Do you have to qualify for the place, or just purchase it? I think it would be a tough tough possibly dangerous push to qualify - but if it's open to all, why not? The course is probably open for six hours. Be cautious, walk as you need to, be well informed and well prepared - safe - don't worry about your time, and you could have the "I did it" feeling.

That's me talking to you. Me talking to me would tell myself I'm crazy, but I don't run twelve miles.

My company has been offered 5 places by some organisation, so I wouldn't have to qualify. I can do a half marathon in 1 hour 45, which is a little slow, but I've never run a full one. I'm told that between then and now I could manage to train for the distance.

Then I say go for it. Do the training, and keep your expectations within bounds - be forgiving to yourself, there is no reason to fight through to run it all. Stay safe.

You'll be so proud!

How many marathoner bunnies do we have in the house? I think Omiewise. Anybody else?

I think you can do it! You've got several weeks.

If you don't read Runners' World already, you might want to check their site out. They have great training articles and plans and are very encouraging of first-timing for all distances.

I think that being able to do twelve miles puts you in a very good position to do a marathon.

But OmieWise knows a lot more about that sort of thing than I do, so drop him a line. He'll have some good advice for you.

Good luck!

A guy I work with runs marathons - he was something like 5 minutes off qualifying for the elite men's class in London last year - and he reckons I'll be able to do it. The good news is that it means I'll have to eat a lot more carbs - yay!

So, anyway, I've put my name downa and, as long as 4 other people from my company join me, I'm doing it. OMFG.

The course is probably open for six hours.

They don't worry too much about that in London...

Heh, that's good to know! If I can get a polystyrene deep sea diving suit, I can still walk it but do it quicker than him!

alto, my office is on the route for the London marathon, and when Lloyd Scott 'ran' it in his diving suit, we'd all head outside, usually on the Tuesday or Wednesday, as he went past so we could cheer him, and donate money to his charity (he always has people with him carrying collection buckets).

Good for you, TheDonF!

I have a pal that went from "office-body" and no running at all to the New York Marathon (purely for the "I did it" feeling) in roughly a year. He started on much less than 12 miles, worked his way up with every second day runs and then twice that length on sat/sunday.. I can't remember what his regime was at the end but he got very fit, lost a lot of weight (very strict diet to keep fit as he never really used his body that much before, all good stuff and proteins you know) and ran the marathon on a surprisingly good time in the end. It seems a little short of time for training but you're already running 12 miles, so hey... anything is possible if you take good care of yourself.

I'm rooting for ya TheDonF!

Yeah, I'm really hoping to lose a good deal of weight training for this! I really want to do the entire course and not give out part-way around, so I'm going to have to really go for it. The Runners' World site is excellent so I'm gearing myself up for twice weekly runs. Shorter ones on Wednesdays and longer treks on Sundays. And I get to eat pasta, rice, eggs, peanut butter and lots of other good stuff. Woo

Thanks for the support thus far.

Awesome stuff! Keep us up-to-date with your training.