The first (and only) marathon I ever completed was eleven years ago.

I was halfway into my college course at University and firmly entrenched in the student lifestyle of boozing, binging and exercising my fingers on speed dial for the local Chinese takeaway.

Fortunately I had enough self-awareness to catch myself and realise that I needed to haul ass out of that toxic state and get back into shape.

I had watched in awe as my older brother lost several kilo the previous Summer, seemingly without effort, even though his appetite was still as strong as ever. I had taken a passive interest in his dogged pursuit of fitness to tackle the beast that is the Marathon – 26.2 mile (42km).

When I watched him on the Dublin streets that October morning and witnessed the throngs of people that had come out to cheer the competitors, the seed was sown in me that day and I promised myself that I would complete it in my lifetime. I didn’t have to wait long.

My Motivation was pretty simple.

  1. Get back into shape (lose 5 kilo of fat)
  2. Improve fitness
  3. Look and feel healthier again
  4. Sibling rivalry – I REALLY wanted to beat my older brother’s recorded time

I was 21 years old at the time. Although I was tall and seemingly lean, I had a classic skinny-fat build with much of it accumulating on my waist line because of a sedentary lifestyle. The odd session in the gym lifting weights was about as much exercise as I could muster in those days.

The last time I had done any kind of running aside from the odd football match was probably in my early teens for track and field events at school. In my childhood I was very fast, a specialist at 100m as I towered over the other competitors who were usually in classes below me – visualise a white Norn Irish Usain Bolt.

I was hopeless at longer distances though, and I felt that my asthma especially during childhood impeded me so I felt more comfortable at short distances.

When I decided to take part, I made the commitment and signed up for the Dublin Marathon 2003, eight months in advance. I also told close friends and family who gave me enormous encouragement. Two of my friends also registered and the constant playful banter in the months ahead were a great motivation.

Not knowing a thing about running, mileage or how much to train I bought a book called The Competitive Runner’s Handbook. It was an invaluable source and covered a huge array of topics which I quickly became comfortable with.

My Geeky Training Schedule - Milages
My Geeky Training Schedule – Mileages

In it, the authors suggest writing a running diary and detailing each run together with times, locations and other impressions. Personalising this account, they said, can turn an otherwise boring and monotonous run into something much richer and fulfilling. I was sceptical, but decided to heed the advice in any case.

The sample plans they provided were very thorough – talk of interval training, fartlek and circuits was intimidating at first. However, there was one plan that suited my needs as a newbie runner.

The training to get from 0 to 26 miles would take between 16-20 weeks with distances gradually increasing over time. College was coming to an end for that semester and I figured I would find the extra time over Summer to juggle running with my stints on a building site, working with my Uncle during the day.

I was fortunate that by spending Summer at home in Northern Ireland in the small rural village of Cloughmills, it meant that I had lots of countryside roads to run on. I took the car for a drive and marked off each mile from our house for easy reference on the milage clock.

Of course now that I would soon be a fully fledged marathon runner, I had to look the part and bought the obligatory expensive running gear, breathable vests, ultralite socks, pump gel trainers, branded shorts, baseball cap and the rest.

I also filled up my Ipod with soundtracks to Rocky, Gladiator, Braveheart or any Hollywood Blockbuster for that matter where the title character was in battle or dying. I was all good to go.

Naturally, the first few times I went running were incredibly difficult. I could barely push my body more than 200 yards from my front door. Sometimes, I would have a stitch in my side within minutes which would prevent me from continuing. Aches in my feet and legs were not uncommon in those first few weeks – consulting the book later I self-diagnosed shin splints and went about correcting the problem with recommended exercises.

Diary of a Geek Runner - weather reports included (cringe!)
Diary of a Geek Runner – weather reports included (cringe!)

In short – it was bloody awful to begin with, and progress was slow.

But, I had made the commitment. Given myself plenty of time to prepare. Involved a supportive cast to support me in my goal, and was determined to see it through to the bitter end.

When the event came around four short months later, I had lost a huge amount of weight without trying. I felt stronger and healthier than ever before had spent many hours pounding the ground in training, at times entering some kind of elusive zen state where my body ran of its own accord and I was completely at peace (known as runner’s high).

I’m glad to say that I completed the marathon. My first and only effort. It took 4 hours and 7 minutes beating my brother by some 8 minutes. To see my cheering family at the finish line made it all worthwhile. It was an incredibly tough thing to put the body through and I had my toughest test around the 21 mile mark, generally the mark where runners ‘hit the wall’ – glycogen supplies depleted, the starved body begins it’s shutdown mode.

Mental strength is needed to overcome this obstacle, but a well trained and prepared runner can stumble through this obstacle.

It was one of the highlights of my life and something I would highly recommend to anyone flirting with the idea.

To boil it down, here would be the main points to keep in mind if stepping up to the challenge.

129 Responses

  1. I’ve run off and on most of my life. It irritates my wife that I can go months without doing it and just up and run 5 miles one day. I let a neighbor lady talk me into a couple of half marathons, but I have no delusions about running 26 miles in a row. I’m not sure my 40 year old body could handle it. Solid advice here though, for others looking to do it. Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind one day.

    1. Thanks for commenting Don. Plenty of time to tick it off your bucket list if your mind changes. Plenty of MUCH older gents in their 60s and 70s still tackling the Beast year in, year out. Each to their own I guess!

  2. I signed up for a 5k. It’s in October, but I have no idea how to train for it. I’m a little overweight, but I have been going to the gym. I can go a little over a mile on the treadmill but that still takes about thirty minutes. I sometimes go to the park to run…but are the people running the entire time in a marathon-do they great, walk, jog…help me out here 🙂 thanks!

    1. Hi Wrightlove! Thanks for taking the time to comment. My personal recommendation is for you to phase running gently into your schedule.

      When I first started, I could barely run a mile. What helped in those early, difficult days was to time running spurts into my long walks.

      Your goal is 5k – You are going to the gym so I assume you do most of your running on the treadmill. Here is my advice.

      Complete 5k for every running workout you do. BUT, in the early stages you will be walking for most of this distance and building up your stamina.

      A sample workout for Week 1 could be:

      5 minutes of running followed by 10 minutes of walking. This done 3 times should get you near the 5k mark.

      Week 2 could be 7 minutes of running followed by 8 minutes of walking.

      Week 3 could be 9 minutes of running, followed by 6 minutes of walking.

      You’ll find that by gradually increasing the time that you are running each week (accompanied by slow walk breaks) that you will eventually build your stamina to complete 5k simply by running without the need for filler walking breaks.

      I hope this is useful – always run at your own pace and listen to your body. 5k is a great achievement and you have plenty of time to get the fitness you need to complete it.

      Best of luck! 🙂

  3. Really fun blog post.
    I spend more time working on running playlists than actually running.
    Rocky and whitesnake mainly. 🙂

    1. Neither Paul. Writing is a pretty lonely pursuit, so I’m only competing against myself. And sometimes I can be as lazy as the next person.