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In order to articulately convey the history of the State of the
Art Marathon Training web site, I must first provide a brief overview
of my running background and coaching
experiences. Much of site's informational content relates
directly to what I've learned about running through my personal
experiences, conversations with coaches and runners of all ability
levels, as well as reputable information I've assimilated from
books, magazine articles, and related training publications.
From these experiences, I began my coaching career in the late
1980s. Initially, some of my earliest coaching clients were friends
training for races of all distances. In 1992, I became assistant
cross country coach at The College
of Charleston (S.C.), and shortly thereafter, head coach of
North Charleston High School's cross country team. From 1993 -
1998, I served as coach of Charleston, SC's Team
in Training (TNT) program, a very successful nationwide fundraising
initiative of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The concept for, and evolution of State of the Art Marathon Training
web site can be traced back to 1996 during the time when I was
the Charleston TNT coach. Lectures were presented at our meetings
that highlighted important information relating to various marathon
training topics. Unfortunately, some of our team members were
unable to attend our meetings from time to time and thus missed
receiving vital information they needed to train safely and successfully
for their upcoming marathons. While having this information on
hand at meetings in written form helped to some extent, another
alternative was needed.
During this same time period, I was fortunate to have a friend
teach me the basics of web site construction and design. With
her assistance and encouragement, my first marathon training web
site was launched on Yahoo!GeoCities. The marathon training information
posted on this new web site could now be accessed both by TNT
members as well as runners around the world.
In 1999, I acquired the domain name: www.marathontraining.com
(much easier to remember than the one used on the original Yahoo!GeoCities
site). Shortly after, State of the Art Marathon Training web site
was redesigned from its original appearance. The site has recently
undergone another facelift. Along with a new look, content additions/updates
as well as navigation improvements have been made.
It's been quite astonishing to me how State of the Art Marathon
Training has evolved and grown from the time it was first launched
along with the awareness and recognition that it's attained on
a worldwide level. As a result of the site's success, the opportunities
I've received have been gratifying. Over the past 10 years, I've
answered reader's questions appearing in Runner's
World Magazine's (RW) Advice Column and have been interviewed
for a number of feature articles. My coaching tips have also appeared
within RW's on-line newsletter.
In 2000, Carlo De Vito, an editor associated with the Adams Media
Corporation, was searching the web for source material related
to a running book project in the works. Soon after reading through
the content pages of State of the Art Marathon Training, he asked
me to author The Everything Running Book. After working
with Carlo for 1-1/2 years, the Everything Running Book
hit the bookshelves and web booksellers in the summer of 2002.
Since that time, The Everything Running
Book has been one of the Everything Series’ best sellers.
As a result, a second edition with expanded content was released
in the spring of 2008. The third edition of the book was released in January 2012. To order your autographed copy, please
visit State of the Art Marathon Training's On-Line
Store.
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