Foo - Marathon, olé

Is there anyone that runs marathons on here? Last night I did a mini-marathon (13 miles) and plan on running in the Steamtown Marathon (http://www.steamtownmarathon.com/) held in PA in October. From there I would like to qualify for the Boston Marathon for next year. I am lucky enough to have a friend who runs a lot like I do, but he is not experienced in marathons either. Looking for some advice/tips on training if there's any available out there!

oh man, you kick ass! I just got into running and my goals are still set at 10k level. I followed runner's world "ultimate 10k training plan" and it was very good. So, if you haven't looked around runnersworld.com you should! They know everything :)

Sweet! Now that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

Mirona,

Good luck with your running. I run more than I bike (I bike mostly to/from work) and am trying to get some speed training in this summer before the fall marathon season (registered for Marine Corps Marathon in October). I've run a few marathons before, and a few ultramarathons too.

Definitely check out runnersworld.com and runningtimes.com. Both sites have lots of training information and schedules. Runningtimes is geared more toward the "competitive" runner, Runner's World is for everyone else. There are some great books too. The one that got me (and millions of others) started was Jeff Galloway's book. He has a couple, but Galloway's Book on Running is the classic. You can probably pick it up used at Amazon or Half.com for cheap.

Good luck! PM me if you have any specific questions.

Marathon, with milk!

Yes, I marathon. Tried the distance challenge [1] last year but wound up screwing up my knees at the 30K. (thanks to school. No train and no run make Homer something something.)

[1] In Austin, a series of races of increasing distances, culminating in the Freescale Marathon.

I've run a few and I'm thinking of doing another in the fall. Definitely check out Runnersworld.com for online training plans. You might ask at your local running shoe store; if you've got a FleetFeet in your area, I'd go there.

And whatever you do, don't skimp on the LSD runs.

I've been reading up on runnersworld and it is definitely going to help me out. I'm not sure if I'm fast enough yet to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but I'm pretty darn close. Has anybody entered one of those big marathons that you have to qualify for, and how hard is it to get chosen? I know they have people from all over the world going there, but I really have no clue about these things. All I know is how to make my legs go up, down, and forward.

There are folks who spend years, if not decades, trying to qualify for Boston so it would be a huge accomplishment to do it in your first or second marathon.

There are others that use a lottery, like the Marine Corps in DC. That's a great one, highly recommended. They had the lottery back in the spring, but it may still be possible to get in if you're willing to raise some money for charity like Team in Training or St. Jude's.

There are folks who spend years, if not decades, trying to qualify for Boston so it would be a huge accomplishment to do it in your first or second marathon.

There are others that use a lottery, like the Marine Corps in DC. That's a great one, highly recommended. They had the lottery back in the spring, but it may still be possible to get in if you're willing to raise some money for charity like Team in Training or St. Jude's.

Okay, so I can probably rule that out. Also, the web site says the Marine Corps registration has ended. I guess I'll just do a lesser known one for now and just go for time and the experience.