Dare to Run A Marathon

3,364members Daring to Run a marathon have tracked a total of 4,647 times

Running a marathon can be one of the most rewarding and motivating experiences of your life, and can teach you endless lessons about endurance, inner strength and perseverance.

Member Comments

By nicolemashburn on November 19, 2009 at 02:47 PM

ran 5, next up 20 miles :) Last hard week.


By jacmcj03 on November 20, 2009 at 04:33 AM

Good job! Im excited for you!


By mattw on November 20, 2009 at 08:49 AM

Ditto. I did 20 last week and I may go for 22 or so tomorrow, just to see if I can keep going after 20. Nicole, you must be running on Dec. 12. Me too, in Charlotte.

By apricot24 on November 18, 2009 at 08:29 AM

First day of training! Got Mitch to join in my goal. YEAH! Austin here we come!


By jacmcj03 on November 19, 2009 at 05:49 AM

Yay! Good job! Keep it up!

By nicolemashburn on November 16, 2009 at 05:22 PM

last hard week. 20 miler coming up. Just 4 weeks till the marathon!


By Zero486 on November 16, 2009 at 07:11 PM

Wow, 20 miles is awesome. I'm just starting to train for a half marathon and even 13 miles seems daunting to me.


By nicolemashburn on November 17, 2009 at 11:54 AM

13 is daunting, but you will get there before you know it :)


By tlewis24 on November 17, 2009 at 02:15 PM

Have fun on the 20 miler... Just remember to taper and take it easy the 2 weeks before the race.


By nicolemashburn on November 18, 2009 at 02:57 PM

I am a believer in the taper! I did one half marathon with and one half without taper. Did much better in half with a taper!

By BrandonBrill on November 18, 2009 at 07:55 AM

Sprint work outs help as well as distance and lifting after

By jamesacuddihy on November 18, 2009 at 03:24 AM

Practice indeed makes "better," but never quite perfect...yet!

By jstacklin on November 17, 2009 at 05:42 PM

Rn six miles today ... I'm building the miles. Ideally, by January , when training starts in earnest, I hope to be logging about 40 miles a week. For now, I'm at 32-34 and running five days each week.

By paulsn on November 17, 2009 at 08:47 AM

Short and sweet 30 minute trail run this morning, felt great!

By LyleLRG2 on November 16, 2009 at 07:25 PM

5+ miles indoors tonight 41min

By Sabrinamps on November 15, 2009 at 06:18 AM

Just quit the cigs and plan to run the Dublin City Marathon next year,I am entered into the Connemara Marthon in Galway nxt April.Cannot run at all at the minute so heres hoping!!!


By tlewis24 on November 15, 2009 at 01:06 PM

Good luck!
I recommend following a good beginners marathon program. There are a lot of good ones out there, Some great places to check are Runners world & Active .com, & Nike Running.

www.runnersworld.com
www.nikerunning.com
www.active.com

By Mimmsm on November 10, 2009 at 08:30 AM

I just ran my first Marathon on Sunday! It was the most amazing experience I have ever had.


By wdantcalories on November 15, 2009 at 09:08 AM

Awesome!!!


By tlewis24 on November 15, 2009 at 01:02 PM

GOOD JOB!!!
What marathon did you run?

By wdantcalories on November 15, 2009 at 09:10 AM

Hi All,

After running the half marathon yesterday, only major soreness is in my quads. Any recommendation regarding training or technique? Why are my quads sore and nothing else?


By tlewis24 on November 15, 2009 at 01:01 PM

Without knowing how you are training, I can only suggest what has helped me in the past.

Training:
1. build speed work
2. run hills (or steep incline on treadmill)
3. add yoga into daily training

Race day:
1. proper warm up & stretching
2. proper post race cool down & stretching
3. Post race Ice Massage on sore areas.

I know these are general, but I hope they help

By tlewis24 on November 15, 2009 at 12:45 PM

Rest day.

By RockyQ on November 12, 2009 at 12:41 PM

I have a question for those of you who may have ran a marathon before...

I read something the other night regarding hitting a wall after 20 miles do to the fact that your reserves are depeated...is this true? If you guys were able to get through the remaining 6 miles with out feeling like you 'hit a wall' what do you recommend for thos of us who are going to be running a Full for the first time? Thank you!


By LyleLRG2 on November 13, 2009 at 07:20 PM

You definitely need to be fueled... Hydration is the most important thing, but having enough calories to continue is necessary.. Protein bars etc and a eating lots of carbs the days before the marathon is required... there are a lot of sites to find info. so do some digging and keep training... good luck!


By rhasson on November 14, 2009 at 08:11 AM

I got some great advice from a runner from California on the morning of my first marathon (10.17.2009). He warned me about the last 6 miles and letting the "negatives" defeat me; he suggested that I keep reminding myself of how far I'd already come, how I trained for this, and that I could do it. That and the fact that I was running to support the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer in honor of my sister-in-law Gail who is a survivor and back to running got me through.

Years ago when I first stated running I "hit the wall" at a much shorter distance than 20 miles. As I continued to run and increase my mileage the wall moved further and further out. I haven't hit it since. The general rule is that the "wall" is somewhere just past 3x your regular training distance; i.e. if you're running 6 miles as a maximum training distance the wall should be around 20 miles, if you're running 10 then you shouldn't hit the wall before the 30 mile mark.

Hope this helps, you can do it.


By tlewis24 on November 14, 2009 at 09:28 AM

I have run both Marathons & Ultra Marathons, and the key is in the training. Be sure to follow a Marathon specific schedule. It will help ensure you will not only finish, but finish strong.

Runners world has some great suggestions for not hitting the wall on your first marathon. Check them out. http://www.runnersworld.com/


By RockyQ on November 14, 2009 at 04:21 PM

Thank you everyone, for your advice, it is greatly appreciated! =)

By wdantcalories on November 10, 2009 at 08:04 PM

Half Marathon this coming Saturday. Did my long run on Saturday of 11.2 miles. Felt great.

But now, I have taken three rest days... am I resting too much before the race?!!!


By mattw on November 11, 2009 at 05:41 AM

That should be okay. Try to do an easy 3-5 miles Wednesday or possibly Thursday. But definitely rest up on Friday. I did about the same last week before a half. I did 3 miles on Wed., 6 on Thur. and then none on Fri. before a Sat. race.


By erockman on November 12, 2009 at 05:35 AM

you should taper but don't stop. do 2-3 miles each day. just my opinion.
i've run 20+ half marathons.


By wdantcalories on November 14, 2009 at 02:52 PM

I ended up with a 4 mile run on wednesday. Felt great on race day today!

By rhasson on November 14, 2009 at 08:02 AM

Ok, got out of the habit of keeping this up. Finished this goal on October 17th.

By wdantcalories on November 14, 2009 at 07:53 AM

Finished Richmond Half Marathon. Personal distance record and my time was better than I hoped. 1:52:31 Yay!!!

By BoxxyLady on November 12, 2009 at 07:34 AM

Hello all! I have finally decided to do our local (small) marathon, 5k, so probably a half marathon, if that. I need to lose quite a bit of weight, and have been wanting to do this marathon for a couple of years, so this should be the motivation I need to get my diet in gear. My cardio is pretty good considering the extra weight I'm packing, I just need to kick it up a bit and more specifically, get my diet in gear.


By mattw on November 12, 2009 at 08:42 AM

I'm not sure what you mean by "...marathon, 5k, so probably a half marathon...". Just to be clear:
5k = 3.1 miles
10k = 6.2 miles
Half-Marathon = 13.1 miles
Marathon = 26.2 miles

Whatever distance you go for is great, just so you're out there running and exercising.


By BoxxyLady on November 12, 2009 at 02:29 PM

Ha! I guess I'll be doing an 1/8 marathon. I didn't know for sure how much a full marathon was, but figured it would be a lot more than our little local "marathon" Oh well, it still gives me a goal to help kick my hiney into gear so I can lose this weight and get into shape. Maybe eventually I'll look and see if there are any true marathon's in our area. Maybe in the city.


By mattw on November 13, 2009 at 06:51 AM

A 5k is an excellent goal for getting started in running. You can just work your way down the list I posted: 5, 10, half, full. My wife was wanting to lose a few pounds so she started the Couch to 5k plan on coolrunning.com. So far she has had great results and might even be enjoying it. I definitely enjoy the time we are out running together.

By Anonymous on November 12, 2009 at 12:36 PM

Registered for my first 5k.My goal is to run the whole thing.. baby steps.

By paulsn on November 12, 2009 at 07:08 AM

Signed up for the National Half-Marathon in March 2010 to give me something to train for and motivate myself over the cold and nasty winter months. If all goes well, then I will run the Marine Corps Marathon in Oct 2010!


By mattw on November 12, 2009 at 08:43 AM

Great plan Paul. A March goal is a great idea for winter motivation. I probably need something like that too as my marathon is in December and I may just feel like hibernating after that. :)

By Jorge_M on November 10, 2009 at 10:28 AM

Hi.
My Marathon is on Dec 13Th 2009, in Monterrey, México. I'm following an 18 weeks program I've donwloaded. Last Saturday I've run 32K for training. It was amazing. I've run at not optimal conditions, some were my fault some don't. In my opinion the worst conditions you train (weather, ugly landscape, no music, etc), the better you are prepared to face the 42K. Finally when I reached Km 32 (19.88Mi) after run out of water, sun burned, leg pained, I exploded in tears. My first time doing this distance. It's amazing how our bodies can be pushed and pushed trough the limits.

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