Marathon

daytonadolphin9

Has anyone ran a marathon or trained for one? My son and I have decided to train to run the Disney Marathon next January and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on training. We have already signed up for a 5K in March and are training for that, but I know I still have a long way to go.



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uk_james

Hi, I've not done a marathon before (would love to one day), but have done several half marathons (including 4 consequtive days of them - 100km total, which I did in China to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association).

I'll probably get shot down for my non scientific approach to it, but I just took the view that regular training, including lots of running, eating healthily would get me to the level of fitness to make it! On long runs my best friends were Vaseline (to stop and groin chaffing) and plasters to prevent sore nipples! After my first 12 mile practice run I learnt fast!!

I've got pretty good stamina but I do find running quite boring, so found running with other people, or taking the iPod with some good tunes was great. I used to use heart rate monitors and the Nike plug in thing for the iPod (measures speed, distance, etc) was good for immediate feedback. There are more sophisticated GPS monitors, etc now, but that kind of thing really helped with the mental side of it. The other angle to it was by signing up to events - certainly focuses the mind on the training cos it was scary to think that once you're there doing it on race day, you've got to be able to keep going!

Good luck and keep us updated!

dad040859

I've run two full marathons in Chicago (2003 and 2004) and a half-marathon in 2007. I always followed Hal Higdon's training programs; he's generally considered as one of the deans of training ( halhigdon.com ). Good solid training is at least 16 weeks, but don't wait until September! Good luck; even though there are thousands of runners, it is not a competition. You will find it is one of the most difficult yet rewarding experiences of your lives.

dad040859

Just a "footnote" (sorry); I didn't train properly for my first marathon, as I was running for charity and didn't care how long it took me. BIG mistake. I was at least thirty pounds overweight at the time, and by the end of the race I realized that I had terribly damaged my knees. To this day, if I don't exercise enough, they will begin to be sore. I don't run anymore, but wish I did.