Hi, fishdr,

Everybody's made good suggestions. I was pretty surprised when I finally went in to be fitted for good running shoes. They can tell a lot from watching me and looking at my old shoes. I did this twice over a year, in two different shops. I was a lot happier at the smaller, neighborhood shop. They took more time, and I like the shoes better.

I found Eric Harr's book, Triathlon Training in Four Hours a Week very helpful. When training for the marathon, I relied on John Bingham's Marathon Training For Mortals. I think the run is the easiest part, technically speaking. Mainly, you gotta run to train for it. Doing "brick" workouts will help, too. That's where you bike a distance, then get off and run right after. Running immediately after biking is different than just heading out the door for a run.

Have fun learning and training. Lise