[Singletoned]

Creating "a system in which you consistently increase the number of miles you run" is pointless if it doesn't get you to the point where you can run the marathon on the day that it happens.

How long you have until the marathon would determine what kind of training schedule (system) you create.

[jeltz]

Yes and no. Having more time gives you more flexibility in how to plan it so you can for example either reduce injury risk or aim at running the race at a higher pace. But it is not like you can rush it beyond a certain level.

I feel one of your misconceptions is that running a marathon (or a half as in the article) is something binary. A lot of people could just go out and run a half marathon tomorrow if they were forced to. The injury risk would be high and they would feel miserable, but they would make it. A full marathon requires much more training but all marathon training programs I have seen are overkill if the goal is just to complete the race. They are instead aimed at either making people complete it at a certain pace or complete the race while being able to enjoy it. If you have a lack of time to train you can sacrifice pace/enjoyment. Rushing the training on the other hand is stupid.

So for marathon training the deadline is in the form of a hard cutoff where you have to decide if you are satisfied with that little training or if you want to wait until a later race. It is more like a release train which only happens a couple of times per year.

Edit: Sorry for the rant, my real point is actually that you are encouraged to change your training plan on the fly to adapt to real life events and that while the race is a deadline it is very unclear what will be delivered at it until you get pretty close to it. Will it be a 3:30 marathon or a 3:15 one? Unless you have sponsors nobody will get angry at you for not delivering what you had planned to.

[laserlight]

> if it doesn't get you to the point where you can run the marathon on the day that it happens.

Doesn't the same logic apply to the training system that we created based on time until the marathon? Does the existence of a deadline guarantee success of a training system?

And, doesn't any training system increase the number of miles consistently? Because, if I am to run 26 miles, any training regime should make me able to run 5 before 10, 10 before 26.