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“Pops, I want to run a marathon with you sometime,” exclaimed my son, Steve, as we were running together near his home in South Riding, VA.

Dear Coach: I am 53 years old, been running since 1979, and my last two marathons were November 2005 and January 2006-where I broke three hours in each race. In 2008, I had an injury and was off four months and by the summer of 2009 began to build a running base of 50 miles per week, but at a slow pace. I would like to continue racing but I find myself feeling so fatigued. How should I train at this age? Below I have included some of my training schedule.

I am now running 65 to 70 miles per week and training for my first marathon since 2006. My times seem slow, training paces are hard to hit, and I do speed work once a week at threshold pace. Here is an example of my most recent workout:

The marathon is a seductive distance, with its promise of glory, challenge, and a finisher’s medal. But training for the full 26.2 requires a time commitment many runners find tough to make. The half marathon provides a happy medium between the fun of a 5K and the intensity of a marathon. It is long enough to demand respect, with some serious training requirements, but not so long it consumes entire days of a runner’s life leading up to race day. It is intense enough to require a runner to take serious care of his or her body, but not so intense that a runner regularly feels like he or she has been run over by a truck after training runs.