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Be prepared to invest a lot of time in training, don’t skip any long runs (even though they may take over your weekends), stretch after every run, don’t over-do it (cross train!), and invest in a foam roller.

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So today, I woke up with a new kind of pain. It was the raw, aching feeling of something so novel and wonderful that I haven’t yet begun to fathom.

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You’ll quickly realize just how cool your body is and you’ll enjoy challenging it and bettering your magic more than sitting around with a bottle of wine. But on your days off, totally do that, too.

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We all have that one friend.

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You will have to sacrifice free time, social activities, and sleep. But at the end of all of the training, you will run a marathon. You will accomplish something that less than 1% of Americans have accomplished. You will have bragging rights for life.

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It’s the little things.

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Running shoes should be replaced about every 300 miles. A marathon gets you 1/12th of the way to a new pair of running shoes! Don’t give up!

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Some things you truly do once in a lifetime, in that you will probably never get to experience it again. Participating in this month’s Pyongyang Marathon was exactly that.