Like so many of the other firsts in my life – first school, first kiss, first child – I remember my first “runner’s high” as if it were yesterday. It came on a perfect October afternoon while I was running near a cider mill near my childhood home. A

My 85-year-old Aunt Marian thinks it’s pretty cool that I’m a runner. The only problem is that she wants me to give it up. In her opinion, I’m doing fine now but trouble looms. A few years down the road, I’ll probably need a wheelchair. All

This extract is from The Runner's World Complete Book of Running by RW USA Editor Amby Burfoot. You can now preview it, free, for two weeks without risk or obligation. All running programmes for beginners are the same: they move you from walking

At Runner's World we try to practise what we preach, and so, along with following abstemious diets (well, we try), we also follow our training advice. That means regular speedwork, long runs, rest days and the dreaded hillwork. Repeatedly dragging

, in Stockholm, a Portuguese runner died in the sweltering Olympic Marathon. Many of us remember Gabriele Andersen-Schiess struggling with the effects of dehydration and heat exhaustion in the 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles, and staggering across

to avoid injuries and when, where and how much to run. No problem. We've got the answers - from experts who have been teaching beginners for years, and from others who've certainly been around the block. Every runner began with a first step. You can, too

UAN: 160 Article type:-->For too many years runners have been told to train as they feel. The problem is that no one tells you how you’re supposed to feel when you’re training right. Lacking this insight, many runners unconsciously fall

When Gunder Hagg ran 4:01.4 to set a mile world record in 1945, his achievement stood for 3,215 days - almost nine years. Then Roger Bannister ran his historic 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. Bannister's record lasted just 46 days before John Landy took it down to 3:58.0. "For a few minut...

professor and maths whizz. Bill is also a lifelong runner with a marathon PB of 2:45, so he suffers my questions without much protest. I send him a long list of mile world records, and ask what he sees. He responds with a lecture on "extreme value statistics

As runners, we all want to increase our endurance, but we’re often referring to different things. While the beginner often wants to go further – from two miles to four miles, then to six, more experienced runners don’t see much point in running