It may help to link up with others of similar ability when training for the marathon, writes Emmet Malone.
In theory one of the great things about running long distances is that it gives you a chance to leave the outside world behind and think about things a little more clearly.
In practice, a common difficulty encountered by aspiring first-time marathon runners like myself is that it gives you a little too much time to reflect on just far it is that you are running; how far you have left to run; how wrecked you feel at any given point in the run; and how completely shattered you are going to feel when you finally get to stop running.
Needless to say, these are not the sort of thoughts recommended in your average motivational manual.
Many people find that music helps and an endless array of mp3 players and i-pods are available but others crave company: somebody to provide a more interactive distraction, as it were, and, of course, to share the pain.
With a handful of marathons as well as various other endurance races under his belt, Sean McFadden set out a couple of years ago to plug what he saw as a gap in the running market by helping first-time marathon runners to train together with people of similar or, in their eyes, very little ability.
Having just returned from the United States at the time, McFadden felt that he could bring some of the support mechanisms commonly available in American cities where big marathons are run to Dublin. With his operation now in its third year, he is coaching about 65 members, most of them first-timers, for a variety of marathons while roughly 100 have already completed the distance with his help.
The group meets beside the tea rooms (50 metres from the entrance to the zoo) in the Phoenix Park each Saturday at 10am and the week I stop by there are members from Navan, Kildare and Athlone who have either travelled or stayed over locally to join in.
There is also a newly arrived PhD student from the US who started following McFadden's training programme prior to travelling and an American tourist who, as far as I can figure out, has stopped off in Dublin while en route to Greece and decided to squeeze in a run.
Essentially, those present split up into two smaller groups with the quicker runners taking on a 12-mile run, the slower settling for about 10 miles. The aim is that everybody finishes up back at roughly the same time to the tea rooms where many of those who have taken part stay on to chat or get advice from McFadden over a snack or coffee.
"The basic point of it all is that it's quite motivational when you have other people to run with," says McFadden. "What we have here is a group, some of whom want to run their marathon in under three and a half hours, some of whom will just be very happy to finish but all of whom benefit from being able to talk with other people, to exchange ideas and to learn a bit more about what they're taking on while they're training."
Participating in the club (details of which can be found at irishfit.com) costs just €25 which gets you a T-shirt and the right to join in each week. Most, however, opt to pay €90 for a tailored training programme and personalised support from McFadden.
"It's good because you're joining up with a group of people who are training for a similar goal, not just suddenly coming into a group that are running week in, week out," says Nicola Morey, who has joined the group to train for her first triathalon as well as some distance running in the autumn.
Many others, like Athlone-based Ciaran Cahill, who ran his first marathon in Dublin last year and now stays weekends with his sister in Glasnevin in order to train with McFadden, speak positively of their conversion from solo runners to group members. Certainly, my own experience, as I run 10 miles for the second successive Saturday, is that the time passes more quickly as part of a pack.
The trade off, though, is that the entire exercise involves me being out of the house for four hours or so compared with 90 minutes when my run started and finished at my front door: and I only live five miles from the city centre
"When you're talking to people that you're running with in a group, you can do five or six miles before you even notice it," says the infectiously enthusiastic McFadden after the run. "The fact that the people you're talking to are working towards the same goal as you obviously helps.
"Basically, the hardest part about running a marathon is making it to the start line," he says. "The race itself is easy once you've trained your body to do it. It's getting through the six months of running four nights a week that's the problem. After that, what's another four hours?"
Well, quite a lot, if you have never run 26 miles before but McFadden is convinced that people who take the training seriously will be okay come race day and on the day I'm there most of those who turn up complete the required distance without too much difficulty.
"The long run is supposed to be done so that you finish up believing you could still go on and do another couple of miles," says McFadden. "It's about stamina, just doing the distance whereas it's during the shorter runs during the week that you should be really pushing yourself."
Sign up for the full coaching programme and he'll do some of the pushing for you. The running, though, is still all up to you.
You can contact us with comments or queries at marathon@irish-times.ie