by Andrew Allen

Created on: January 30, 2007   Last Updated: April 27, 2007

People who run marathons are crazy. Seriously. 26.2 miles is an extraordinarily long distance. Up to 20 miles is reasonable but beyond that begins the insanity.

If however you still insist on running one, let me adequately prepare you for what is to come. You should begin training a minimum of 18 weeks prior to the race. Running will consume a large portion of your life. It's like having a baby. You will need to make social sacrifices in favor of running unless of course you do the training with some friends in which case it could qualify as a social activity. If you travel for work, it will be challenging to stay committed to a program but if you're serious, it is possible.

At least once a week, you will run a long run which in the later stages of training will take you up to 20 miles that easily will take 3 hours or more. Read that again. 3 hours. Running. That is a heck of a long time. Half the day is gone including stretching, showering, etc. And, you will do this on multiple occasions. Not just once.

It is conceivable to prepare for a marathon on 3 days a week of training and some suggest that this helps to prevent injury. I concur with the injury prevention part but question the adequacy of the training. I'd recommend something more along the lines of 4 or 5 days a week.

The tapering portion of training in some ways can mess with you both physically and psychologically. After training for 15-16 weeks and running a bunch of miles each week, in the program, you'll begin backing your mileage off to allow your body to recover from training and be ready and injury free for the race. This provides a bit of extra time to commit to work/social activities and catch up on things since you're not running quite as much.

From a mental perspective, you'll start freaking out and thinking "oh my goodness I'm going to lose all my conditioning and bonk in the race." This is simply unfounded. If you've followed the plan, your body will be in great condition and you will not gain anything by running hard during those final weeks and could possibly injure yourself. This is tough to accept and truly buy in to.

In my experience, the reduced amount of running also messes with the ability to sleep due to serotonin levels getting messed with from a reduction in exercise. You'll also be peeing like every hour from water retention and your body not using as much stored up fluid.

It's also important to watch what you eat especially during these last few weeks leading up to the race. A small

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