Should I run a marathon?

Have recently had a couple athletes send me their race plans for 2011.  In these two specific cases they had listed the Olathe Marathon in April.  Since I have had the same conversation with other athletes in years past, I thought it might be worth a blog post.
The question is, for a triathlete doing a 70.3 or full Ironman later in the year (Aug/Sept) as their seasons' "A+" event, should they run a marathon such as Olathe in April or Lincoln in May?  An interesting article titled "Should You Run a Marathon in Preparation for an Ironman? on Active.com by Amanda McCracken was sent to me by one athlete.  In it Amanda provides some great reasons to do so - base miles and mental prep are points with which I completely agree.  Where I disagree with Amanda is with the timing - "at least three or four months out from the Ironman" is far too close.

Early on in my IM career I followed the advice Amanda is providing; I regularly did the Lincoln Marathon in early May before doing IM Canada in August.  As I progressed in my understanding of the demands of the sport and developed a stronger understanding of what works and what doesn't for myself and others I have changed my feelings.

Doing a marathon nine months out from an Ironman, as she starts the article mentioning, does make sense to me and I have had a number of athletes do a marathon in the Oct - Jan timeframe before taking a break then starting their IM prep for Canada/Louisville/Wisconsin in Jan/Feb/Mar.  So I am not opposed the running the marathon, rather I no longer agree doing it in Apr/May is the best way to prepare.

Building up running mileage out of proportion to cycling mileage early on might seem to make sense since the weather is cold and so riding isn't much fun.  But the taper before the marathon and then the 2-4 weeks that an athlete might take to be fully recovered from the demands of running 26.2 at race pace can set the athlete's IM prep back as much as six weeks.  I have also seen a mental let down after a big event like a marathon.

Best story I can share is from my '98 season.  Third IMC, had a new bike and I really wanted to do well.  Trained really hard early and I set my marathon PR (3:07) in May in Lincoln.  Thought I was doing great but then did my slowest Ironman in August...  Lots of circumstances that went into that result but after that year I never ran as fast at the marathon but set a 25 minute PR at IMC #4 (over an hour faster than #3) and another 20 minute PR at IMC #5 in 2002.

So, if you are interested in doing an Ironman then doing a marathon ubefore hand is a great idea.  (Same can be said for having successfully completed a few 70.3 events and a Century bike ride or two.)  But that marathon need to be completed in the Fall before your Ironman season so you have the Holidays to mentally and physically recover and can start your Ironman journey in the New Year.