.From about 50 applicants, FIRST selected 25 subjects (17 with past marathon experience, eight first-timers), including engineers, accountants, managers, administrators, sales representatives, teachers, a nurse, a lawyer and a doctor. They began training

hard. Meanwhile, his clinic's nine-month marathon programme for first-timers increases mileage by just three per cent per week. "We have a 97 per cent success rate in getting people through the entire programme and to the marathon finish line," says

Getty ImagesThe road to marathon success is never smooth and problem-free. Every runner, from first-timer to marathon veteran, hits a hurdle or two while preparing for the marathon: an injury, a cold, an unexpected extra project at work. If things