"I got a huge cheer and a bouquet of flowers"—Lyn WhitesideAre you worried about finishing last in a race? The good news is that if you're reading this article, the chances of it actually happening are very small. Big beginner-friendly races

's name to find out whether they've given themself a profile (this also links to their previous posts, race ratings any articles they've written)...and you can keep your details private by simply un-ticking the boxes in your forum profile page

, the post-race ceremony doesn’t include any awards for becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be.So my physical efforts during races may not result in many trophies, but my soul wins hands-down every time.Waddle on, friends.

.To help make all this happen, here's our first-ever beginners' racing guide. Here, you'll find everything that you need to know – from tips on nutrition and warm-ups, to race-day strategies and recovery techniques. Race DayRace day can be intimidating

post-race reward.Fact: "I've heard you get jelly legs on the run"One of the joys of running out of the second transition from bike to run is the jelly legs feeling you will inevitably experience. This is simply your muscles becoming used to doing a new

the build-up to race-day. Who can you turn to for advice and reassurance? The RW forumites of course. They’ve hundreds of marathons-worth of experience between them, and we’ve picked their brains for these fail-safe tips to ensure your marathon debut goes

weekly runs, you should focus on increasing the amount you can run at one time until you build to at least the race distance, or the equivalent amount of time spent running."I encourage runners, particularly beginners, to focus on time and effort, rather

on my mind. I am instead using electronic forms of media to send my good wishes - some of you may have already received a FB Smile (I think it was a smile) from me. This goes to all those Forumites I have met socially, raced with, forumed with or even

(with his fans, the terms are nearly synonymous), introduces Bingham at a post-race seminar.“Whenever I read the Penguin column, it feels as if he’s talking directly to me,” Herman says. “When I get my RUNNER’S WORLD, I always turn to his page first

At the last count, 132,000 runners had posted 1.6 million messages between them on the Runner's World forum. That's a ton of useful tips!Our readers already helped us pick out some of the best threads (or 'conversations'). Now we've gone a step