Quote Originally Posted by BZealley View Post
Interesting that you'd suggest skipping the marathon - it seems like a sensible interim goal/progress check to me - can you elaborate a little on why not?
I tend to regard walking as "not really exercise", because I don't get out of breath or feel tired the day after (apparently regardless of distance, though I've never done more than 15 miles or so in one go; this might be another hyperactive-bastard trait) - to what extent is walking a long distance over a given terrain, good practice for running it?
The point is you won't be running large parts of any mountain challenge, but hard, fast, hilly walking. Training for a marathon would involve running not walking and would help general fitness / hardness (not necessarily the same thing!) but not be specific for what you're planning to do