Meh. I perform much better at shorter distances. Even at my peak, my long distance runs were under the expectations of where they should be based on my 5km time. Even the genetic test I did said I’m built more for running fast 5kms than I am for running marathons and half marathons.

Yet for all of that, if I’m running an event, I’m going to run a half marathon, because I just don’t enjoy 5km as much as I enjoy long distances. Unless it’s a parkrun, it’s not worth getting out of bed for a 5km running event.

I don’t necessarily disagree with the points they are making, but is there any data to suggest that the marathon has become the benchmark for the majority of runners? That’s the premise behind the entire article, yet it all feels very vibes-based off the back of a major marathon. I have been running at Parkrun on and off for many years and almost none of the ordinary runners I’ve met there have a) run a marathon or b) have plans to run a marathon. I’ve only ever done a single half-marathon and I only know a couple of others who have pushed to that distance. Within my family, only one person has run a marathon (my mum, who ran a couple much later in life) The author also seems to be making the assumption that because people ran a marathon once, they must therefore spend all of their time preparing to run marathons and never run or enjoy other distances. The author compares the marathon to climbing Mt Everest, but then acts as if people are only ever climbing or preparing to climb Mt Everest year after year and never doing anything else…that’s just not how it works. From what I have seen, for most people this is a thing they target once or twice in their life as a major goal and never train for or run outside of that year. And I’m really not convinced at all that people who are brand new to running are thinking “I want to run a marathon”. The first-timers at Parkrun are intimidated by the 5k distance, a 42 km run is not even remotely in their thoughts.

Very clickbait-y title just to say the marathon is an arbitrary distance that people care about way too much; myself included.