In week two of our series, Emmet Malonetalks to leading Irish marathon runner Gary Crossan about what's in store for those just starting out on their long-distance training.
As writer George Plimpton recalls, in his wonderful book Shadow Box, when he prepared for his three-round bout with then world light heavyweight champion of the world, Archie Moore, he opted to read and talk about boxing, rather than train.
Finding such an approach attractive in these early and sometimes difficult days of my marathon training, I rather gleefully skipped going for a run last Monday to meet Gary Crossan, one of the country's leading long-distance runners. The intention was that I buy him lunch although, somewhat depressingly, he drank a bottle of water while I ate a curry.
Aside from overseeing the preparations of the Adidas-backed team of "virgins" each year, Crossan, a four-time national champion who has made a habit of being the leading Irish finisher in the Dublin race of late, also coaches a number of other groups for the marathon, many of them first-timers. He's a firm believer that just about everybody has a marathon in them, "as soon as the light goes on inside".
In his case, the switch was flicked about a quarter of a century ago when, as a boy, he accompanied the rest of the family as they travelled from Donegal to watch his father run in Dublin.
"He wasn't any sort of serious runner, I think he and his brother-in-law had done it for a bet or something, and he finished in four hours or so but I thought the whole thing was amazing and in a way it always felt like he was the better runner until I did my own first marathon."
By then Crossan had lost direction a little while on an athletics scholarship in the US and was looking for a new challenge. After running a few half marathons with the aim of competing at the 1997 World Student Games, stepping up to the full distance seemed like a natural move to make. A little less than 10 years on, he has run about 20 marathons.
"Over the course of the training and even on the day itself, the people I've worked with go through a hundred different emotions," he says. "They nearly all find themselves asking why they're doing it at some stage but if you've decided deep down that you're going to do it then it's a hard thing to escape from until you finally go out there and run the race. And when you do, it's an unbelievable feeling, crossing the finish line of your first marathon."
Crossan admits that unless a first-timer has access to a coach who can give specially tailored training advice, they are probably going to have to rely on one of the many plans that are available from books, magazines or internet sites. He cautions, however, against becoming too preoccupied with the detail involved.
"Most of them are fine and if you follow them reasonably well then you should get through but very few of them seem to allow that you are going to have some days that are better than others. There are going to be times when you've had a bad day at work or the baby has kept you awake all night or you're not feeling well and you have to give running a miss.
"Now, that's not the same thing as looking for excuses because if that's what you're doing then there will be a thousand of them and you'll never get through the training. You will need some discipline, there's no doubt about that, but you don't want to let this thing take over your life either so you have to apply some common sense."
At the core of almost all the plans floating about is the basic aim of getting miles under your belt. Most start with runs of three miles or so, usually four times a week and work their way up to weekly totals of about 40 miles with around half coming in the form of the longest training run. Pretty much all suggest that you peak about two to three weeks before the race.
"There are some important guidelines, like the 10 per cent rule [ you shouldn't increase your weekly average by more than 10 per cent because of the risk of injury]. But for most people it's a question of listening to their body.
"If you gradually build yourself up then you should be okay," he says. "The Race Series [ three races organised in July, August and September and covering five, 10 and 13.1 miles respectively] provides a pretty good idea of where you should be in terms of running particular distances fairly easily.
"After that, a lot of things will just naturally follow from the fact that you're out there doing the miles. You're going to need a good bit more rest because you'll be tired and you're going to be eating more because you're using so much energy, that sort of thing."
A full-time athlete and coach, Crossan agrees with the widely dispensed advice that you should not set yourself a goal in terms of a finishing time if this is your first marathon. "You're going somewhere you've never been before, finishing will be an achievement."
Long before that, though, he has a more pressing tip. "Get your entry in," he says with a grin. "Until you have a number coming out to you, it's all talk really."
Loaded up with advice but with no more miles under my belt we part. Plimpton, I can't help recalling, knew a lot more about boxing by the time he faced Moore in a New York gym but you won't be entirely surprised to hear that he had the lard beaten out of him.