FT Trainer Runs First Half Marathon

On March 20th, 2011, the Georgia Publix Marathon and Half Marathon was in action.  One of our very own, Katie Jensen, fitness coach from Fitness Together North Buckhead participated in her first half marathon.  She completed it in great time, 2 hours 7 minutes.  That puts her on pace right at 9.7 minutes per mile.  Considering it was her first half marathon, that's really good.

I asked Katie, if there were one thing she would suggest to prepare for a half marathon or marathon, what would it be?  "No question... you have to give yourself plenty of time to prepare!"  She's right!  Too often someone will tell me they want to run a marathon and it's next month, yet they haven't ran more than a couple miles.  Katie created a 17-week program to get her fully prepared.  Bare in mind she was already a runner doing 5K's and 10K's.

Katie continued with her suggestions, "... the other thing is to make sure you get plenty to eat, drink plenty of water, and include resistance training."  To often runners are under the belief that all they need to do is run.  However, just like any athlete, you need to incorporate different modalities of fitness and nutrition.  This is especially important to prevent chronic injuries.

If I were to provide any word of caution, do not do a half marathon or marathon for the sake of trying to lose weight.  Running can actually be counterproductive to you being able to lose weight.  You may lose weight at first, however, in time you will plateau if all you do is run.  Furthermore, if you are considerably overweight, that excess weight creates a lot of force and trauma to the body with each step you take.  This leads to acute and chronic injuries.  The chronic injuries may not show until months later.

One of our client's, Tiffany Hunt, also ran the Publix Half Marathon.  We have had quite a few clients get involved in half and full marathons.  We are proud of all of them.  Long distance running events test your endurance and will.  Though I personally don't do them, I do like 5K's.  If you have never done a running event before, I suggest that you start with something like a 5K instead of going straight to a marathon.

written by:
Kelly Huggins, A-CPT
Exercise Science, B.S.
NPTI Instructor
Fitness Together - Fitness/Nutrition Coach