Can the average person even walk a marathon?

[Alobar]

Im just curious what everyone thinks. Obviously this is inspired by the marathon vs wheeling thread. But also yesterdays becnhpress thread got me thinking about what an average person can actually do.

I should stipulate im talking the average american here, and lets say they've got 12 hours to do it.

Im saying its easily a no. Especially considering the amount of overweight people over here and the fact it seems most people will circle a parking lot for 20 minutes rather than park far away. I think the average european could do it easily.

[Uglyowl]

Very easily as long as there isn't ridiculous weather and you can have some water and a couple of Big Mac's on the way.

[istewart]

I'm guessing yes, but I want to say no.

[Bukem_]

Very very easily no. Marathon is about 26 miles?

The average american is very out of shape and would actually have trouble with 10 miles.

[thatpfunk]

I think it depends what the pay off is. The average american *could* do it for a large sum of money, etc.


However, without a very good reason to, they are not mentally tough enough.

[Catch of the Day]

If you had good shoes, I think that the average person could do it easily given the right motivation. You have to want it. Would and could are two totally different things here. I spontanesouly ran 1/2 marathon on the tail end of a 10 day back packing trip when the Dean of my School gave this speech about "Doing it for somebody else." We had the option to run or walk 3, 6, 9, or 12 miles. After he teared up upon dedicating his run to his dying dad, I knew that it was going to be a long day.

So yeah, they totally could if given the proper motivation, whatever that would be.

Catch-

[Reef]

the average person (american) is overweight. No way they could do it

[zaxx19]

Most Marathoners arent great athletes.

I never aspired to run a marathon and I dont believe running a marathon makes you special.

[manpower]

We hold a walk for MS in the town I grew up in. Hundreds of people turn out to walk to raise money every year. The walk is about 20 miles. Now most of these people are high school kids (they get the day off from school if they do the walk), but a lot are pretty average looking Americans. So I'm going yes based off my anecdotal evidence.

[Skipbidder]

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I should stipulate im talking the average american here, and lets say they've got 12 hours to do it.

Im saying its easily a no. Especially considering the amount of overweight people over here

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I could do it. 12 hours is a long time. You are giving me almost half an hour per mile. I should see if I can get anyone I know to make a prop bet against me doing it. (I'm way fat. 5'6" and over 200 pounds, and not in a good way. I have to be on the wrong side of average for age 34.)

[Dead]

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Most Marathoners arent great athletes.

I never aspired to run a marathon and I dont believe running a marathon makes you special.

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But you're very overweight.

Who are you to say that a marathoner is not a real athlete?

[housenuts]

i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[Bukem_]

Those are all young people who showed up because they thought they could do it. Thats not the average overweight, out of shape american.

[Catch of the Day]

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the average person (american) is overweight. No way they could do it

[/ QUOTE ]

The Average Guy is 34.4 ]. He's about 5-feet-9 and weighs 175 pounds. The average woman posts comparable numbers. Overwieght, and morbidly obese are two things. They could do it, even if, a little overweight.

Catch-

[partygirluk]

SO are you asking

i) Could the median American (in terms of fitness) walk 26.2 miles over typical urban terrain in 12 hours?

or

ii) Could 50% or more Americans walk 26.2 miles over typical urban terrain in 12 hours?

or

iii) Something else

[tworooks]

as long as i get free doughnuts i probably would be able to do it

[bogey]

no way in hell

[Dead]

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i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[/ QUOTE ]

I run 5 a day, 6 days of the week. Takes me about 35 minutes to do it. Then there is a day of rest on Wednesday.

[Emmitt2222]

I get the impression that all the people saying yes have never even been close to a marathon. I have not done one, but I trained with my friends for one [I didnt run as far] and then did a 22 walk a couple months ago. I am almost positive the average american could not do it, except maybe if there was some really large reward. The thing to consider is not the fitness, although that is very important, but the pscological one which is where people fall apart. When you walk ten miles and then realize you are less than halfway through you can get really crushed and if you are not mentally tough its over. Most people have no experience with this sort of thing. I am definitly saying no on this one. I think if you can run 6 miles in an hour you can walk a marathon pretty easily, but I don't think the average person can do that.

[zephed56]

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i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[/ QUOTE ]

I run 5 a day, 6 days of the week. Takes me about 35 minutes to do it. Then there is a day of rest on Wednesday.

[/ QUOTE ]
5 miles at an average of 7 minutes? Impressive.

It was quite a feat to run 2 miles in 12 minutes in high school.

[Dead]

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i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[/ QUOTE ]

I run 5 a day, 6 days of the week. Takes me about 35 minutes to do it. Then there is a day of rest on Wednesday.

[/ QUOTE ]
5 miles at an average of 7 minutes? Impressive.

It was quite a feat to run 2 miles in 12 minutes in high school.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not really that impressive. I know people that can do it in under 6, average. I never did track or anything. I just started running after school, starting in 9th grade, and I've kept with it. During the winter, I'll do it on the treadmill. When it's nicer out, I'll do it outside.

[Talk2BigSteve]

I am 6'4" 300+lbs and I did a 25 mile walk for the March of Dimes so I say yes 12 hours should be a piece of cake.

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[pshreck]

What sports did you play, Dead?

[TeeJayORTj]

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i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[/ QUOTE ]

I run 5 a day, 6 days of the week. Takes me about 35 minutes to do it. Then there is a day of rest on Wednesday.

[/ QUOTE ]
5 miles at an average of 7 minutes? Impressive.

It was quite a feat to run 2 miles in 12 minutes in high school.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's not really that impressive. I know people that can do it in under 6, average. I never did track or anything. I just started running after school, starting in 9th grade, and I've kept with it. During the winter, I'll do it on the treadmill. When it's nicer out, I'll do it outside.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah so do I...HS girls can do it in around 11 minutes top guys in just HS are running in the low to mid 9s

[Dead]

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What sports did you play, Dead?

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Soccer.

[pshreck]

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What sports did you play, Dead?

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Soccer.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another piece to the puzzle that fits.

[jstnrgrs]

As I have said in previous threads, I am an overweight person. I weight about 340lbs (6' 2" tall), and I never exercise. I think I would struggle to do 10 puchups, and I don't think I could run a mile. I am very confident that I could walk a marathon in under 12 hours, and I will do it if given the proper motivation.

[Dead]

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What sports did you play, Dead?

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Soccer.

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Another piece to the puzzle that fits.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're missing the corners.

I like listening to techno music and drinking iced tea. Two more pieces for you.

[handsome]

No. But I'm the type of person that thinks the average American can't do 10 push-ups either.

[pshreck]

I think the average male can easily do this. The average female, can definetly not do this.

I get this opinion from seeing thin girls running 14 minute miles in high school, and doing maybe 7 or 8 pushups when tested. Only the most obese of males were putting up numbers like this.

[Dead]

I think the avg female would have more success than the avg male? Aren't more males overweight? I thought so.

Anyway, I could probably walk this marathon in about 6.5 hrs.

I've done 20 mile hikes in the woods before, up here in Upstate NY. And that is on uneven ground. It usually takes us about 7 hrs.

[gumpzilla]

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I think the average male can easily do this. The average female, can definetly not do this.

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I think you have it exactly backwards, if anything. At long distances, women start to look pretty good. Walking at a clip of just over 2 miles an hour for 26 miles is precisely the kind of thing that I'd be inclined to guess that an average woman would be better at than an average man. Using the speed at which they run one mile, which is not even close to the same scale in terms of endurance, is not a good counterargument.

[pshreck]

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I think the avg female would have more success than the avg male? Aren't more males overweight? I thought so.

Anyway, I could probably walk this marathon in about 6.5 hrs.

I've done 20 mile hikes in the woods before, up here in Upstate NY. And that is on uneven ground. It usually takes us about 7 hrs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks Dead, keep bragging about your personal athletic abilities in this thread.

[Dead]

Good points.

I'd take avg male over avg female in sprinting, but not in walking long distances.

[jstnrgrs]

I've heard that for 144 mile races, gender in not a factor for the top competitors.

[Alobar]

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I think the average male can easily do this. The average female, can definetly not do this.

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I think you have it exactly backwards, if anything. At long distances, women start to look pretty good. Walking at a clip of just over 2 miles an hour for 26 miles is precisely the kind of thing that I'd be inclined to guess that an average woman would be better at than an average man. Using the speed at which they run one mile, which is not even close to the same scale in terms of endurance, is not a good counterargument.

[/ QUOTE ]

There are scientists who speculate that eventually women will be beating the top mens time at long distance swimming. You can already see signs of this in the ironman, where the top women swimmers are getting out of the water with the the top men.

Also I've read a couple articles that have been put out that eventually women will hold a faster time at the marathon than men.

Has to do with the way women store fat, and the fact that women have more body fat.

[Dead]

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I think the avg female would have more success than the avg male? Aren't more males overweight? I thought so.

Anyway, I could probably walk this marathon in about 6.5 hrs.

I've done 20 mile hikes in the woods before, up here in Upstate NY. And that is on uneven ground. It usually takes us about 7 hrs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks Dead, keep bragging about your personal athletic abilities in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't. You're the one who asked me what sports I played, so this comment is quite ironic.

[gumpzilla]

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I've heard that for 144 mile races, gender in not a factor for the top competitors.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is the same kind of thing I'm going on here. I'm Googling ultramarathons as we speak to try and come up with some more convincing evidence.

I'll add this little factoid as well: I think we can assume that most of the world's best marathon runners were at the Boston Marathon today, though I'll listen to arguments on this one. 23 men finished ahead of the top woman. I'd be tremendously surprised if you could find any distance shorter than a marathon where a woman cracked the top 100 in the world, and when you get down to 1600m or less, top 1000.

[James282]

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i think i read somewhere that the average person can't run 1 mile. that's sad

[/ QUOTE ]

I run 5 a day, 6 days of the week. Takes me about 35 minutes to do it. Then there is a day of rest on Wednesday.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for sneaking that in there. You rock.
-James

EDIT: Do you bring your laptop with you to maintain your stellar Posts Per Day average?

[Dead]

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EDIT: Do you bring your laptop with you to maintain your stellar Posts Per Day average?


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No, but I do bring it to classes. This is how I am able to post from 11am-4pm.

[James282]

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EDIT: Do you bring your laptop with you to maintain your stellar Posts Per Day average?


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No, but I do bring it to classes. This is how I am able to post from 11am-4pm.

[/ QUOTE ]

And from 4 pm to 3 AM?
-James

[Dead]

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EDIT: Do you bring your laptop with you to maintain your stellar Posts Per Day average?


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No, but I do bring it to classes. This is how I am able to post from 11am-4pm.

[/ QUOTE ]

And from 4 pm to 3 AM?
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

If you are really that curious, right now I am in the cafe, using the wireless connection. But they close at 1 am, so I will have to make this my last morning post, since I have a class at 9:55 and must go beddy-bye.

Night.

[Blarg]

The average American gets little exercise and is overweight. What is it, 40% of them are actually obese? Or was it 60%? Either way... Many Americans are old, too, and many are very young. From a pure numbers, most Americans couldn't possibly walk 26 miles.

Quite a huge number would have tremendous difficulty walking five miles.

[BeantownCaller]

I've done a 10 or something mile walk for hunger which wasn't fun but wasn't hard. I absolutely could not jog a marathon, not by a LONG shot, (or even put up a respectable time for a 60 year old that jogs sometimes /images/graemlins/wink.gif), no matter what motivation I had, but I'm sure I could walk it. I wouldn't even need much motivation, maybe give me a day of pay and let me off the hook at work, I'd rather exercise for 8 hours than go to work. Stupid work /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm 6'3" 200 LBS and I don't exercise nearly enough, I bet If I jogged a mile right now after not running in a year I could do it in about 7:30, I was really slow in highschool but I think I could do 2 miles in 14:00 or so...

who knows, poker has rotted my brain.

[BradleyT]

25% of the u.s. population are baby boomers.

It's not even close.

[Victor]

given the right amount of motivation nearly anyone could do this, so long as they are not handicapped. i am looking at life or death situations.

[EliteNinja]

No chance.
I'm in pretty good shape, but I don't even think I could walk 26 miles.

[housenuts]

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No chance.
I'm in pretty good shape, but I don't even think I could walk 26 miles.

[/ QUOTE ]

you are not in pretty good shape if you can't do this.

with no weight on your back you should really be able to walk indefinitely. the biggest problem that would come about is blisters. if you properly equipped your feet and got no blisters you should be able to do this.

[youtalkfunny]

I get tired when I have to DRIVE 26 miles.

(I can't believe no one posted that yet.)

I'm 38, and WAY overweight (5'7", 300+). But before my knee quit on me last year, I'm confident I could do it. My car broke down in rural Arkansas in '02, and I had to make a 10-mile walk in dress shoes--it was a walk in the park.

Then again, you could say I was properly motivated.

[nicky g]

I'm pretty sure I could do it but I'm not sure I could do it in 12 hours.

On the weekend I walked about 5 miles on Saturday and seven miles on Sunday. I wasn't even remotely physically tired after either. I am not overweight but not particularly fit. Walking just isn't that tiring. The mental side could be a problem though; sounds boring.

No real clue about the average American. I would lean towards no.