DannyClimber.com

I ran my first marathon on March 30, 2008 in 3 hr 54 min. It was an incredible experience that I really want to do again sometime soon.

Knoxville Marathon Homepage
Results

There were several things that I enjoyed:

(1) the culmination of over 6 months of determined effort. I paid the $55 fee back in October to ensure my commitment, but my real motivation was having told all of my friends what my plans were. I would have been very disappointed if I had to explain my not having the will to follow through. More about my training plan is described below.

(2) the friendly atmosphere of the event and attitude of everyone involved. Competitors came with all levels of experience from across the country. Those with several marathons under their belt were especially encouraging to the first-timers. I met a 58 year old black man who had completed 9 in the past year. He passed me at around mile 16. He had a very awkward looking gate and only barely picked up his legs enough to clear the pavement, but the muscles and tendons in his legs looked like solid rock. I met up with Breck, a forty something family-man, at mile 22. He had ran this same race a couple of years ago only to get stuck in the last few miles by knee troubles. Since, he did some halfs, but was ready to finish this goal. He initiated our talk by asking about the AFROTC shirt I was wearing, and the conversation led to our thoughts about the mental toughness that is required when every part of your body is fighting you to take another step forward. He told me a story about the USS Indianapolis as an example of mental toughness:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
The Search for the USS Indianapolis (Discovery Channel)

Training: When I decided to do the race, I hadn’t run more than about 7 miles consecutively, and 26 seemed completely out of reach. Here is the training program that I used, paying most attention to the longer runs on the weekend. I very typically only ran once during the week (in addition to AFROTC pt twice a week) between those long runs because I would completely exhaust myself. Every time I built up 4 or 5 miles, I would return to my apartment hardly able to walk for the rest of the evening or next day. The time never felt wasted, even when each run began to take upwards of 2 or more hours long. Meredith, my girlfriend, was very supportive, and was often present to help me around after a buildup. Here is the training plan that I used: Novice Training Plan

For finishing, my dad got me a new pair of Brooks shoes!