personally i use to hate running when i was in the army and in school, despite the most i ran at any one time was about 2.5 km's.
Never ran anything longer than that.
These days though i run up to 2.5 kays but just love doing it. I am a bit of a masochist though and love the feeling of exercising by running.
Can fully understand the OP's thoughts on the dangers of marathon running, i lost a colleague and very good friend who just happen to organise and run in the Burnie 10:
https://www.burnieten.com.au/ a 10 km marathon run held each year. He was a fitness fanatic and died from a heart attack in his early 30's.