Is this a bad idea?

So in my school, seniors have to do a Senior Project, which can basically be anything they want. Previous seniors have done things ranging from beer brewing, to ghost hunting, to learning parkour and recording cd's. It's a bit early (i'm still a junior. the senior project is supposed to take the majority of the school year), but I've been thinking about doing something running related for mine.
What i was thinking of originally was doing a marathon (i wasnt gonna train like superhard for it or anything. it was more of a matter of just finishing it and being able to say that i've ran one.).
Then i got thinking about running this 100k race which my dad has done for the past 5 or so years. Obviously i wouldnt be running the whole thing since its up like 10 mountains and stuff, but i'd be doing a mixture of hiking and running. the race is right after xc season, so it wouldnt screw me over or anything. but do you guys think it is like bad/dangerous for my body?

Theres no question it's bad for your body, a marathon would not be as bad as a 100k but whatever you do it up to you.

I think if you trained for it you would be okay as long as you were careful. But, you might have trouble getting the proper training if all the preparation time is the cross country season you won't be able to train for that while doing the xc workouts.
i think doing marathon would better but it's up to you!

I would do a marathon before doing anything that long. You could also make xc flags or organizing a race instead.

ooooh wow. A 100k? Really? Dannnngggg. More power to ya if you wanna do it.
I'd do a marathon 1st though. I haven't ran a marathon before, but I know I'd want to know what a marathon would feel like before I do a 100k.

To realistically be able to finish that, you'd need to do some epic long runs (say, maybe up to 20 miles, or 30 miles of mixed hiking / running) which would screw up your XC season. Try a marathon, if you do a couple of 16-20 milers you'll be find for finishing.

that sounds like a sweet project

I'd do it. It would be an awesome life achievement, a great way to enjoy nature, and would probably be something cool to do with your dad. I'm sure you dad can help you a lot with strategy and training (walking up hills, starting slow, mileage, what to eat, etc.). Hell, maybe you will like the challenge and find a new lifelong hobby.

For being good for you, I say it shouldn't matter. People now are too worried about pain and hung up on extremely long distances. It will be an incredible amount of stress on your body, but as long
as you give yourself time to recover afterward you should be fine. The more you train and run the better your body will recover. You are young and will heal up. My best friend took about 2 and a half weeks off of running when he finished the Leadville 100 mile trail run but he was fine after that. Another one of my friends only made it 50 miles before he got DNFed (disqualified for not making the time cut off at the aid station) but was fine within a week. They were both 21 and the one that finished never ran a marathon before and just turned 21 that summer. The year before I had another friend finish that race.

If you want to do a marathon first, I guess that is up to you. Marathons don't appeal to me. Everyone is doing them now. Even Oprah did one like 10-15 years ago. No one does ultras. It is a fringe sport that doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

Running
three miles is a chore for most Americans, so running 50 is just about
inconceivable and weird to most. Man, I have a healthy, athletic
family, but to explain how far I run just about blows their minds! I
can relate to that perspective though, because only a few years ago I
thought 50 miles of running was nuts.
-Dave Mackey, Three-Time winner of Mountain Masochist 50 Mile Trail Race

Yosh wrote:
If you want to do a marathon first, I guess that is up to you. Marathons don't appeal to me. Everyone is doing them now. Even Oprah did one like 10-15 years ago. No one does ultras. It is a fringe sport that doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

Translation: Since the competition in the marathon is greater, I'm too slow at the marathon compared to all the other people. Even Oprah can beat me in a marathon. Therefore I moved up to a distance that hardly anyone runs to call myself a better runner and "move up the ranks" because now I'm "competing" with a smaller number of people (typically mostly people who moved up to become more "competitive").

The Corrector wrote:

Yosh wrote:
If you want to do a marathon first, I guess that is up to you. Marathons don't appeal to me. Everyone is doing them now. Even Oprah did one like 10-15 years ago. No one does ultras. It is a fringe sport that doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

Translation: Since the competition in the marathon is greater, I'm too slow at the marathon compared to all the other people. Even Oprah can beat me in a marathon. Therefore I moved up to a distance that hardly anyone runs to call myself a better runner and "move up the ranks" because now I'm "competing" with a smaller number of people (typically mostly people who moved up to become more "competitive").

Did you ever hear the story about the tortoise and the hare?

Look, kid. You're getting it all wrong. The competition is the little voice in your head that says "If you stop running, then all this pain will go away." I don't care about "moving up in the ranks" to call myself a better runner. Maybe you are faster than me and maybe not. But I assure you than I can keep going when you physically and mentally break after continued hours and hours of effort.

I can probably run a marathon under 4
hours right now if I wanted to. Whatever. The only 26.2 mile event I ever did was the Bataan Memorial Death March in New Mexico last year. I was wearing a combat uniform, carrying forty pounds in a rucksack on my back, and wearing boots through the desert. When I finished nearly eight hours later, I had salt stains from dried sweat throughout my clothes and on my face; even a salt stalactite off the end of my nose. I finished in the top third out of everyone carrying packs.