I don't know, I'm a couch potato and I completed the Marine Corps Marathon a few years ago. My training started 6 months out, I ran struggled through 3 miles tw

I don't know, I'm a couch potato and I completed the Marine Corps Marathon a few years ago. My training started 6 months out, I ran struggled through 3 miles twice a week. My training ended two weeks afterward when my partner got ill. Yet somehow, I still finished the marathon well before they shut down the crux of the course (a ~1 mile section of roadway they only keep open for ~6 hours at the ~20 mile point). If my lazy, out of shape body can complete a marathon, I don't see why "most modern men" wouldn't be able to.