slower than 5 hours! Forum Mile 18 Support threadForum readers' first-hand accountsFLM 2005 Blogs The final week and the big day...In the week before the marathon In the final two days On race-day - before, during and after the race Race-day checklists

edge on your prodigious fitness to smash your 10K and half-marathon PBs. (After a fortnight's recovery, Bruce Tulloh suggests easing into weekly speedwork such as 4-6 x 800m for half-marathons, and 8-12 x 400m for 10Ks, and thinking about racing from

, jogging back down 6M steady 8M. Start easily, then put in bursts of 100-200m, jogging after each until you’ve recovered Rest or 5M easy Rest or jog up to 4M Half-marathon raceWeek 6 5M easy, off-road Hill session: 4 x 90 secs-2 mins hill climb, jogging

(or 400m) with 90 secs (or 200m) slow Rest 4M jog with strides Half-marathon or 10k race or timetrial Week 6 (43-47M) Rest or 4M easy 6M easy 9M steady 6M - warm up, then 6 x 3 mins fast, 2 mins slow (or 6 x 800m

, consult our race calendar and consider running one before your schedules start.Getty ImagesRule 3: Gradually build your specific enduranceThis is the ability to run longer and longer distances at marathon pace. It is a critical part of any successful

on a shorter race distance for this spring and postpone your marathon goal for a year.Do you have people to train with?Your preparations will be easier if you can find a partner, or better still, a small group to go out with. The added motivation

Even experienced marathoners can find race-day a journey into the unknown. Arm yourself to deal with the unexpected, though, and you’ll have a marathon experience to cherish. Here are links to the articles that show you how to ride out whatever

The ‘Get You Round’ schedule A beginner’s programme, mixing some walking with running, over 4-5 days a week.The idea here is to get you fit enough to make it round the course, regardless of speed, so there’ll be very little fast work. You need to build up endurance and the schedu...

team of Paris Marathon hopefuls. They've been mentored since late 2010 by coaches Steve Smythe and Bud Baldaro (as well as the ASICS PRO Team). Join the forums now to benefit from the Six's experiences in Paris, for last-minute advice and top race

training, that protection dwindles, making pre-race colds common among marathon runners.In a survey of 2,311 participants in the Los Angeles Marathon, Dr David C. Nieman, a professor of health and exercise science, found that 40 per cent of them caught