marathon training

Excerise caution in marathon training Running's holy grail can be the experience of a lifetime, but use common sense: experts
By ANDREA BAILLIE

TORONTO (CP) — Audacious would-be athletes who plan to add “complete a marathon” to their list of new year’s resolutions should exercise caution and common sense, say running experts.

“Goal setting is really important because you don’t want to set an unrealistic target and then be disappointed and even hurt yourself,” said Bruce Kidd, a former Olympian who is now dean of the faculty of physical education and health at the University of Toronto.

“That’s true of any participant in physical activity — whether it’s someone just starting out or it’s someone entering the Olympics.”

In recent years, marathons have become a matter of course for baby boomers seeking an ultimate fitness experience.

Celebrities have also got in on the act, with megastars like Sean (Diddy) Combs and Oprah Winfrey extolling the life-altering virtues of a 42.2-kilometre run.

But the marathon boom has also brought a new hurdle: many people aiming for running’s holy grail are simply not prepared to complete such a gruelling task.

Case in point: the popular Toronto running group JeansMarines was recently banned from the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington.

The move came after group founder Dr. Jean Marmoreo was accused of helping some runners take a shortcut to shave about 6.4 kilometres from course so they could avoid disqualification at this year’s event.

While participants at the event are required to cross the finish line in under seven hours, one race organizer said some of the JeansMarines runners were on pace to do it in a whopping 13 hours.

That left some in the running community questioning if the runners belonged at the event in the first place.

Marmoreo’s husband, Bob Ramsay, says JeansMarines — whose motto is “Yes ma’am, you can do a marathon” — learned a lesson from the ordeal.

“One of the things we’re doing is we’re saying ‘Look . . . you who are coming off the couch, are of a certain age, may be pretty overweight, this year would be best if you made a half marathon your goal.”

Experts say a more moderate approach to running can sometimes reap greater long-term benefits than the exhaustive do-or-die training involved with a marathon.

“You’d like to think that people are doing this on the way to an ongoing regular, lifetime fitness program,” said Running Room founder John Stanton.

“The ideal of all or nothing (goes) against that. A marathon is a high, but you don’t want it to be such an emotional and physically challenging event that you’re never going to run another step again.”

For those who are intent on going the distance this year, experts agree that the first order of business is a visit to a doctor.

“Unfortunately, people die at marathons,” said Jay Glassman, founder of the Toronto Marathon.

“It’s not that running is dangerous or contributes to the cause, but . . . there are often underlying medical issues that people might have.”

After runners receive a clean bill of health, they may want to consider a combination of walking and running to help them reach the finish line.

Marathoning guru Jeff Galloway swears by such a strategy and has developed a formula that uses a runner’s pace to determine what ratio of running and walking will best work for them.

“The biggest problem I see is people getting a base of fitness and then pushing the envelope too far,” he said in a telephone interview from Atlanta. “And the other component is to put enough walking into the mix.”

Adds Kidd: “It seems to me that the main thing is to keep going. It’s hard sometimes, but you’ve got to learn that if you’re in a bad patch, you hit the wall ... you can still keep going if you’re properly trained and so on.

“Walking is one way to do that.”

For those brave souls who do manage to run, walk or crawl to the finish line of a marathon in 2006, Galloway is convinced the experience will remain with them for a lifetime.

“I’ve advised over 200,000 runners. There has been nothing that I’ve seen or been told about from these people that has given the (same) sense of satisfaction and achievement as finishing a marathon,” he said.

“I hear from people that are CEOs of big companies, famous people, folks that have done it all, and the thing you’ll see on their office wall above all others is a T-shirt or a medal (from) the marathon they ran.

“There are certain accomplishments that you have to do yourself and this is one of them.”