I was in a car accident about 2.5 years ago where I experienced several spinal fractures, a sacral stress fracture, and several tibia fractures. At the time of the accident, I was in about 2:35 marathon shape. Long story short, I took about 2 years mostly off running (probably ran 5-20 mpw) in order for everything to feel normal. I also gained maybe 15-20 pounds. I’m 28 (m).
Since the beginning of May, I have started increasing my mileage and just hit 100 last week with a 21 mile long run. Most of my runs are upper 7 min pace with no quality work yet (legs are too tired to go much faster than 7 minutes). After the accident, I was told by my docs that it was unlikely that I would be able to run a marathon again. I have no pain when running now, though, and would really like to give the marathon a shot.
My family and friends are all doing a marathon in 16 weeks, and I’d love to do it, too, but I wouldn’t want to do it if I’m so out of shape that it’s not fun. So I’m wondering if losing the weight and holding ~100 mpw for 14.5 weeks (with a 1.5 week taper) is enough to get to sub 3? I don’t have much experience with the marathon (have only run 1), so any advice would be appreciated! I also do want to add that I know it would be smarter to wait and do a marathon in the spring or fall of 2025, but I do miss marathon training/racing a lot, and my goal is not to be at peak fitness by mid October.
Thanks!