Marathon- You Can Do It- Description:

Marathon: You Can Do It! review:
5 stars (Great book. Useful and easy to read) - Best book I could find for a beginner marathon-hopeful such as myself. It is a folksy book written by a pro for the beginners and the more advanced runners. There are several easy to follow training regimens based on one's goals and levels of experience. The author is not overtly selling his own training services for running marathon, though they do have a world-class training program. I will be running my first marathon early next year. This book gave me nice tips to build my stamina while avoiding injury.
4 stars (Pragmatic advice for new marathoners) - I am finding this book practical and informative, but redundant with Galloway's previous book. One or the other would seem more useful than ordering both...and if I had to choose, I might purchase the other book for it's comprehensive information about injury prevention and treatment. Still, compared to other books on marathon by other authors, this book is encouraging, helpful, specific and especially appropriate for the non-traditional athlete: the older, female, injured or less athletically inclined among us who are still motivated to do a marathon for whatever personal reasons.
3 stars (Good info, but poor writing makes it difficult to read) - I recently signed up for a marathon training program based on Galloway's method (gradual increase in mileage and run/walk ratio). This book was recommended as a "must-read." I have to say I am disappointed. The chapters are not arranged in any meaningful order, and the "real" information is interspersed with a fictional story of a group of runners training for a marathon. I had read this comment in a previous review, but thought that it only applied to the later edition, not the original one. Well, it's in this one too, and while I normally wouldn't mind such a story, it does not flow well in and of itself, nor does really integrate with the non-fiction topics. The way it all fits together is so bad, in fact, that I just couldn't stomach it, so I am looking for another book to read on running. Fortunately I only paid $1.50 for this one, otherwise I would be angry for wasting my money. Galloway does seem to be an expert in the field, so perhaps I will try his Book on Running. Hopefully it will be more fact-based and organized better.