New runner with a pretty lofty goal.... (Read 1599 times)

Lots of good advice here. If your goal is to finish in under 4 hours, you should be fine. I walked all of my first half marathon and finished in a little over four ours with no running at all. I'm 5'4" and at the time was about 140 pounds. Also 64 years old. I'd only been training for about three months at that point and didn't have good shoes yet.

I currently live in Pensacola, FL with my husband who's in flight school, but we're planning on going to one in Nashville on April 25th I believe. also, are you an Aggie as well? My husband and I are both Class of 06!

I live in Biloxi, MS and will be at the same race. I will be running the full. Good luck!

Nobby, I couldn't get that link to work. By the way, not to hijack the thread, I was thinking about you the other day, and wanted to thank you.

Arla: You're right. I checked the spelling and it was correct but, for some reason, it didn't open. Let's try again. http://www.juanjosemartinez.com.mx/seko.html By the way, thank you, but what did I do? ;o) Shhh! It's nothing naughty, is it??? ;o)

Thanks! What a kick! I'm just thanking you for being supportive to us newbies, without blowing sunshine... We save the naughty stuff for srlopez...

Arla: Thank you! I thought you were thanking me for saying that you have a nice name...! ;o) But really, thanks! You made my day. I've had my share of ups and downs with my running. When I first moved to MN, I was on the lower end of it. I entiered this 5 mile race and, for the heck of it, I decided to start at the very end. I was amazed to see EVERYONE there, including those who were at the very end, were just as serious as those who were at the front. My mentor, Arthur Lydiard, of course was the one who said that he got "just as much gratification with helping out obese middle aged person to get out and run a few miles as coaching Olympic champion." He meant it; and I mean it as well. Those whom I help range from 2:22 (man) to 4:20 (also man). I would get a kick out of this guy breaking 4 hours just as much as the other guy breaking 2:20; and this is the truth. I have been involved in running for more than 30-years (since I was...well, 2 years old, yeah, that's it...!). I've been involved with some of the bests and learnt a lot from them; and from message boards like this, I've learnt a lot about what people are thinking--and that's very important to me. What bothers me is misinformation; misinterpretaion and misguidance. Some people seem to love to "show off" what they have read on paper or internet with whole bunch of scientific looking mumbo-jumbo. I don't know what those people are thinknig, what their intention is but, as far as I'm concerned, what they do is to limit the potential of development--if you're such-and-sucn height, you can't be this and that. If your VO2Max is such-and-such, you can't run this time or that time. If you are so many years old, you can only go this far... I was talking to premier US exercise physiologist, Dave Martin, last week. He's as much of a scientist as you can get; he's a statistician as well. And we both agreed that (yeah, this is my line lately) it's "not the bones and muscles that run; but heart and soul that run..." One of the biggest things I'm interested in right now is how original gurus like Lydiard or Bill Bowerman took a middle aged obese people who couldn't even run 200 yards without stopping and tuen them into running 20 mies WITHOUT STOPPING. One of the biggest things that I can think of is all these misinformation, misinterpretation (and those who are spreading it around) and misguidance. I believe it can be done. I'm still learning how... That's exciting.

I might have come out cocky or arrogant; but I don't mean to at all. I've been involved in running for more than 30 years now but I'd be the first to admit that I'm still learning and learning a lot. One of the most useful information I've gained from this message board recently is about "runner's trot"--I even copied it and stored it in the file. I've never had that problem; I've known only one person (a guy) who had that issue and he actually, well, just stuck his hands in and dumped them out of his shorts (during the race)! Not a good advice to follow! ;o) If you never had it, you'll never know what to do. This is why sometimes it's not the very best of elite who would give the best advice. I treasure books written by the late Ron Daws--he was not a talented runner (PR 2:20+ and something like 4:50 high school miler) and yet he made the US Olympic team by out-thinking others. Being able to motivate others, and knowing how to do it well, means A LOT. But, as far as I'm concerned, it's not the same as just simply saying "Oh, you can do it..." (I hope this is what Arla meant by "without blowing sunshine...") I still remember when I asked Arthur Lydiard what he thought I could do. Instead of "blowing sunshine", he simply told me, well if you want to be good (or better), this is what you need to do... There's a difference between being realistic and being an empty cheerleader. You only get what you pay for. You want to run a marathon and do it reasonably well, you've got to put in the work. There's no short-cut to it; I don't believe in those "less is better" crap particularly for those who might be getting "overuse syndrom" by running 20 miles a week! I'm not sure, however, John, about someone being a good coach who may not even run... I mean, if he (or she) never run much, how would he know about certain things? I mean, to me, one of the issues is shoes. I've put in a lot of investiment in the past and paid my dues too. Another thing is winter running. The coldest I ever run was -60F wih windchill. I was out for 30 minutes (in the morning) and came home only to find out our daughter's school was closed and even most offices were closed too! Okay, it was something like -38F actual temperature with wind and I chose neighborhood loop around residential area so I didn't get quite as much wind but it's cool to say "I was out in -60F cnodition!" ;o) I was out in-30F (without wind this time) this winter. I think I know a thing or two about how to dress in cold weather. You don't have to be a fast runner; but if you never done that, how can you give advice as to what to wear and how to dress up? Yes, you don't have to be a fast/good runner; but you've got to be out there and do it. I hadn't missed a day since last June. A big motivation to me for that is now I'm actually coaching some people. If I expect them to be out there and doing something, I've got to be out there as well. One of my favorite stories is that of Percy Cerutty, a coach of great Herb Elliot of Australia. He used to take Elliot to a local track the day before his race and ran a mile as hard as he could. He was over 70 at the time and his time was not that great naturally. But he would come in and tell Elliot, "You may run faster tomorrow but you cannot run as fard as I just did!" A little provoking; but that's the spirit. If I expect my runners to be out runnng in -30F condition, I've got to be out there myself. I would dispise those couch coach who would tell runners to do this and that but sit on their backside and do nothing. I think I've hijacked this thread and digressed enough. I should stop here... ;o)