Could you run a marathon without training?

I've just read this article on BBC news: Could you run a marathon without training?

And without surprise, the answer is yes if you have a decent level of fitness. In particular, John Brewer, Professor of sports science at the University of Bedfordshire reckons that "if you're a runner and your body is conditioned to running 5k or 10k in distance, as long as you set your goals properly and you run at a very slow pace, you could probably get around".

How many times have I been laughed at when asserting that if you can run 5 km you can run a marathon after some training. This article suggests that you could even do it without training!

Ultra unnecessary training

Comments

1. On Wednesday, March 21 2012, 17:34 by Bastien

I'm sure that you will try to convince a lot of people to run a marathon with this article!

2. On Wednesday, March 21 2012, 17:40 by Lolita

Pas moi en tout cas :-P

3. On Friday, August 17 2012, 11:17 by Nick

I just came across this post after looking for ideas for a nutritional plan for my first ultra. I as it happens haven't done any ultra running training. In fact I had a 6 mile run must of been 5 weeks ago and that was my first run since I did a marathon 6 months previous on only 11training runs in 4months.
My event is tomorrow night and is a 12hour event on a 4mile out and back course. I'm thinking of it now as a training event in the sense of keeping moving for that amount of time.

Although I haven't ran properly I train every week with kettlebells as well as teach 4 fitness classes per week. Kettlebells are a good strength training tool and cardio also.

I haven't got high expectations for my "run" it'll no doubt be a shuffle.