Can you be considered a real runner if you're never completed a marathon?

Yes OP, your 3:20 PR is faster than the sub 14 guy at run club because he’s never ran one. Do you feel better now?

A 'runner' should be able to average under 5:00 pace for intervals. If not you are considered a 'jogger'. Get used to it OP

No, you absolutely can be considered a "runner" if you've never run a marathon.

However, you are probably a douche if you make marathon projections based on times you ran back in the day to diminish the present day accomplishments of others.

You can complete a marathon without running at all, let alone running the whole way.

I think the opposite

great post, Alison Felix should be ashamed!

4:20 mile or Jack Daniels calculator equivalent for your preferred distance, anything slower and you're a hobby jogger

Just a quick reminder, the Edmonton Marathon is in 54 days!

Can you be considered a real runner with a 5k PR of 20:44?

I agree with Msksjfjf and gave him an up-vote but...

"Because he's never ran one." Please, I'm begging you guys:

• I run marathons as a hobby.
• I ran the Boston Marathon marathon last Spring.
• I have run the Boston Marathon twice and I might do it again next year.

There are no exceptions to this pattern: RUN > RAN > HAVE RUN

Example of the difference:

"Have run" shows you did something (and could still be doing it); e.g. "He's run for Nike for over a decade."

"Ran" shows you did something (and it is over with); e.g. "He ran for Nike when he was young."

Talk about nails on a chalkboard. Can you use AI to fix this for you. In your rush to provide examples, you butchered the rest of your sentence, making two of them incorrect.

Of course you can be considered a real runner if you've never completed a marathon. But I'm not sure you can be called a real runner if you worry about what you need to do to be considered a real runner.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, confirmed to be a racewalker.

Is this a trick question w/an arbitrary definition of "real runner" w/weird criteria like the poster who defines what a real man is? Something about a father who actually lives w/his kids or prior military service, etc?

A real runner is the guy who gets upset at the Kenyan woman beating him at the local 5k ;)

For the most part, marathons are for slow runners. Fast runners run on a track. If you can't make it there (or can't make it there anymore) you move to shorter road races. If you can't make it there (or you are starting to slow) you move to the marathon.

When someone says they run marathons, I just assume they are too slow to do anything else.

Sure there are a few good runners running marathons, but for the most are just too slow.

If you downvote the post, I'm just going to assume you're a slow runner running marathons.

I downvoted your post assuming you're on welfare.

Can you show me my mistakes? You mean mean when I typed marathon twice? That is just a typo. I don't actually think it is called the "Boston Marathon marathon." Is there a second mistake?

I am not a jerk about typos. We all make those.

It is not knowing that the past tense of eat is ate or "have eaten." It would drive us all insane if people just walked around town saying, "I've ate so much today. I'm stuffed!" That is how it feels when people say, "I've ran a lot of marathons in my life."

I absolutely agree with the sentiment of this post, but you're raking leaves on a windy day, my man.