Scott Webb (Host): If you've been competing in half marathons and want to step up to full marathons, you likely have some questions about training distances, avoiding injuries, and more. And joining me today to help answer these questions is Dr. Catherine Reese. She's a Primary Care Sports Medicine Physician with Franciscan Health and a runner herself.

 This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb.

Doctor, it's so nice to have you here today. I have to confess that I've never even thought about going for like a half marathon run or really any sort of run, but apparently, as I'm learning, some folks run half marathons and now they want to run full marathons. So that's pretty much what we're talking about today.

And I guess it makes me wonder, aside from, you know, doubling the length, what are some of the main differences that a runner can expect when training for that full marathon versus a half marathon?

Catherine Reese, MD: This is something that is a very frequent question, and if you're debating a marathon, something to look into. I am part of a runner mom group on Facebook that is all made of mom physicians. So I actually polled them to try to see amongst all of us moms, who are also doctors, what were the most surprising things, or what are the things that you have to think about between that half and that full?

The vast majority of people said the time commitment is very different. Long training runs, anything where you're getting to a half marathon and above are things that you're going to be doing on a weekly basis to train for a marathon. So when you're training for a marathon, you're going to be running 14, 16, 17, 18, and sometimes even more than 18 miles on a weekend day, typically, and we use weekend days because our group are full of people who have a day job and we're it takes about four hours to get that run in on the weekend. So that time commitment of doing the training is vastly different. If you think about it, you have a fit runner to start with, ideally. If we're running 13 miles, we want someone who has a little bit of running experience. If you have someone who's running 26.2 miles, then you definitely want to have some running base going. So you say, take your fit runner. And typically someone can maybe run for an hour, run six miles or so.

That's, that's a generalization. People are going to be faster or slower than that. So a half, if you're training for that, it's basically twice that. So you don't have to add as much to get to a half. You don't have to build up as much, but a full marathon is going to require its own process and its own training program, in addition to that.

Host: Yeah, I guess it makes me wonder for someone who's thinking about tackling that full marathon, do you recommend that they have at least completed a half marathon first?

Catherine Reese, MD: I think most people are going to start with a half marathon in general. If you think about someone who's not running at all, who's wanting to pick up running, 13.1 miles is a lot of miles to run. And so

Host: It's, it seems pretty daunting, yeah.

Catherine Reese, MD: So a lot of people are going to pick that half first. And then once you do the half there, there's a running bug we see it in the office all the time.

Runners are going to run. And so once you become that runner and you get that race bug and you really enjoy your half marathon or 5k or whatever you choose, people tend to continue to sign up for races because it's motivating and continue to challenge themselves. So most people are going to complete a half marathon first.

I would say that for a marathon, I don't necessarily care if you run an actual half marathon race, but you need to be able to have a running base of miles first. So you need to not be a beginning runner and then go out and decide, oh, I'm going to run a marathon. And you need to do a training program, and there's a lot freely available online, and there's plenty of running coaches out there who are really fantastic people who are really knowledgeable about what they do that offer programs and things like that to guide people who want to run a marathon.

So, do I care if someone signs up for a half marathon before a marathon? No, not necessarily, but I do care if they're actually following a training program and, have a good base of miles before they attempt.

Host: For sure. So let's talk about the increased physical impact, right, on the human body. You know, there's training for a half marathon, or as you say, just kind of running for pleasure, I guess. But then there's that, that goal in mind of half marathons and full marathons. So when we think about training for that full marathon, how could runners protect and try to prevent injuries?

Catherine Reese, MD: Eighty percent of running injuries are due to training overload. So if you think about, that in terms of difference between half and full, the volume is a lot bigger on that full in terms of your training volume, your weekly running volume than it would be for a half. So, more risk for overload injuries with a marathon for sure.

I typically tend to recommend yoga and Pilates in addition, to just running for people who are training and, I love those two because they're really good for both stretching and flexibility while firing up all the tiny muscles in the glutes and really in the legs and lower extremities that are important when you're running, but you might not necessarily use when you're actually running. We sit a lot in our culture, right? And so our glute muscles turn off. And then if we're not using those during running, that can be a problem and be predisposing people to injury. So yoga and Pilates are pretty good at activating those little muscles and getting people, running in a little bit more healthy way.

Host: Sure. Yeah, I've heard that sort of that cross training approach because the nature of running is using the same muscles the same way for long periods of time. And I've heard other experts say that, you know, encourage folks to do some other things like yoga, Pilates, that kind of thing. Let's talk about nutritional changes that runners may need to make when they're training for a full marathon. Are there any major changes most folks make?

Catherine Reese, MD: There is big changes there too. So with the fueling strategy for a half and a full are completely different. For a half, you can fake it. Many runners can run a half, what we would call fasting or not having to take in fuel while they're running. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that, but it's, kind of the longest distance that you could probably do that for and not hit as big of a wall.

A marathon is pretty unforgiving with the nutrition. You can't fake it that far, so you need to have a fueling strategy of what your body can tolerate while you're running so that you can get through the marathon.

Host: Yeah, having watched a few marathons myself and then seeing folks when they cross the finish line, you know, like professional marathons when they cross the line, I think, how did they do that? How did they make it that far? You know, and then some of them look like they could run another 26. And I think, boy, they must fuel along the way. It's not just grabbing a water bottle as they go along. Let's finish up here and talk about recovery. Is there a big recovery difference between a full marathon and a half marathon?

Catherine Reese, MD: Yeah, I mean, the marathon's going to take you a week or two to kind of recover. You want to make sure that you're rebuilding your glycogen stores. So your body has glycogen in your liver and in your muscles, and it's going to burn through all of that for running the marathon.

It will burn through most of that with running a half too. But just kind of the toll on and the muscle breakdown with a marathon is going to be higher.

Host: Well, I really appreciate this today. As I prefaced there as we got started, I'm not a runner, but I'm interested in folks who are runners and how they do it and setting those goals for a half marathon and a full marathon. I guess maybe just as we put a period at the end of the sentence here, if folks are considering crossing from, they can do the half marathon, they've done a few and they want to do the full marathon, what would be your best recommendations?

Catherine Reese, MD: I would definitely look up training programs online, find a marathon date that would be interesting and then start looking at the requirements for, you know, what that would look like in terms of scheduling and miles and things. It sounds like the person you're describing already has a pretty good base amount of miles because they've run that half marathon.

So I would say find a training program, plan it all out, and then playing with the fueling. Start trying to see, are you a gel person? Do you like the gummies? Do you want just to eat Sour Patch Kids while you're running? You know, figure out what works for you while you run and then go for it.

Host: Yeah. I didn't know that was an option. I'm going to have to think about this, rethink my strategy here. I didn't know that Sour Patch Kids was an option for fueling. So,

Catherine Reese, MD: Yeah, some people will eat candy.

Host: You know, after our podcast here today, I may rethink my position on running, but for today, I really appreciate your time and your expertise. You know, we hope folks heed your advice, work their way up. Will do some experimentation, find some resources online, maybe some running groups, some trainers and so forth. So, thank you so much.

Catherine Reese, MD: Yep, no problem. Thank you.

Host: And for more information, visit franciscanhealth.org/sportsmedicine. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the full podcast library for additional topics of interest. This is the Franciscan Health Doc Pod. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well, and we'll talk again next time.