz)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-c25k-to-marathon/493605/1 "2009-04-19T08:44:55Z")

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Well, I did it. Last October I came across the [couch to 5k thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=483342) and thought I would give it a go. It got me running a full 5k for the first time ever. Today was the annual [Canberra Marathon](http://www.canberramarathon.com.au/). I trained for it, and managed to complete it.

I didn’t set any speed records, my overall time was a bit under 4:33. I did the first half in under 2:01, so there was some severe fade over the second half. It seems I made the rare mistake of going out too fast.

The in-hindsight-too-fast-start was more due to overconfidence than excitement: I had recently run 10k in under 50 minutes, and the various calculators suggested that a 4 hour time was possible. Even Hal Higdon’s suggestion of “10k time times 5 for first time marathoners” suggested a time of 4:10. I think we need a factor for “overconfident first time marathoners who missed some training runs through injury”.

I was planing to join the 4:00 pace group, but I got to the start only a few minutes before the starting gun (damn toilet queue) and couldn’t get through to them. I eventually lost sight of them, and I knew I was fading badly when the 4:15 group passed me, and later the 4:30 group.

Still, I’m very happy to finish in one piece, although my legs are complaining a fair bit. And I have a target for next time: train better and break 4:00. I’ve also now got my first race t-shirt (what, doesn’t everyone do a marathon as their first race?)

Life’s a funny thing: running wasn’t anywhere on my radar, then one day I see a thread on the Straight Dope and seven months later I run a marathon. I think I’d better avoid any threads on skydiving or mountaineering…

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**Author:** ![svrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@svrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svrider)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-c25k-to-marathon/493605/2 "2009-04-19T09:05:39Z")

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Congrats! Nevermind the speed, completing a marathon so soon after finishing the c25k is still quite an accomplishment.

I also did the c25k last year and will run my first half marathon next sunday, saving the full for next year 🙂