It's not called a marathon for nothing!!

The marathon is an event which has a status above any other running event. It humbles the best of runners as a test of physical, mental and emotional capacity. No wonder then, that at the start of the 1956 Olympics marathon the legend of Emil Zatopek uttered the words, "Men, today we die a little.". Not being one for gamesmanship, Zatopek was simply stating it as it really is. It's not called a marathon for nothing.

To a triathlete the marathon can mean many things, from something that skinny, hairy leg, eccentric folks do to being the final, necessary leg of an Ironman triathlon. Either way, what many triathletes miss is really knowing what it is like to run a stand-alone marathon, and the shock they get when they realise it is often harder and hurts more than an IM and wonder how it can be when they are so fit. That's why it's not called a marathon for nothing!!

Often there is discussion about the theoretical extrapolation of a stand-alone marathon time to IM marathon potential time, around which a rule-of-thumb of "add about 20mins" seems to have been developed...against which I've seen variance from about -5 mins to +2 hours!!! Such is the nature of an IM that to run the marathon leg to your potential depends on a lot of other factors besides a simple formula and some run fitness. There is no such thing as an easy IM run.

Conversely, there is further discussion about marathon potential from an IM run split, which is particularly interesting when it is applied to the likes of athletes such as Craig Alexander, Andrea Raelert, Mirinda Carfrae and Chrissie Wellington. Personally, I'd love to see them do a stand-alone marathon to see what time they could punch out, but I'm sure it would only put them in the "very good" class and quite a long way from what elite marathoners do...much like their individual performances in each of the three sports. But put them together, well then they are elite.

The main reason why a stand-alone marathon involves such unexpected(!) pain effort in the experience of triathletes is because their average pace is higher, right from the start, which is easy to do since your legs are fresh and it feels easy. Over the length of a marathon a fast pace hurts as you fatigue and the muscle damage from running faster accumulates...it is painful!!

Contrast this to an IM where you start in a fatigued state and simply can't run at the same pace as a stand-alone effort, and although you become very fatigued it's not quite as acute as in a marathon. Nonetheless, an IM marathon is still hard work as it's an extended period on your feet at the end of a long day.

Last month in IM Coeur d'Alene, Craig Alexander ran what some people called an "easy" IM marathon...which seems a bit of a stretch given he ran 2:46hr against an IM PB of about 2:42hr. While his effort is perhaps 1 (or 2)% slower than what he might be capable of, which in elite sport can be the difference between winning and missing the podium, that would mean little in terms of the toll it took on his body because he was still running at 98-99% of his capacity - especially since he started the run in chase mode - which over 42km is still hard running. You try it!!!

Discussion of whether an athlete ran a "hard" or "easy" IM marathon is in line with the discussion of whether they're going as fast as they need or as fast as they can...it's academic, since the person with the fastest overall time wins, whether it is a stand-along marathon or a full IM. It's not called a marathon for nothing.