Hints and tips before your first marathon

First up, these thoughts came to me after my first (and so far only) marathon (last year, Frankfurt marathon: 3:43.36). I don’t claim to be an expert in marathon running, nor are the ideas below guaranteed to work for everyone – they are things that I did (and sometimes didn’t do) that I felt resulted in me completing the marathon inside my goal (sub-4 hours) without too much pain (or at least, I survived).

Does the TW in TWitter stand for Two Wheels?

July 4-26, 2009

Tour de France (cycling) is perhaps the first sporting event ever where fans can receive personal updates during the race (or at least in between stages) from the competitors.  Many of the riders are tweeting, as well as some former Tour de France riders, and other current and former cycling professionals with views on the race.

Marathon running

It’s a bit late for me to make my first posting about running.  Last year I started training for the Frankfurt marathon, and completed the marathon (3:43.36) on 26 October.

I hadn’t planned entering the marathon, but was cornered by two friends at Liz Powell’s birthday BBQ party who had signed up that day and suggested I join them.  Being rather out of shape after having recently completed my MBA I decided that it was indeed the right thing to do (the few beers I’d had that evening already helped with the decision making …).