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He went back to school to earn a master’s in exercise physiology from UMass in his late 30s, and for a decade wrote a column on training for Running Times.

In July 2025, the fitness publisher Human Kinetics released the fourth edition of Pfitzinger’s coauthored book, Advanced Marathoning. Zooming with him at his home in New Zealand, Cornellians tapped the CALS grad for advice for fellow alums who want to tackle the 26.2 mile race—or may just be thinking about getting off the couch in the new year.

Have you always been a runner?

I started in eighth or ninth grade. I went out for the track team and enjoyed it. And the more of the right kinds of training I did, the better I got—but I was also learning, how does the body really work? How do you improve?

Once you achieve the goal of running for a mile, it’s very motivating. And then maybe the next goal is a mile and a half, then two miles. Running is hard work; if you can do two miles after a few months, that’s a wonderful accomplishment. It’s bite-size chunks that are reasonable, based on what you’ve done or haven’t done before.

If someone is just getting started, would you recommend working on increasing distance or speed?

Well, neither aggressively so. One of the key principles is that the body adapts well to small increments, and isn’t very good at assimilating larger increases. One of the mistakes that runners—particularly beginners—often make is they get a bit of early success, and then they take the reins off and try to do too much.

And make sure you have the right shoes. Go to a specialty running store where they can advise you. You may not need to do that every time, but when you’re early in your running, get that advice, because it can make a big difference as to whether or not you get injured.

Running is hard work; if you can do two miles after a few months, that’s a wonderful accomplishment.

What about training for a race?

A 5K is a great entry point. It’s 3.1 miles, and there’s a lot of races available; many other people will be relative novices, so you’re not likely to come in last.

Still, don’t say, “I’ve never run before and I’m going to do a 5K next week,” because that’s unlikely to go well. But if there’s a 5K three to six months in the future, that’s a nice block of time you can get your head around.

Running can be a solitary sport; do you see advantages in training as a group or with friends?

Absolutely—one, for the mutual motivation and camaraderie that comes from doing something together, particularly something difficult, and often in bad weather. But probably the more important aspect is the learning.

Running seems like the simplest thing in the world—and in a way, it is—but there’s a lot of things you can learn from each other. If you run with more experienced people, they’re going to know about warming up, doing flexibility exercises, what to do if your shins start to hurt—a whole range of factors.

How does one make the leap to marathoning?

It’s all progressive. It’s a long way—over twice as far—from a 10K to the half marathon, so you want to let your body get used to the 10K for a while.

And then, of course, it’s a big leap from the half up to the marathon. A half marathon is 13 miles; if you want to do a marathon, you need to do some training runs of about 15, 16, 17 miles. When you get up to where you can maybe do 20, 21 miles, that’s when you can reasonably handle a marathon.

It’s all about doing it logically and incrementally, and giving your body the chance to adapt to this challenge.

If a person is reasonably active, how far in advance should they plan to run a marathon?

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As a general rule, if you’ve done a 5K, give yourself a full year to get up there—with the caveat that you might find, “I’m only ever going to be able to get to the half, because my body can’t handle all this pounding.”

Avoiding injuries is key. But if someone has gotten injured running a 10K, that doesn’t mean it’s a permanent state of affairs; you can learn things to reduce the likelihood of injury. And if you can run week after week, the body gradually adapts and can handle more distance.

It’s all about doing it logically and incrementally, and giving your body the chance to adapt to this challenge.

Could you explain what you mean about injuries? Are they related to overuse, rather than an acute injury like tripping on the sidewalk?

Yes. With running, your legs and hips withstand several times your body weight with every step, and it’s very repetitive. So you’re doing thousands of steps that are the same, again and again.

Little injuries are going to happen, and they take anywhere from a week to a few weeks to get better. That’s just part of running—but knowledge can help you get over them more quickly and prevent them from happening again. You want to avoid the more serious injuries that can take a couple of months before you’re back running.

Maybe you’re running on sidewalks, which are a very hard surface, and the body’s not going to handle that as well. Maybe your shoes aren’t quite right. Maybe you’re not giving yourself a chance to warm up.

There are a lot of relatively minor factors that you can learn to avoid. I think back to where I was running 130, 140 miles a week without getting injured—but years earlier, I was running 50 miles a week and getting minor injuries.

Little injuries are going to happen, and they take anywhere from a week to a few weeks to get better. That’s just part of running—but knowledge can help you get over them more quickly and prevent them from happening again.

Is it important not to just soldier through the pain?

Absolutely. Pain is the body’s signal to “stop doing this.” Now, if you have a muscle that’s a bit sore, sometimes that eases as you get going. But if running is painful, that’s no good. You can make a small injury that might have taken two or three days to get better into something that takes several weeks to heal.

If someone is thinking about running their first marathon, are there races that are more entry level?

There are at least 500 U.S. marathons every year. Other than the big ones—New York, Boston, or Chicago—pretty much all are going to be lower key and more accessible, in that you don’t have to enter a lottery to get in. You don’t want a particularly hilly one, and you want one where the weather is likely to be good.

What constitutes good weather for marathoning?

It’s in the 40s and 50s. When it gets up into the 60s, that’s great for spectating, but it’s warm for running.

Could you talk a little bit about your book?

The title, Advanced Marathoning, sounds more exclusive than it really is.

There are a variety of books written for beginning marathon runners—and if you get to the semi-elite or elite levels, there tends to be more individualized coaching. So this book is for people who’ve run a few marathons. They want to get better at it, and they’re motivated to learn more about topics like physiology, recovery, and diet.

I’ve read that each year, a little over a million people around the world finish a marathon. This isn’t for the beginners, so maybe chop off a third—and it’s not for the elites, so chop off a couple percent at the top. It’s for those in the middle.

Each year, a little over a million people around the world finish a marathon.

And finally: what do you love about running?

The freedom, the sense of flowing along and of mastery—that you’re able to do this across all weather conditions. I can remember being in Cooperstown, NY, and it was cold and it snowed all night.

And I went out and ran 20 miles on Christmas morning in this one-car track: 10 miles out, 10 miles back. Just idyllic.

(Top: Illustration by Ashley Osburn / Cornell University; all other images provided.)

Published December 22, 2025

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