You are all doubtless aware of the explosion of charity ‘challenges’ in recent years.
I am at the point of just screening them out as they are mostly rubbish.
5K, 10K really? Far any able bodied person that is surely easily achievable – ok so your legs might be a bit hurty for a few days but thats no big deal.

I fancy doing something as a challenge to myself, probably more for my own benefit than the charity’s if I’m honest.

LEJOG – Seems perfectly achievable and I think I’d quite enjoy it.

Kilimanjaro, Macchu Pichu etc – too much fun and why travel all that way instead of just giving the plane fare to charity?

My plan is this- run a sub 3hr marathon in a years time.

I don’t like running. I’ve tried to like it over the years but just never got on with it.

I’m 35 and have got steadily fatter over the last decade. I am currently 15 stone 11 which makes me officially obese at 31 on the BMI, clearly a very bad thing indeed.
Base fitness is actually reasonable considering though, I do plenty biking and hillwalking.

My build is not ideal for running even without the flab. Short legs, long back and top heavy/broad shouldered.

So, runners out there, does this seem like something which I could realistically achieve or might I be biting off a bit more than I can chew?

My personal screening system for charitable giving goes like this…

would I like to do that myself?

hell yes – no donation
yeah why not – no donation
not really – no donation
hell no – donation

So all the people doing a charity trek round Peru can sod off, the bloke slamming his nuts in a drawer for comic relief gets a tenner.

Running a sub 3hr marathon is on the cusp of options 3&4 imo.

I realise this is of no practical help but still…

To the OP – In theory its perfectly possible however some people’s physiologies just aren’t up to the grade to do it no matter how scientific and supported their training is.

Otherwise what IvanDobski said.

I don’t mind the Peru type thing IF!! they’re paying their costs and all! donations go to the charity. I am not paying for your holiday!

I did similar a few years back with the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race. All! of the £3K went to the hospice I was raising for. It was a holiday and something I wanted to do. It was not the ordeal that some people make out their trek up Kilimanjaro/machu picchu to be, it’s your holiday/life experience.

What’s your current 10k time?
a sub 3hr marathon’s on my to do list, I like running though

My current 10K time? No idea – that’s why I think this should be a genuine challenge for me, I don’t currently run apart from a 5 min jog to warm up before lifting weights.

A girl who was in school with me was looking for sponsorship for walking Ben Eighe on facebook yesterday, that’s the sort of thing I do for fun at the spur of the moment. If she had one leg I’d give her some cash.

Have you done a marathon before? A sub 3 hour marathon is a very big ask, even for an experienced runner. If you can run a sub 85 min half marathon, theoretically, you should be capable of a sub 3hr marathon….if you’re prepared to train 5 or 6 days a week, and put in speedwork, hills, long threshold pace runs, then maybe, just maybe.
(I’ve done a 83 min half, and my best marathon time is 3:13….I think it would have been a big jump for me to get that under 3 hours).

IME running a two-hour half-marathon and a four-and-a-bit-hour marathon is well within the abilities of any reasonably fit person, but knocking 25% of those times takes considerable effort/native ability.

the bloke slamming his nuts in a drawer for comic relief gets a tenner

even if he’d look at someone else doing it and be in the ‘hell yes’ category?

Sounds like a big job to me but good luck, bonne chance and all that.

Personally I’m going to atone for my imagined and real sins by riding to Catania in Sicily on my road bike. As quickly as possible so I don’t enjoy it. Sadly I’m not really joking either (well a little, I might actually go to Slovenia instead).

If you are prepared to give up almost everything else in your life then you might just achieve that, going from not running to a sub 3hr marathon is a big ask IMO. Took me 2 or 3 years of half arsed attempts to whittle myself down from 125min to 105min half marathon times

This chap is doing a pretty impressive thing, mostly turning is own life around.

do this and finish and you can have a tenner off me

http://www.lakeland100.com/whats-is-the-lakeland100- makes the Kielder 100 look like a gentle Saturday bike ride.

do this and finish and you can have a tenner off me

http://www.lakeland100.com/whats-is-the-lakeland100- makes the Kielder 100 look like a gentle Saturday bike ride.

I don’t think you realise quite how quick a 3 hour marathon is! To manage that you need to be able to do an 18.5 minute 5k.

In fact, re-reading your post it doesn’t sound like a challenge, it sounds like a complete impossibility. I’m not really a runner, just the odd 5k, 10k and one half in the last few years, can do 5k in just under 22 minutes so not quick but not terribly slow, am more of a runner’s build and I’d consider aiming for a 3.5 hour marathon with a year’s training a serious challenge. However despite your build you may be a natural distance runner, who knows?!

Doing the JOGLE in 2 weeks time in 8 days – Not sure if that counts but we have raised about £1500 for charity so far 🙂

I’m liking your style bedmaker – that’s a tough challenge and like others have mentioned it isn’t one of the ‘potted’ challenges.

Now have you found a charity that you actually believe in and want to support?

If you are interested there is a nice piece of software called RunCoach (iirc) which will put together a training plan for you if you have a target on a certain date and know how many days a week you can train. It will also give you an idea of how possible it thinks your target is. works well in my experience

That Lakeland 100 looks interesting, I’m a crap runner but am now considering have a crack at that next year.

Something to train towards anyway!

All the best but with your background I’d certainly sponsor you to achieve under four hours, three hours is hellish quick.

Very, very tough challenge. I speak as somebody who probably could have run a 3 hour marathon (not that I ever ran a marathon at all, but I’ve done an 81 minute half and run more than 26 miles through mountains). Right now the idea of me managing a 3 hour marathon in a year’s time would be pretty daunting for me when I’m only averaging 4 hour marathon pace over an hour’s run (which I suspect is still faster than you’d manage).

Good luck with that, but please don’t base your whole life and ambitions around a target you may not be able to meet.

Hmmmm…perhaps it is aiming too high.
I don’t necessarily want to attempt something I am 99% sure of achieving, I want a genuine challenge that I may well ‘fail’ at, although finishing a marathon in a respectable time would be a good achievement in itself.

That lakeland 100 looks ace, much more my thing than pounding pavement.

I’ve spoken to my local Marie Curie rep and will meet her later in the week, also may support Clic sargent.

I’d start running now – if you really hate the training it will not be a fun way to spend a year – find out before you commit. You could do some crazy cycling challenge: Year Record? 😉

That lakeland 100 looks ace, much more my thing than pounding pavement.

Finishing that is still a really tough achievement, but one which depends less on your inherent ability – less likely to be totally impossible. I’m tempted to suggest though that whilst it might be possible for you in a year, it’s still going to be very hard, and not only involve a lot of hard work, but also quite a bit of luck. You’d probably be better off doing the 50 – still a very tough thing, and far from a 99% chance of achieving it in a year even if you are prepared to work hard, but it’s a rather more realistic ambition. AFAIK most entrants to the 100 have already done the 50 (or something similar) the previous year – or maybe that’s just most of those who finish the 100!

BTW I know one of the race directors of the L100 – top bloke, so don’t be afraid to ask for advice.

Fairplay – if you’re initially aiming to raise money for charity, and the event you choose is potentially un-doable for you, then in my experience the people you know will get behind you 100%

I entered the Kielder 100 last year, despite having only been riding for about 12 months at that point. I missed the 51 mile cut off by about 8 minutes, earning a big fat DNF. But I managed to raise £1000 for the prostate cancer charity in the process, as well as learning a heck of a lot about myself and mtb’ing along the way.

I wish you every success in your endeavours, aim high.

I’m doing this
http://www.justgiving.com/stannsbigbikeride
which I’ve mentioned here
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/olympic-park-to-manchester-velodrome-in-1-day-whos-coming-win-a-tv/page/2?replies=38#post-3725590
which has now led onto this
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/what-train-station-as-near-as-possible-to-oiympic-park-with-a-bike
Astonishingly generous!
Back to the original post though. I only thought of it last Monday sat at work. Just do stuff. I went past the scene where a cyclist died today. Just do stuff.