Run a marathon
The first twenty miles are the training; the last six are the marathon. Around mile twenty-two your legs stop answering questions and strangers on the pavement start reading your name off your vest as if they have known you for years. That is the part people remember. A beginner plan is about sixteen weeks of four runs a week, one of them long and slow enough that you could chat. On the day, go out slower than feels sensible. You will cross the line, be handed a foil blanket and a medal, and find that walking down stairs is a new skill for three days.
Practical
- Cost
- $60–200 entry, plus shoes
- Best time
- Spring and autumn race seasons
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Time it takes
- Sixteen weeks of training, one morning
- What people get wrong
- Starting too fast because the crowd is loud. The first mile should feel almost too easy.
- With
- Alone