I want to run my first marathon!!

[Erilina]

Hi, my name is Erin West and I am a newly diagnosed young onset parkinsons person. I'm 34 years old and since 2 years ago I have lost 90 pounds and maintained myself at a healthy 130 pounds for the last 6 months. I was diagnosed April 1st and cried for the whole day. When I woke up the next day I realized that I may not have a choice whether I have parkinsons or not - but I still have 1000 other choices that I need to make count! To lose the weight I lifted weights and ran. I was on my run the other morning and decided that I am going to run a marathon and raise a million dollars for parkinsons research. I've emailed Lance Armstrong, Michael J Fox, and Oprah for their advice on how to get large donations. I really need as many people as I can to help me because honestly I dont have a clue how to do this yet... But I feel that it is my responsibility to make a big difference while I still can! Im joining the running club to hopefully help me reach my goal!! Is there anyone out there that would be willing to help me learn about training and set up a training schedule? Thanks, Erin West

[tribob]

Welcome, All great feats begain with great Ideas. Running your marathon will be a great accomplishment. Raising your Million Dollars might be a little harder. You have taken the biggest step and that is making a commitment. As with building anything you must lay a good foundation. In order to raise the money you need to get sponsorship. Do this by talking to other foundations. I also suggest talking to an attorney and achieving tax free status for your fund raiser.
Also you should contact other running clubs in the area and telling them of your goals. I would also ask for donations in each race you take part in. You can also ask other runners to help get donations from thier friends.
As for completing your 1st marathon we will help you with your training. The basic formula is pick the marathon you wont to run. Make it at least a year from now. Your basic traing plan is One long run per week a medium long run in the middle of the week and each week increase your total weekly millage by a couple of miles. Every third week cut your millage in half. Think of it as two steps forward and a half step back. This allowes your body to adjust to the stress of adding miles without breaking down. There are several marathoners in the club. All will be willing to give you advice. You will have to find what works best for you. Start comming out to the races and introduce yourself. bc

[Erilina]

Thank you so much for your reply! Very good starting point advice. I have already started putting my story out there this last week - April is World Parkinsons Awareness Month ... so I contacted the mayor of Ocean Springs and we are working on setting up a meeting for her to sign a proclomation that April will be Ocean Springs' Parkinsons Awareness Month! Then I contacted WLOX's health reporter and asked her to cover the proclomation signing and told her she could do a story on me since my case is so extremely rare. So hopefully within the next week you will see it on the news! I have also contacted radio stations and asked them to run the story after the signing. I am also planning on submitting it to the newspapers! So... hopefully, getting the awareness out will serve two purposes - educating the public and hopefully attracting the attention of sponsors. I have also contacted the governor who is also willing to sign a proclomation for the state of Mississippi! A lot on my plate right now and thats how it needs to be at the moment! Feels good to have goals - they might be a little crazy lol but thats how i am - i shoot for the stars! I've just never had any goals this big before probably because I've never had anything quite this 'big' to fight for!

So how far should my runs be at this begining point and how many times a week should i be running? Do you know when the next date is that the running club is getting together? Do they get together just for events? I saw there were a few coming up.

[JeffPT]

Great story and welcome to your first marathon training program. not easy but definitely possible... i went on several websites and found halhigdon.com to be quite useful... have training programs for all levels of experience. i used the novice 1 program for my first and did well. another thing i used is "marathoning for mortals" book by John Bingham... informative and at times funny... met the guy before my first marathon in DC... great guy. suggest reading it. tribob and others here are good resources to use...... there are many marathoners and triatheletes in our midst in the club.... i am starting to look for my next marathon to train for.

jeff