How to become a runner
Tips from marathoner Brandon Seils such as “Get High”, “Pain is your friend” and “Break through the wall“:
For most runners, there’s a wall at the three mile mark. This goes for the most beginner runners up to and probably including the long-time marathoners. The first three miles of any run are the most difficult and painful to get through. After this point, however, it’s easy to “just keep going.” Back when I was training for the Boston Marathon, and would go out for 2+ hours on a 20 mile run, the hardest miles were the first three. It’s also these first three miles that make it difficult for running to become habit. You really have to struggle past this, in order to develop a tolerance for the sport.
July 11th, 2006 at 11:57am
I ran and ran and ran, and I ran past the 3 mile mark…and now recently I have not run and I am back to my fear of running past that 3 mile mark again.
July 12th, 2006 at 4:49pm
i think the bend over and tie up your sneakers mark is the hardest to get past. way way back when shawn and i were in cross country we would run 10miles. i don’t remember about the 3 mile mark, but definitely the middle of the miles were the easiest mentally. physically, i’d have to say the first few strides were. =P