Rounding that last corner like a bat out of hell you hit the straight away in a full sprint, the pain is intense and you just focus on holding that stride, even increasing it. You can hear the other top runners with the same goal breathing down your neck ready to pass on the slightest inclination of weakness. Like wolves in a pack they can sense it. Time Stands Still. You are one with the track, nothing else matters, the World disappears, the heat burning through your thin socks from the friction off the reslite track is blistering, but you cannot feel it yet. Once you stop that pain will be more than real, right now you are in it to win it and this slow motion feeling you will remember for the next 35 years. How would I know?

Recently a gentleman who is a Master Champion in the 400 meter emailed me; he runs an impressive 60 second quarter at Age 60! Giving the young men a little competition are we!!!! Excellent indeed. That is an incredible time for age sixty. He asked what times I ran in the 800-meter as he was considering changing races to the demon of all Track and Field events; The 800 Meter.

The most common long-term running injury is runners knee, pain behind the knee cap during running. You probably have runner's knee if your knee cap hurts when you walk or run, particularly when you walk down stairs; and it hurts a lot when you push the kneecap against the bone behind it. It usually does not hurt to pedal a bicycle. The back of the kneecap is shaped like a triangle with the point fitting in a grove in the lower part of the bone behind it. During running, the knee cap is supposed to move up and down and not side to side. If it moves from side to side, the back of the kneecap will rub against the front bottom of the femur, the long bone of the upper leg, causing pain.

THE ISSUE - You see it at the start of every race. As soon as the starting gun goes off, the runners lined up at the front sprint away at blistering speeds; everyone trying to avoid getting boxed up in the middle of the pack. And in the core of the pack, runners are pushing, shoving and maneuvering in a desperate effort to find some space and make their way forward. Ironically, the majority of those runners lining up in front, just behind the professional invitation athletes, should never be there in the first place. Most of them are already huffing and puffing away after only 5km, all red faced and barely able to have a chat with their friends. Which leaves them with a long and manfully half marathon experience ahead.

Imagine – running the marathon of your dreams. You can do it! That’s my message to you today. If you have the desire to run a marathon, then you will accomplish your goal. The first step towards completing the long run is to create a marathon training schedule. This is the key to increasing your stamina and distance over time with a minimum of injury. Also, remember to clear running in general and especially marathon training with your doctor before you begin.

Running for 10 years now has taught me a few things about fatigue. I have learned that my body always reaches a point that it needs a break. Days and weeks of training take their toll on my emotional and physical well being. I have come up with a few ideas of mine that will help you fight fatigue. First and most often over looked is the importance of a good night’s sleep. My own biggest source of fatigue is not getting 8 hours of sleep a night. Being an active person I can always think of something that I need to do. I try to stick to a scheduled time for bed. This can be difficult at times when life throws me a curve. I would say that 5 nights a week I stick to my schedule.

As a high school, college, master’s and senior competitive runner, I used to often wonder why it was so difficult to lose extra weight as I grew older. Now I know why.The scientific facts I am about to share with you are only intended for runners who are trying to shed extra pounds, and who are an O blood type. I know a lot about O positive blood types because I am one.If your blood type is A, B or AB, then what I am sharing here may be the exact opposite for you, and therefore the knowledge I share should not be implemented by you unless you are an O positive or O negative blood type, and you have first consulted with your personal physician.

Unlike Dr. Robert Atkins and his low-carb diet plan, Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s clinical findings have not yet been validated and popularized on a national level, and this is why so few people are even aware of the connection between your blood type, your diet and your health.Dr. Atkins’ research and diet plan were denounced nationally by the mainstream medical research community and physicians alike for years. Only today do the same critics, some 30 years later, reluctantly admit that Dr. Atkins was right about his diet of eating more protein and fats and less carbohydrates.