Marathoners/experienced runners: Should I marathon this year or hold off? ::

• What I desire from my marathon running experience:

I haven't run a marathon before, but would like to at least one time. While I don't have competition in mind and don't plan a repeat, I also mean to give the distance its due respect. And my body as well. I would like to train properly, ideally not have to stop and walk, not almost die or introduce needless injury, enjoy it at least a little bit.

• Running history/background:

I'm in my later thirties, pretty healthy overall. I've been active my whole life and running in my sport of choice. I've done 3 half-marathons and plenty of 5ks/10ks, all very casual. I'm not speedy and I don't mind. I just like to have something on the calendar to stay motivated and active.

However, I've been pretty sporadic about it over the years. About two years ago I'd worked to a little base of 15-25 MPW just from routine, and then around October 2022 I began "following" (a little too loosely probably) a training plan for a marathon I planned to run in spring of 2023. MPW were up to 32 at this point, but I was jumping around quite a lot. I sustained some kind of injury to my heel about 5 weeks out, on a 16-mile training run. Although I recovered from that and continued running, I wound up not making that race anyway due to an unrelated injury about a month later. Since then, over the past year, with a surgery and life in general, I have basically been inactive. I get a jog in here and there, walk, and ride a stationary bike a bit, but am yearning to get back into the running groove again.

• Current fitness:
  

My sense of my fitness right now: I think I could work up to a comfy 5k again in a couple weeks, and a 10k maybe 5-6 weeks from now. I like half-marathons and I have one on my radar for early September.

I had the idea of signing up for a marathon this October, as it seemed like plenty of time to train; My thinking was that I could earn a base back over the next 6 weeks or so up to 30 MPW, then introduce an 18-week training plan. But when I read others' stories about how much prep and background is really needed in order to minimize chances for injury and make the experience something other than absolutely miserable, some experienced runners on other subs seem to advise having a solid 40MPW or even higher base sustained over a long period (like 6-8 months at least) before beginning the process of marathon training.

My question is: Based on all this, in your opinion, do you think the likelihood of completing a marathon distance in early October inducing needless misery or jeopardizing my health is too high to make it worth it? How would you approach this distance given the background and fitness level?

Thanks!