http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/run_nyc_marathon_armstrong
Anyway I've been thinking about running a marathon before I start college and I was wondering if anyone here has run one before. The longest continuous run I've done up to this point has only been around 10 miles, but in order to meet my goal I would have around 8 months to train. Also I've been a fairly decent cross country and track runner for 6 years so I have some base to work with. However, the other thing is that if I do this I want to run the thing under 3 hours (for the same reason as L.A., which is to finish within an hour of the winner)
I didn't think this was a problem before, but apparently L.A. trained for almost a year and pretty much died after the 20th mile, and I think it's safe to say that Lance has more physical potential than I do. Additionally, Lance was aided by 3 world class runners who paced him almost perfectly for the entire race, and again, I think it's safe to say I won't have this advantage.
I made some posts at a few running forums but I just got ridiculous responses ranging from people who say they have run a matharon under 2:10 to guys saying I should immediately start running 200 mile weeks if I want to have any chance of success. I know for a fact that 3 hours is not an insane time (barely puts you in the top1000 finishers for most major marathons) so if anyone here has run in that range please share your race experience and, if possible, the training/preparation you had to do, thanks