I have been a runner now for the better part of four years, and in those four years I believe I have come a long way in terms of what I am able to comfortably accomplish on each run. In that short time frame, I have gone from running out of breath and collapsing to the ground on my very first attempt at a one mile jog to voluntarily running 27 miles on my 27th birthday this past October. Because of all this, from time to time I will receive requests to write about my particular running experiences and share what I have learned throughout my journey to help others reach their own running goals. The intent of this article is mainly to tackle the basics of what it takes to start running mixed with a sort of how-to guide to help an average runner go from shorter distances to ultimately achieving marathon distances and beyond! I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I know I am going to enjoy writing it! Step 1 | Start out slowly If you're anything like me when I started run...