The first thing to do if you want to train for a marathon? Ask yourself why

August 15, 2026 — 5:00amEach week, Good Weekend’s how-to column shares expert advice on how to navigate some of modern life’s big – and small – challenges. This week: How to run a marathon. Photo: Simon LetchGiven that a marathon is 42.2 kilometres – the distance, approximately, from the MCG to Frankston, or from Sydney Town Hall to Waterfall – let’s, momentarily, put aside the central question of how to run a marathon to address a more pressing one: why do it in the first place?“People do it for their own reasons,” says Gold Coast-based record-breaker Erchana Murray-Bartlett who, in 2022-23, ran 150 marathons in 150 days and is the subject of a new doco called 150. “Maybe to prove something to themselves or to support a charity.”Full disclosure: I ran one some years back to get one over o