Book Review: Marathoning for Mortals by John "The Penguin" Bingham

I first heard of John "The Penguin" Bingham through Runner's World magazine, where he writes a monthly column. About John from his website:

Once an overweight couch potato with a glut of bad habits, including smoking and drinking, at the age of 43 Bingham looked mid-life in the face—and started running. Since then, he has completed 40 marathons and hundreds of 5K and 10K races—and developed a whole new outlook.

So he is a great example to look to for what anybody can accomplish with running if they make the decision to do so.

He has written two other books on his own: The Courage to Start and No Need for Speed. Marathoning for Mortals is co-authored with his wife Jenny Hadfield, M.A, C.P.T and they both have another book out called Running for Mortals, as well as an inspirational training log called Training for Mortals.

If you are just thinking about running, and wondering if it is something you could do, I would say read The Courage to Start. I was just looking for any of his books to read, and the only one I could find through our library system was Marathoning for Mortals, but this seemed appropriate since I had already done a half marathon and was planning on doing a full marathon this year. From what I have seen, much of the information in his various books is very similar, but from different angles, and then some things are different based on the purpose of the book.

Marathoning for Mortals is broken into four parts:

1. Getting Started
2. Training
3. The Toolbox
4. Game Face

The main purpose of this book is to get you from wherever you are now, to completing a half or whole marathon. John and Jenny will help you accomplish this through walking, walk/run, run/walk or running either of these two events. Including full training plans in the back.

Overall, I really liked this book and thought that it had a lot of good advice. Starting how to recognize who you are and how to set up a training plan that will best help YOU succeed.

The section about training was fairly good, but I felt that there were parts where they could have delivered more in the aspect of details, which I expected them to do, but I felt a bit let down because I still had some questions when I was finished with this section. Though there were definately other questions that they answered.

In the Toolbox section I felt similar. A lof of good information, but it just skims the surface. But perhaps that is the purpose of the book, not a lot of detail because they know that can be found elsewhere. I was most frustrated with their Injury Prevention chapter where they discussed the three most common running injuries. Though I am biased because I am still currently enjoying one of these common injuries, plantar facitis. For this they basically said that this condition often responds well to getting special inserts for your shoes. Not very helpful, especially since I have seen Jeff suffer with PF for years, and he wears inserts! Inserts can make a difference, but even through this isn't the book for going into detail on injuries, I felt that they could have addressed this better than they did. This part of the book also briefly discusses nutrition, gear, and cross training.

The last part of the book discusses the race day itself and strategies all the way down to the start of the race through to the end of the race, as well as the emotions you go through the weeks following your big run. This was well done and made me realize the many things I probably wouldn't think of on my own.

One thing I liked about the book were the small inserts from real people, and how running has affected their life. I find that there is always someone who anyone can relate to when these types of inserts are included, and they help me realize that there are many people who were worse off than I who have accomplished great personal triumphs through running.

One thing I did not like about the book was the recommendation to wait a year after you start running before you start training for either a half or whole marathon. Perhaps that is because I started running last June and completed a half marathon at the end of November. I felt that I built up my training slowly, though quicker than what is recommended by many in the sport. I did many things right, but also a lot wrong. But I tend to be the type of person who decides to do something, and then learn enough to get it done and figure I will worry about the details as I go or when something comes up. Though this has served me well in many areas, it also gets in my way at times. I learned this the hard way with my current injury. I knew I needed new shoes, but figured I was fine for a few more weeks. I knew that I was pushing my training distances a bit hard, but figured that I would be fine because I had a plan and I had goals.

One of the most important things I learned from this book was to listen to your body. I wish I was running again, but I still feel a twinge in my heel and I do not want to aggravate it by running to far too soon. So I need to realize that I have to start slower than I wish, but by doing so will get where I need to quicker than if I do the wrong thing by pushing myself too hard too fast.

So overall, I would say the book was worth reading. The way they address the mental aspect of running was stronger, the details of the nitty gritty is better found elsewhere. If you are thinking about running your first half or whole marathon, this book will give you the courage and basic information to get started and do it.

If you are just starting to run, read his first book, The Courage to Start. Jeff bought this off eBay recently, and it looks really good for someone who is thinking about running, to realize that you can do it! And even though I have been running a little while, I plan on reading this book because I think it will be helpful.

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
John "The Penguin" Bingham