Humans were born to run.
The arch of the foot, the large butt muscles that hold us upright, the sweat glands and hairless skin that sweats so well — all are designed to go the distance.
Under the right conditions, a human can run farther than dogs, antelopes and even horses. Our ancestors could chase game until it collapsed from heatstroke, a trait that came in handy when grabbing a bite meant more than hitting the drive-through.
These are some conclusions made by scientists Dennis Bramble of the University of Utah and Daniel Lieberman of Harvard in a study of human fossils. It was published Nov. 17 in the journal Nature.
It’s hard to believe today, soft and squishy as most of us are from too much fast food, too much time in the car and too much sitting.
Many of us, even the sedentary, can get in touch with our inner antelope chaser and train for the modern equivalent of running down game: the marathon. There’s never been more support and advice, much of it free. And if you don’t want to go it alone, you’ll have plenty of company.
Distance running is in the midst of a second boom. The first occurred in the 1970s, fueled most famously by Frank Shorter’s Olympic gold medal win. Oprah Winfrey helped start the second in 1994 after she finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 4 hours, 29 minutes.
Group training programs such as Team in Training, which trains novices to run a marathon in five to six months and raises money for leukemia and lymphoma research, introduced legions of nonrunners to the sport in the past decade. The simplicity, the challenge and the health benefits are luring hundreds of thousands of Americans to the starting line each year.
Shelby Schenck, owner of the Lynnwood running store Run 26 and a Team in Training coach for six years, has helped hundreds of local people run their first marathons. He estimates 90 percent of the people he coaches have little or no running experience and many don’t exercise regularly at all before starting the program. Most of the people he works with are between 25 and 50, but he’s worked with older and younger runners. The majority are women. People show up because they know someone with cancer and want to run in a benefit marathon, want to get in shape or simply want to try a marathon.
He estimated 60 percent to 70 percent complete the training program and nearly all of those who make it to the starting line finish the race. Schenck said people are often transformed by the experience, and not just physically.
“It’s such a huge obstacle,” he said. “If they can accomplish this, they can accomplish anything.”
People who adopt a marathon lifestyle do live longer and enjoy life more, said Hal Higdon, a distance running guru and writer who penned a best-selling book, “Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide.”
Higdon offers training advice and free marathon training plans at a Web site that attracts thousands of hits weekly.
When he talks about a marathon lifestyle, he addresses topics such as eating better, exercising, cutting down on alcohol, cutting out smoking and “the other bad things people do” that can kill them prematurely.
At age 76, Higdon is living that lifestyle. He eats well and stays busy, running, swimming, weight lifting, hiking and skiing. Over a lifetime he has run more than a hundred marathons, and in his younger years he competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters.
His first marathon was Boston in 1959, when he toed the line with 150 runners. He ran that marathon — and the next three — to win, racing too aggressively and consequently not finishing any of his first attempts.
Those experiences shaped his later philosophies about training for marathons. Newcomers to the marathon, even fit ones, need to aim to finish the race, rather than run a personal best, he said.
Higdon developed his first training plan 30 years ago when a friend who coached others to run a marathon asked Higdon for help. The plan adapted over time and Higdon eventually developed multiple training plans for runners of different experience levels.
The pared-down program Higdon developed for novices has runners logging the fewest miles possible for success. At the height of training, novices log about 40 miles a week at a relatively comfortable pace. For distance runners, that’s not much. An elite marathon runner might easily run more than a 100 miles a week.
He has novices complete shorter runs, perform cross-training such as biking or swimming during the week, and complete one long weekend run. That weekly long run is one of the cornerstones of the program.
Higdon gradually ramps up the length from 6 miles the first week, to 20 so the mind and body can adjust. Everyone asks him how they can possibly run the marathon 26.2 mile distance when the longest run in the training plan is 20 miles.
“It’s a nice round number,” he said. “If we were kilometers people we would do 30K.”
What he means is that if you can run 20 miles in training, you can run 26.2 on race day. During the real thing, the adrenaline can carry runners that last 10 kilometers. Higdon calls those last six miles “sacred ground.” He’s learned that adding that extra distance into the training program is more likely to result in injuries than faster times.
Indeed, one of the most common mistakes newbies make is being overly ambitious, training too hard, too soon. He can’t guarantee you won’t get injured, but most people who start and faithfully follow his programs, arrive at the starting line.
A number of runners in the Chicago area train for that city’s annual marathon using his plan, and Higdon said that 99 percent of those who used his plan and signed up finished the race.
The other big mistake is not training consistently enough, he said.
Whatever our biology, running a marathon is no jog around Seattle’s Green Lake. Before you get started, Higdon recommended visiting the doctor for a physical.
If the only activity you’ve had lately is rummaging under the couch cushions for the remote, you’ll need to reacquaint your body to exercise before starting to train. To do that, Higdon recommended a 30/30 plan: 30 minutes of exercise daily for 30 days. Walk the first 10 minutes. The next 15 minutes jog for 30 seconds and walk until recovered. Jog 30 seconds. Repeat. The last five minutes, walk.
Once that middle 15 minutes feels comfortable, adopt a 30-seconds jogging, 30-seconds walking pattern. Everyone adapts to exercise differently, he said, so take your time. Listen to your body.
Ideally, he said you should be running between 3 miles and 6 miles on three to five days a week before you begin training. He’d like to see everyone running a year before they tried a marathon, but people can be successful with less of a training base, he said, depending on their fitness level and natural ability.
No fancy equipment is needed for running other than a good fitting pair of running shoes. However, if you’re gadget-inclined there are plenty of toys: watches with global positioning systems or functions that will read your heart rate or tell you how many miles you’ve run.
“You can get away with running naked if you want to run at 2 a.m.,” he said.
Training for a marathon is as much about preparing your body as your mind, Higdon said. He believes marathon running is attracting so many partly because it’s a rewarding experience, one in which a athlete can’t cheat by using expensive equipment or the skills of talented teammates.
Ultimately, it’s the heart, legs and lungs that carry a runner across the finish line.
“It’s all yours, the success is achieved by yourself,” he said. “It’s your accomplishment.”
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com
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