Once running has become a part of your life, and friends and family recognise that you are a runner, a familiar question will be: ‘When are you going to run a marathon?’ But before you rush to sign up for an event, you must ask yourself: ‘Are you ready for marathon training?’ If you have your sights set on running the 21K (13.1 miles) of a half marathon then you should be prepared to devote a lot more time to your running than you spent on your 10K training program but the health benefits are immense. The running distances involved in half marathon training provides both the next challenge for those who are comfortable over 10K and can also be a good basis for people aspiring to run a marathon. Or it might be that you have been losing weight through your 5k program but have hit a plateau and need to push yourself harder to continue towards your target weight. It might be that you have completed your 5k program and felt so good about yourself that you want to challenge yourself further. You have mastered running 5k and now you feel you are ready to step up to your next challenge. But there are so many reasons why getting off the sofa and into your training shoes is a great thing to do.

If you are contemplating taking up jogging as an activity, you may find the hardest thing is taking the first step. I hope you find the Running for Beginners website helpful in achieving your running goal for the very first time, whether it be to run your first 5km or your first 100 mile ultra. In each section information and links to resources are provided covering important areas such as training plans, health and injuries, nutrition, resources such as podcasts and apps, as well as where to find inspiration and support. Each section comprises information for the main running distances people train for: 5km, 10km, half marathon, the marathon and ultra marathons. I have designed this site to provide just about everything someone seeking information for running for beginners could be looking for. In fact though I have now run many marathons and ultras, I still consider myself a beginner runner. I have found that with running you never stop learning, and as every new challenge presents itself, there is a whole lot of new information and people’s experiences to absorb. From there I became a marathon beginner, and after that a beginner ultra marathoner. Since then I have been a beginner runner many times over a beginner at training to run 10km, and then a beginner half marathon runner.

Running challenge for beginners