Fall marathon season is almost upon us, so it stands to reason that a fair number of you are in the midst of training. Many of you, we’d venture, are training for your very first marathon — or maybe you've caught the bug from some friends or family members who are gearing up to run a fall race, and you've now decided to make your marathon debut in the spring.
Either way, training for a marathon is hard work, and you're almost definitely going to screw some things up along the way, not to mention on the day of the race itself. We spoke to running expert John Honerkamp — an eight-time top-ten finisher at the U.S. Track & Field National Championship, a semifinalist for the 800-meter in the 1996 Olympic Trials, one of the lead architects of New York Road Runners' Virtual Trainer program, coach to celebrity NYC marathoners like James Blake, Caroline Wozniacki, co-leader of the New York City tribe of November Project, and just all-around advocate for the sport — about some of the more common mistakes people make.