Training Schedule for a 10K

Whether you're a novice runner or you're ready to transition to 10K racing from shorter distances, 13 weeks is all you need to prepare for a 6.2-mile race. To fuel your motivation, you might sign up to run a 5K race at the end of week 11 or 12. At any rate, go ahead and register for a 10K that's at least three months out.

Marathon Origin

The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought), which took place in August or September, 490 BC. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "νικωμεν’ (nikomen)", ("We win"), before collapsing and dying. The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarch's On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD which quotes from Heraclides Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) also gives the story but names the runner Philippides (not Pheidippides).