Customer Reviews

The Nonrunner's Marathon Guide for Women: Get Off Your Butt and On with Your Training

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I loved Dawn's tone and writing style, and this is a very inspirational book and I recommend it to all women interested in running a marathon get it, but with one reservation - I have issues iwth the training schedule included in her book.

I'm truly concerned that she advises that a complete novice who doesn't even own running shoes could attempt a run a marathon with only four month's training. This is a recipe for potentially serious injury. And she provides an example of this herself -- she develops major knee pain, including at the beginning of her marathon before she even began running. Her actual marathon experience is one of someone who trained too quickly; at mile 13, she began to experience severe pain and had real trouble finishing among the "walking dead" at the back of the pack.

I trained to run a marathon in 2002 and I had four months to train, but I was jogging regularly and had been a long distance cyclist for several years. But I injured my back and tendons in my legs on my schedule. A doctor told me that this because my training was too consolidated.

I highly recommend this book if you're considering running a marathon, but if you are indeed a novice do three things before attempting to train:

1) Follow her advice to have a thorough medical checkup, although I will add that it's ultra helpful to find a doctor who is familiar with sports medicine

2) get a real-life coach/experienced marathoner to talk to before you beginn and ideally to supervise your training; you can talk to people at running speciality stores to find a good person and

3) check out a number of other marathon training schedules, such as Hal Higdon's novice schedule (which is a 7 1/2 month program) and another by coolrunning.com called "from couch potato to 5k) as well; it's another potential training program for beginners. (You can find both through Google.) Give yourself lots of time to train and ramp up slowly.

I just ran a marathon, and I was supervised by a university track coach. He designed a program that required me running regularly for six months before the half marathon, and an additional four months for a marathon, to which I added another month. Yes, 11 months. But I had a GREAT marathon experience - injury free, pain free and with a quick recovery.

But I have to say that her entertaining, straightforward advice about sports bras, great shoes, the importance of journaling and the miracle of Bodyglide makes this a very good book for beginners. Just research other schedules that work for you before you hit the pavement.

The author should be ashamed of herself for giving such horrible advice to the unsuspecting novice runners who will purchase this as an actual training guide!

With a training schedule peppered with such sage tips as: Masking your pain with over the counter medication - "Yes, Advil is a major food group" and Over training - "If it hurts to get out of bed in the morning, then you know you are training correctly" coupled with delightful adolescent remarks like: "...oh CRAP you have to run twelve miles next week", you're sure to be headed down the wrong path.

Some may find her irreverent writing style humorous, but the wealth of bad advice offered up in the first chapter convinced me to get RID of this book and focus on another written by professionals who actually gave cogent advice for training for your first marathon.

IF you buy this book, buy it for the joke that it is. If you are honestly looking for advice on training for your first marathon, look elsewhere. I'm currently reading and thoroughly enjoying The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer: The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer

This book was definitely funny and an easy read. Motivating, though? Not so much. After the 47th time hearing about her horrible, aching kneecaps and how much pain it was and how horrible training was and how much she hated it... Well, I wasn't so interested in a marathon (which should be the entire basis of the book, to motivate you to run a marathon!). It's a very good thing I was well on my way with my half marathon training when I read this book, otherwise I would've scrapped the whole thing altogether!

There were _several_ points that made me laugh out loud, and a couple pages I marked because they were worth rereading! But the thing that really disappointed me was that she actually advocated looking up your symptoms/aches/pains/injuries on the internet and self-diagnosing/treating!! Now, I know we ALL do it, but I just found it completely irresponsible of her and her publisher to actually TELL you to do that, where they should have been saying "SAVE YOURSELF A POTENTIALLY GREATER INJURY: GO TO A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL!!!" The act of publishing the book immediately made her somewhat of an "expert" and NO expert should EVER suggest just looking it up on the internet!

With that said, it was worth my reading as an already established runner. It was an enjoyable (for the most part) read, but definitely not something I would actually recommend to new runners or those that don't already have a solid support-group of other experienced runners around them that are willing to help motivate.

I purchased this book for my wife, who has committed to training for her first marathon. I wish I hadn't. The irreverent humor and cursing in the book is not funny, and it offends. Beyond that, her "training advice" if you can call it that is absolutely negligent. Read the other one to three star reviews for more details. Don't be fooled by the people who for some weird reason think that this author if funny. They obviously aren't serious about running.

Training for a half-marathon, I figured that this would be a good book to check out. And while I enjoyed it enough to read to the end, there are some major flaws that bugged me.

Dais repeats herself constantly. Not just her jaded, self-critical sarcasm (which I usually enjoy, but when parenthetical asides appear in every sentence, you're overdoing it), but her training tips. There's very little order to this book, it feels like it was written in one long rambling session, and that's why we hear the same tidbits again and again. She tries to liven things up by inserting journal entries or lists, and honestly I would've liked to read a book with those journal entries forming its core - but then she goes and blows it by skipping around in time. Hard to follow a journey when the chronology's all mixed up.

Another problem is that of Dawn's motivation. Most of us who sign up to run have a purpose that's a little more complex than Dawn's (she runs a marathon for cancer research in memory of her grandfather). She plans to run, then meld back into the couch. It's a really odd way to frame things, because almost everyone I know who runs an event has done so for a reason that might be charitable on its face, but ends up coming back to the idea that she'll run afterwards, even if it's only 3 miles a few mornings each week. It's bizarre to read that Dawn's killing herself to finish the marathon with every intention of wasting all of that grueling training the minute she crosses the finish line. On top of that, we don't hear much about how Dawn's actual life is affected. Sure, we hear her urine's neon-green, but the cast of the book is basically Dawn, Chipper Jen, and the Spirit of Grandpa. It would've been nice to get a little variety.

The book feels disorganized, and there doesn't seem to be any purpose behind the chaos. Honestly, I think there was a better book in here, buried underneath the asides, journal entries, fake lists and goofy drawings. It doesn't hang together well.

Finally, there's the way Dawn writes herself. Some people (probably life's Chipper Jens) will not be able to get past the whining, and find this a hugely unmotivating account. And then there will be those people who read Dawn's account and think that they'll be able to do it purely because Dawn presents herself as rock-bottom. The type of person you are pretty much determines whether you'll like this book.

The author of this book ran a half marathon followed by walking a half marathon and got horribly injured in the process (something about "losing" both kneecaps?). She is funny and relatable, but funny and relatable will not get you across the finish line. If you want a book to help you on your journey, think twice before purchasing this one.

If you're a snarky non-athlete who feels slightly superior to all those gym rats running on their wheels and never getting anywhere, this book can give you some motivation to put that negative energy into accomplishing something big. If you're looking for real information about about training schedules, diet, equipment, etc., this is not the place. As a non-runner who is toying with the idea of doing a half marathon, I liked the funny observations and the message that even I could do a marathon. I also liked the suggestions about documenting the experience using photos and journal entries or a blog. Basically if you're a Gen-Xer who is too cool to like stuff, this book might inspire you to lighten up, laugh at yourself, and try something you may seriously suck at--and in the beginning, sometimes we need that more than serious advice.

I'll start by saying that if you think sarcasm = funny, you'll probably love this book. I was hoping for a humorous and motivational read but I just felt like I was listening to a whiny high schooler complain about cross country practice. She uses the same jokes a lot and I thought her information was unreliable. A fair amount of her info is based on the fact that she ran a marathon this way and didn't die. Woo hoo. Just what I was hoping for. For instance, she says you can eat all you want. Ice cream sundaes at 2 am. I also bought the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Half-Marathon Training at the same time. It is not humorous, but I would go for this book if you are serious about training. It has real information in it.

This book is geared for people who have never run before or have been only running for a few months prior to undertaking the daunting task of running a marathon. What I liked about this book is that it does not provide so much information that it confuses someone new to the sport. I had never heard of GU, Bodyglide, Fuel Belts, etc and this book introduced me to it and was not at all intimidating like some of the other marathon training books I have read. You are not going to find chapters dealing with terms like fartleks, interval training, tempo runs, etc. The purpose is not to be fast but to finish, and Dawn does a great job presenting the material in a funny no nonsense manner.

Dawn credits Jeff Galloway's walk/run progam which she uses, however, she does modify it to include more running than his program calls for. Obviously that was a mistake on her part, as she was in excruciting pain for much of her training and marathon. But I do thank her for introducing me to Galloway's program and I highly recommend to anyone interested in finishing a marathon with their knees intact, to buy one of Galloway's books. They won't leave you laughing, but they won't leave you crying in pain either.

Bottom line: Even though I enjoyed reading this book, I think there are a lot better beginner marathon books out there for people wanting more that just laugh their way through a book.

And I think it is important to know that Ms. Dais would never have made it through any marathon other than the Honolulu Marathon in Hawaii, because that is the only marathon that does not have a cut off time. Most marathon's impose a 6-7 hour time limit for all finishers. I thought it was strange that Dawn does not mention how long it took her to finish her marathon so I looked it up on the internet. It took her over 8 hours which translates to a 19 min/mile pace. Most people walk faster than that. Only in America can you write a book about running a marathon and not even "run" it at all. That might not matter to some people that read this book but I think everyone should know that based on the plan that she advises in her book, the results will require you to marathon travel to Hawaii!!

I was excited to read this book but was disappointed when most of the book is about complaining. It was NOT motivational and as a beginner runner I was not eager to keep training. If you're looking for someone to complain with about running and training then this is a good book, otherwise I do not recommend it. It will leave you deflated and uninspired.