Upgrading from half to full?

[TCB in FLA]

I am training for my first full marathon -- Disney January 2014! I have run several half marathons in the past, plus teach 3-4 Jazzercise classes a week. I have run up to 15 miles so far in my training, am fairly injury free and doing overall fine other than being incredibly bored during the long runs. I'm not particularly fast, 10-11 min mile pace over long runs. I am running the Savannah Half this weekend, and my original plan (when a friend was doing all this with me before she injured her knee) was to run that 13 miles as well as adding miles before/after to do a total of 20 (which is part of my training plan for this week).

The weather in Savannah is supposed to be very nice this weekend, plus it's FLAT! I live in the mountains of NC, and there is nowhere flat to do long runs -- it's all trails going up and down mountains. So I was thinking about changing from the half to a full marathon, and not really pushing myself after that 20 is done. Am I absolutely crazy??? I mean, I'm already going to be there, want to run 3/4 of the distance anyway, there will be bands/entertainment/support on the course, and yes, I checked, I can upgrade at the expo.

Wanted to get some advice from some seasoned runners. I'm not so worried about time (either this weekend or at Disney) -- I just want to finish! I am drawn to the idea of testing how my body will react after a full so it doesn't come as a complete shock when I'm down in Disney in January.

 

[cewait]

If one runs the race as a training run I see no harm. It is not uncommon to have folks run a partial race as a training run. A group of friends training for Austin would run the Houston marathon through mile 18 then bail to a van they had left at that point.

I would urge a little caution. It gets very tempting to run further than planned once in the race. You know that little voice that says, "You can't stop here, it's too far from the car" or "I’ll stop at the next water stop" over and over again. You probably can run the full race, but you may also lose a 2-4 weeks of training due to recovery.

Good Luck

 

[WhereInFlorida]

So I was thinking about changing from the half to a full marathon, and not really pushing myself after that 20 is done.

It is a little crazy, I assume that by 'pushing' you mean continuing on to the end. Given you are not doing a full-on taper and even if not pushing yourself beyond the 20 there is a big difference from jumping from 15 to 20 versus 15 to 26.

I would use the half as a good training run and do the 20 next week. Or if you race it then it will be a great workout and follow with recovery runs during the week and see about the LR the week following if you have recovered well.

 

[TCB in FLA]

Thanks for the replies. This has to be my long run -- our schedule is too full for me to go off to Savannah this weekend for a half, then find time to run 20 on my own net week. Plus, I'm having the hardest time just finding decent routes around here to get any mileage in -- at least on somewhat flat trails where I'm not worried about getting eaten by bears. (Seriously!)

I think I could push myself through 26 miles -- but why? I think I'm so worried about checking that box of "I completed a marathon" that I forgot my senses for a while. So I will stick to the planned half and get the other 7 miles before and after.

 

[RnbwSktles]

Just out of curiosity, why does your plan jump from 15 to 20? That seems like a huge gap to me, but I am definitely no expert. I am also training for the Disney Full (my first marathon), but my schedule is basically 15-17-19-21, with rest weeks in between.

Don't injure yourself, and good luck!

 

[TCB in FLA]

Just out of curiosity, why does your plan jump from 15 to 20? That seems like a huge gap to me, but I am definitely no expert. I am also training for the Disney Full (my first marathon), but my schedule is basically 15-17-19-21, with rest weeks in between.

Don't injure yourself, and good luck!

There was a 17 miler scheduled in my training plan. However, I ended up running 12.5 that day due to getting into a time jam.

Update: So I upgraded from the half to the full, planning to run 20, since there was supposed to be "shuttles" back to the finish line at each of the medical stations and the weather was going to be beautiful. Around mile 16, I learned the shuttles were ambulances! So I ran the 20, then ran/walked the next 6. (Ran the last .2 -- tons of race photographers and I didn't want to be walking in the pics!) I'm officially a marathoner! Feeling sore today, only feeling specific pain in my left knee but not terrible. I could have certainly pushed myself more but knew I had to drive back today, teach Jazzercise later in the week, and get back to my training.

And I have to give mad props to the Savannah R'n'r Marathon! Beautiful location, flat course, such friendly locals cheering you on, good expo, well organized for the number of people.

 

[RnbwSktles]

There was a 17 miler scheduled in my training plan. However, I ended up running 12.5 that day due to getting into a time jam.

Update: So I upgraded from the half to the full, planning to run 20, since there was supposed to be "shuttles" back to the finish line at each of the medical stations and the weather was going to be beautiful. Around mile 16, I learned the shuttles were ambulances! So I ran the 20, then ran/walked the next 6. (Ran the last .2 -- tons of race photographers and I didn't want to be walking in the pics!) I'm officially a marathoner! Feeling sore today, only feeling specific pain in my left knee but not terrible. I could have certainly pushed myself more but knew I had to drive back today, teach Jazzercise later in the week, and get back to my training.

And I have to give mad props to the Savannah R'n'r Marathon! Beautiful location, flat course, such friendly locals cheering you on, good expo, well organized for the number of people.

Congratulations!!
I don't think I would have been able to do that at this point, so I am very impressed. You might want to change your signature now

 

[WhereInFlorida]

Wow, excellent