You can push me in a wheelchair for roughly 11 miles. Just know that unless it's a closed circular path, you're pushing me back as well.

once you get momentum the wheelchair will carry you a bit when you're tired. Secondly, does this wheelchair have any kind of engine?

I assume the chap in the wheelchair will be assisting? Or is your plan more to use a cripple as ballast? If the latter the opportunities are endless! Why not grasp a quadriplegic in each hand and go for a 10k power walk?

Watch out for the pot holes if there are any... And rocks... Some one ran with me in a wheelchair once.... Let's just say my hip and my face didn't appreciate it at all.

You really shouldn't try to do it with a regular wheelchair. Rent a race-ready one and you should be good to go.

@abgemacht: I'm kind of out of condition and recovering right now so I'm not sure about now, but I feel confident I can do it when I'm in condition. I've got a long time left to train and everything.

@JamesYanik: No to your question. Unless I find a wheelchair with an engine and it's allowed, I guess.

@Octavious: the 'passenger' might be able to help a bit but it would probably be mostly me.

I'm not sure whether you're cynical or just sarcastic, but I'd be doing this for the person in question if that person likes the idea, not for myself.
I think the person in question would love this, that's why I'm considering it in the first place. Do you think it would be 'misusing' that person or something? Feel free to elaborate because I don't see it.

@Sandgoose: You're absolutely right. I have experience with people in wheelchairs so I was aware of that, but thanks for thinking with me.

@WardenDresden: Good advice. I'll probably do some 'test runs' etc before the race to figure out what works etc and I'll be sure to check what options we have in terms of racing wheelchairs.
So you think it's realistically doable

That's missing a question mark at the end.

@ steephie

Frankly it sounds like an awful idea. Lots of opportunities for the person in the wheelchair to feel discomfort, and very few to feel any sense of achievement. I dare say the novelty of being pushed at speed will be fun for the first 500m, but I can't see it lasting. If the person in the chair was leading on this that would be different, but as a steephie idea of the week goes it sucks.

Go to your local grocery store, buy several bags of potatoes, and run around the block with the shopping cart. Then you will have it out of your system.

As soon as I saw the question, I knew it was Steephie even before I looked. :-)

@ steephie: "Finishing time registration ends after 3 hours"

Registration for what? Are you proposing to enter some kind of competitive wheelchair-pushing race? Is this a common sporting tradition where you live?

Would you see anything wrong with suggesting it if the person in the chair is free to say no though?

You of course don't know what kind of person this is, but if anyone would like it, I would think it's this person.

It's also not a steephie idea of the week and I feel like I'm being quite a bit misunderstood around here but oh well :-)
On a sidenote, my idea's in the sense you're speaking of have pretty much never lead to bad things and on several occasions lead to good things, so I really don't see why it'd be a bad thing that it's an idea of mine.
Of course, I don't generally share my successes so I guess you would obviously assume that pretty much everything fails miserably, but no not really.

Have you ever run 25k before, even when you were in shape?

If the answer is "no", then the first time you try is not a time to push someone in a wheelchair.

@Jamie: Nope, pretty much like a marathon except 25km. I asked and the 'board' allows me to push someone in a wheelchair, so it's certainly an exception rather than a rule.
To be clear, I mean that they don't (officially) register your time if you don't finish within 3 hours.

Personally, I would have talked to the person before getting permission from the council.

@2WL: I am thinking this through a bit more than everyone here seems to think. I certainly don't plan to be doing 25km for the first time then. The event is months ahead. My training program would probably be something similar to a training program for a marathon (~42km), the thought being that if I can do 42km without a wheelchair, 25km with a wheelchair should be quite doable.

As for your question, I never ran in an official race or anything like that so I don't really know but I guess not. I have had periods of very active running though. Again I can't say for certain, but I would estimate that I've run 25km spread out over a day many times, which is of course easier, but the main reason I (probably) haven't done 25km in one run is because I never felt the desire to do 25km in one run. I just run for fun and a bit to stay in condition. I'm not competitive and therefore had no desire to join a race or something.

@abge: Perhaps you're right, but I think I made quite clear that I was just informing myself for now. I said "I'm currently considering" blabla. Again though, maybe you're right. As I explained in my first mail to them though, I didn't want to get someone enthousiastic about my idea just to find out that we're not even allowed to try. Now we can at least find out together whether this is something we really want to do.

I think it's a great idea, and I would have asked the council first also...

Awesome, MM. Good to know that not everyone thinks my idea is awful, although I truly appreciate the honesty from those who do.

Do you think it's doable though, MM?

I don't think the idea is awful at all. Just that you need to make sure you're prepared and should involve the person you'll be racing with.

Also @everyone, for the record:

I'm planning to ask an athletic classmate for example what he thinks as well and so on. I'm just informing here as well because I tend to think I can learn most if I get some words from many different perspectives. Asking webdip is more like getting a fourth/fifth opinion in terms of importance, although admittedly a second opinion in terms of chronology.

25k in 3 hours is an 11:30 pace. An 11:30 pace is a brisk walk, so running 25k is not something I doubt you can do.

Another consideration is the type of wheelchair you're pushing. If its a standard issue, hospital style wheelchair with metal wheels, there's no way in hell you're pushing that 25k. For your sake and the occupant's, it really needs to be a chair designed for this purpose; namely, a comfortable seat, rubber tires, low rolling resistance, etc.

Okay sorry abge and perhaps, that was an unfair generalization. Just because you didn't say my idea was good doesn't mean you think it's awful like a couple of others.

@2WL: IMO, the person has a pretty good ride already (the model is called the 'quickie' if I remember correctly. While that might give the wrong idea, it also suggests that it is kind of designed to be quick.), but that's certainly something I'll check and am willing to spend a bunch of bucks on if neccessary.

If worth it, I should say. If it is more comfortable and/or can scoop a couple of minutes off our time, I consider it worth it.

I also don't know what 11:30 pace means btw.

Also keep in mind that that the very real possibility of rain, which can be rather pleasant for the actual runner, is less enjoyable if you're sat on a chair with it being blown in your face.

Good point. I would think that if neccessary, the person in the chair could even just cover their head with a raincoat-ish thing for a while. Certainly something to remember to bring with you though.

I definitely think it's doable (won't be easy!) though the wheelchair will be important, you'll definitely want to do at least a few training runs (10K?) with your friend in the wheelchair to see how it goes. I like your plan to train for marathon, but pushing a wheelchair will add different stresses that could mess you up, I'm thinking lower back for example, you might do a 10K early on pushing your friend to see where unexpected stresses develop so you can then prepare your body a bit for that.

11:30 is a pace per mile, which likely means nothing to you, but it isn't super fast in and of itself if you are the runner type. I've never been a runner, broad shoulders (top heavy) and ~215 pounds, but I tried a few marathons in the last year and was able to do a 10K in less than 50 minutes (~8:00 mile) and a half marathon (21K/13.1 mile) in under two hours (~9:00 mile), but the wheelchair is absolutely a game changer, so you really need to figure out how that changes the equation, and the sooner the better.

An 11:30 pace means that you need to *average* 11:30 to run/push each mile. It actually works out to about 7:10 per kilometer. If you want to see how that pace feels, go down to your school track and run one lap in 2:55. Its painfully slow and its likely easier for you to run faster, believe it or not, even with a wheelchair. The problem, though, is that its hard to judge how you'll feel pushing a wheelchair for 25k, especially given that the course will probably have hills where you'll need to push harder and downhills where you'll need to control the speed.

Pushing the chair is obviously something you'd need to practice and go out on some training runs together.

If there are hills, I wouldn't hesitate for one second to plan on walking those, especially if they are very steep... I also think my shoulders would fall off before I could finish 25K, but hopefully your joints are better than mine!

Consider all advice heeded. Most of the things just said were pretty much what I had in mind, so I guess that's reassuring. I think that for me, pushing is quite easy to keep up compared to running. Of course, pushing and running at the same time is harder, but I think that for me it would be less than twice as tiring to do both at the same time.

I should certainly make sure I figured it all out well before then though.