How to train for Walking a Marathon – A Practical Experiment
Has anyone ever asked you if you’ve run a marathon? I’m guessing the answer is YES – more times than you’d probably like.
And what do you answer? Maybe you have run a marathon and the answer is yes. But if you haven’t, do you say “no” but I’d like to someday?
The real question is do you want to attempt a marathon? Has the idea been a quiet tickle in your mind for years now? Do you ever dream of raising your arms in victory as you cross the finish line ahead of everyone else and in the process sett a new world’s record? Okay, maybe that’s what I fantasize about, but maybe you’ve dreamed of training for and completing your first marathon by walking one.
If the answer is “maybe” or “yes” I invite you to join me in discovering what it’s like to train for and WALK a marathon – or 26.2 miles to be more descriptive. While I’ve trained for and walked a marathon once before (actually they measured the course incorrectly so my first marathon turned out to be 34 miles instead of 26.2), it’s been a while. And I can tell you without question that after 34 miles I was tuckered out. My walking partner who drove us to the event kindly drove us to a restaurant about 10 miles away. To anyone watching, my attempt to walk from the car to the restaurant must have been hysterically funny. At first I thought my legs were not even going to partially respond to my request to carry me. Instead they felt like knots of dough, painful knots. I did however, make it to a seat in the restaurant. Don’t worry though. We’ll go through how to avoid the various mistakes I made in my first effort.
Let me say from the start that YOU CAN WALK A MARATHON. Your training might take longer than you expected but remember two things. First, our bodies are made to walk. Biomechanically we’re designed to be walking machines. And second, remember also that we all set our limits too low. In reality, in almost any area you choose, you can do so much more than you ever believed possible. And that includes walking a marathon.
So I invite you to join me in preparing to walk a marathon sometime in the near future. In a series of posts I’ll go over a number of topics including how to choose a training schedule, the kind of clothing and equipment you’ll need, what kinds of food work best to fuel your efforts, how to take care of your feet, which marathons are walker friendly, some suggestions on resistance training and much, much more.
If you’re game, I hope you’ll join me. I’ve already started my training, two days worth, and I’ll log in frequently with my own results and thoughts.
What I really want to hear about though is how your efforts are proceeding.
So lace up those shoes, grab some energy food, plenty of water and the proper clothing and equipment and join me in a quest to walk a marathon.
And remember, after you complete your marathon, you’ll never have to worry about anyone asking you “that question” again. You’ll say Yes! before they finish their sentence.
