David Whitsett - The Non-Runners Marathon Trainer

David A. Whitsett
Forrest Dolgener
Tanjala Mabon Kole

Copyright 1998 by David A. Whitsett, Forrest A. Dolgener, and Tanjala Mabon Kole. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-150805-6
MHID: 0-07-150805-8

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Neither of us remembers exactly how it began. All we know is that in the spring semester of 1985 we taught for the first time what the students at the University of Northern Iowa now call the marathon class. We called it a seminar in Fitness and Mental Health and we had 14 students enrolled, none of whom had ever run more than three miles. The students could take the three credit hours they received in either psychology or physical education because these are the two departments in which we teach. Beginning in January, the class met twice a week for 15 weeks and the students ran 6 days each week in addition to attending class twice a week. Forrest taught one of the classes each week and lectured on such topics as cardiovascular functioning, proper hydration and nutrition. Dave taught the other class session and talked with the students about believing in themselves and using mental imagery to get through the long tough training days. The students ran on their own or in small groups and we all did the weeks longest run together on Saturday mornings. In the first week of May, when the training was done, we took them to Des Moines, Iowa to participate in the 26.2 mile Drake Relays Marathon. They all finished.

As a condition of enrolling in the course, the students had agreed to be participants in our research, so they participated in stress tests on a treadmill, kept a detailed daily log of their experiences and filled out several psychological questionnaires. Our data showed that they had improved in both physical fitness and self-esteem during the semester. When the students finished the marathon they were thrilled with their accomplishment and we were equally thrilled to have been part of their success. We agreed that we would like to teach the course again and try to get more students involved.

We have taught the course four more times since then, in 1988 with 25 students, in 1990 with 40, in 1993 with 72, in 1995 with 52 and we are teaching it again in 1998 with over 50 students as this book goes to press. Our participants have ranged in age from 18 to 55. Well over half of them have been women. Almost none had ever run more than three miles prior to training with us. Every time, all of the students have finished the marathon, (with one notable exceptionmore on him later) and every time it has had the same exhilarating effect on the participants and on us. The last few times we have taught the course, we have had so many students trying to get in (162 of them in 1995 and 199 this year) that we have had to draw names to decide which ones get to participate. In addition, we have had many members of the community in which we live who have asked to come and train with our group and we have received many requests for information on our course from faculty members of other universities and from people across the country, partly as a result of news coverage here in Iowa and partly because of an article describing our course that appeared in the October 1993 issue of Runners World magazine.

One of the 1995 participants, Tanjala Kole, suggested that we find a way to make the course content accessible to more people. She was sure there would be lots of interest in it and she even volunteered to gather and edit the recollections and suggestions of a group of former participants. We agreed her idea was a good one and you are holding the resulting book in your hands. Over the years, we have modified the training program (it now requires just four days a week of running) as well as the class content somewhat as a result of what we have learned. We have put it all here for you. Because it has worked so well for so many people, we are certain that if you follow the program and do everything it tells you to do, you can and will complete a full 26.2 mile marathon and you will feel the same sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction that we have seen on the faces of our students.

We have found that completing a marathon contributes a great deal to increasing ones self-esteem and self-confidence. When they cross that finish line, our students believe they can do ANYTHING. Bring on the world, one of them said just after finishing, because I can handle whatever life has in store for me. A great many of them have also found that training for a marathon provides a goal-oriented way for them to develop many of the exercise and eating habits that are part of a healthy life-style. Many of them have maintained those habits for years after the marathon.