Dear Coach: I am trying to qualify for Boston this year. I need a 3:15 and am shooting for the Columbus Marathon. Should I run Steamtown instead, which is a downhill course? Is that cheating or just asking for knee problems? Robert

Dear Robert: One of the runners I coach used Steamtown in 1999 to qualify for Boston. The Steamtown course is similar to Boston in that the downhill portion is early in the race and there is an uphill finish. I don't know of any runner who would consider Boston a "cheater's" course. If you are going to run Steamtown, you should do a lot of uphill and downhill running to strengthen your quadriceps and hamstrings.

Dear Coach: I am a 23-year-old Marine who has to run a lot. I have been experiencing more and more pain in my knees recently. Can you recommend any shoes to help get rid of this pain. Clement

Dear Clement: I strongly urge a couple of things. First, see a podiatrist who specializes in sports medicine. Frequently, pain in the knees, feet, etc. is caused by imbalances in your feet. A good podiatrist can tell you whether you need any shoe inserts, either the inexpensive store-bought kind or custom-made orthotics. In my case, I cannot run a mile without my customized orthotics. With my orthotics, I have run many marathons and at times averaged 60+ miles per week. The second thing you should do is go to a store that specializes in running. A good start would be one of the advertisers in the Washington Running Report. The salespeople there are knowledgeable runners who can get you in the right shoe for your foot type. I would stay away from the chains that sell basketball and other athletic shoes because, chances are, the salespeople there do not have a clue about the features of running shoes.

Dear Coach: I belong to one of the local running clubs and would like to become a volunteer coach. Do you have any suggestions? Peter

Dear Peter: The Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) has a coaching certification program that could be helpful. RRCA established this program because there are a lot of personal trainers who purport to be running coaches but who really don't know much about running. The RRCA certification program consists of two parts--nine hours of formal classroom instruction followed by an examination. A national firm administers this instructional program. Second, the RRCA has a written essay examination that is graded by coaches such as Roy Benson and me. Upon completion, you should have sufficient knowledge and confidence that you can start coaching runners. And the runners will know that your RRCA certification means you know what you are doing.

Dear Coach: I am training for my first marathon to be run November 19 in Philadelphia. As of today, August 10, I am running six miles a day but have done no long runs yet. I am trying to determine the maximum mileage of my weekly training program but really don't have any idea as to what to guide myself by. Tentatively, I set it at 75 miles (six daily runs of 10 miles and one daily run of 15 miles). Is that too much? Daniel

Dear Daniel: You probably do not want to hear this, but you are heading for big trouble trying to run your first marathon when three months before your longest run is only 6 miles. You do not have a sufficient aerobic base to run a marathon. I suggest that you scratch Philadelphia and plan on running a spring marathon. Instead, perhaps you can find a ten miler or half marathon to run this fall. To properly train for your first marathon, you need to slowly build a weekly long run. It takes five to six months to do this kind of training and if you try to compress the time you greatly increase the likelihood of getting injured. I suggest increasing your long run to eight miles until that is comfortable. The long run should be at 60- 70% effort, a purely conversational pace. Once you can run eight miles comfortably, you can increase the long run to ten miles. Once ten miles is comfortable, then go up to twelve miles and run twelve miles once a week for about two months. Only then should you start increasing your long run beyond twelve miles. Eventually, you should run two or three twenty milers every other week in the last two months of your marathon training, with the last twenty miler coming three weeks before the race.

Coach West is available for training adult runners who wish to improve their performances. You may contact him at Kirt Westor through the Washington Running Report.