I recently completed the Chicago marathon, my first marathon and indeed my first race. Two weeks later and with the pain subsiding I can say that I enjoyed the training, day, experience and race enormously.
I started my training, in fact my running career, 20 weeks ago in a very foolhardy fashion using Pfitzger's Advanced Marathoning. Weighing in at around 209lbs and not having run since training for team sports in college 6 years ago I found the schedules very hard but stuck to the milage, if not the required pace, for the first 14 weeks before suffering a minor lower leg breakdown. I didn't run for the next two weeks and was forced to reduce my milage in the remaining two weeks before the race. Despite my various injuries I found the training incredibly satisfying and enjoyable.
I finished the race in 3:42 wearing a Fred Flintstone outfit and weighing 196.5lbs.
Despite my overall positive experience I have at times found the pain and getting out of bed for yet another run very difficult, so thank you for the tips and inspiring stories that I have picked up from this post and also a huge thank you to the people of Chicago, runners and supporters, who made the weekend in Chicago a great trip.
At the outset as I struggled with the 5 mile runs my ambition was to finish the marathon without stoping. As the race got nearer I became more competitive and ambitious. I intend to enter Chicago again this year and would love to finish in around 3:10. I realise that this is ambitious.
With almost a year to go before the race and with this my only running goal of the year I was hoping someone could suggest a strategy for achieving this goal. The longest programme I have found is Pfitzger's 24 week programme but is anyone aware of a longer programme that you could follow towards a specific goal or should I spend 6 months doing long, slow runs as seems to be advocated by formationflyer and then moving onto Pfitziger?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

It's perfectly reasonable to spend several months building a base and then jump into an aggresive training program such as Pfitzinger's. However, just to be clear, I wouldn't advocate 6 months of a bunch of slow running. However, I might advocate 6 months of running at low heart rates, if your pace continued to improve the whole time. If you're not fully developed aerobically, your pace should eventually become as fast as or faster than the training pace you would naturally maintain. If your pace stops improving or starts to slow down a bit (not due to heat, humidity, etc), then you'll have to start mixing in small quantities of speed work. I'd recommend you read several of Mark Allen's writings, a couple of links of which are in the FAQ that I posted. Additionally, for some people it's essential during a long base building process that they get in a good amount of downhill running where you pick up the pace to keep the heart rate up at the MAF threshold. That will help maintain running economy.

Cut out the chips(chocolate chips included), soda, twinkies, and any other junk that you are probably eating. Lower you portions. Stop going back for seconds and thirds. Ok, ok, I am assuming that you are not real tall in which case your current weight would not be considered overweight.

1. Slowly increase your mileage.
2. Join a running club. Run with others. Ask them what they would do. Some are very experienced and can offer you great advice.

If you want it bad enough you probably will be able to accomplish that goal.

Best of luck to you,