Hate 20 Mile Runs? You Can Still Finish A Marathon Without Them!
Most experts say that you should do 3-4 long runs of 20 miles or more in preparation for a marathon. Is this absolutely necessary?
No, you can run a marathon successfully without running 20 miles or more in training. In fact, both the Beginner and Advanced training marathon training programs of the very successful Brooks-Hanson Distance Project only include 3 long runs at the maximum distance of 16 miles.
I recently ran a 3:34 marathon with three long runs of no longer than 17-18 miles. These were run at close to marathon pace, so they were good preparation for the marathon, just not as long.
I don’t really like the longer runs. They take up too much time and are a bit boring. Maybe I should take up Dean Karnazes’ idea and do a “runabout”. Sounds like fun.
Have you run a marathon successfully with long runs of less than 20 miles? Tell me in the comments.
