Is it necessary to be thin to be a strong runner?

scorpio516

Strong as in just finish without walking?
Strong as in fast too?

My wife can run a 5k in ~45:00 with a BMI in the mid 30s.

Weight is directly related to time though. Losing 1 lb will generally make you 2 seconds per mile quicker. So 10 lbs over a marathon is worth 8:44.
Of course, there is a limit. There is a point where losing more weight makes you slower.

sullymanjohn

You should read "the courage to start". It really redefined the way I look at running and the way I looked at someone called a real runner. It's a great book and DEFINATELY helps with self esteem and motivation.

Pebble321

Do you want to finish the distance, or do you want to finish it fast?
I've run up to 20km in training though my longest race so far has been 10k. I'm training for a 14km race in a months time and a half marathon in August.
I'm certainly not thin... on the border between healthy and overweight BMI. I can run those distances after training, but I'm not fast.
I suspect that the really fast runners are likely to be thinner - but don't let your size stop you training for longer distance running - if you put in the effort and are lucky enough to avoid injury it is quite do-able.

(Or I could have just said... "what Azdak says").

fteale

I think it goes both ways. To have the stamina to do a 10 miles race you have to have been running a while and be quite keen so you are likely to have got thin over years of running. To be dedicated to running you are probably interested in your health anyway, and so going to be thinner than the average population. Definitely losing weight makes you a faster runner, as long as your body is adequately fuelled for the exercise. The less weight you have to carry around the easier it is to run.

Finally, the lighter you are the less risk you are at of injury, which may be the biggest factor. Overweight people running are much more at risk of shin splints, knee injury and plantar fascitis.

Di3012

I completed my first race this weekend, a 4-mile one. I was proud of my time ( sub 9 minute miles), but I was mostly in awe of the runners who were there doing the 10 mile race. I noticed that almost every single one of those runners doing the 10 mile race was thin. The four mile runners were very varied--many different body types--but the 10 milers were all very lean.

So I'm asking this: to be a strong long-distance runner who is able to run and not walk the distance, is it necessary to have a fairly low BMI? I have always been around the top of a healthy BMI--would it be necessary for me to lower it in order to be successful at the longer distances? or does it just happen that most people who train that hard are thin?

They are thin because they do a lot of running, they do not get thin to enable them to run.

People running over 10 miles, will have done a lot of training, this involves huge calorie burns. They will also burn any excess fat they have as energy, you won't find a good long distance runner who is overweight.

zoom2

I think you might be confusing cause and effect... Are they strong runners because they are lean? I doubt it. They are lean because they regularly run long distances in preparation for the 10 mile race. Chances are if you made that 10 mile race your goal and trained for it you'd be leaner by the time you actually ran it. Just guessing!

I don't know...I trained for and ran 3 marathons and covered 1800 miles in one year and still had bodyfat of nearly 30%. The more I run, the hungrier I am. I tend to be slimmer when I'm running fewer miles and have long runs of no more than maybe 10 miles. The runners I know who struggle with their weight have the same experience, by and large. It's a bit of a catch-22. It's hard to train for high mileage with a calorie deficit...very hard.

Speed is largely determined by genetics/natural talent...the rest of it is hard work. Having a slim frame on top of those things is almost guaranteed to yield success. But a person could have the talent and work and be overweight and still demolish a lot of leaner runners. I've got a buddy who represented the US in a 24 hour race. He does not *look* like a runner...he's big and broad shouldered. But he is fast and runs a TON of miles.

rprussell2004

Check out "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.

He lays out a very successful (imo) argument that human beings are built to be endurance runners. Not necessarily FAST runners, but long-distance. The things that are getting between us and our running destinies are our shoes.

Anyway, I just got done with it, and having never been a successful runner in my life, I'm inspired to take on the Couch to 5K (C25K) program and start kicking some *kitten*.

As soon as my ankle heals, anyway :-/

zoom2

He lays out a very successful (imo) argument that human beings are built to be endurance runners. Not necessarily FAST runners, but long-distance.

Yes. And we didn't evolve because we're fast (we're not), but that we had the skills to wound prey, then outlast them...endurance over speed. Some peoples on the planet still survive by hunting this way. It's why we have big butt muscles...for running upright.