EXERCISE: Diary Of a NYC Marathon Plodder.

NYTIMES/Tara Parker-Pope/
"This weekend, I was again at the back of the pack of the estimated 43,000 who participated in the New York City Marathon, and I was thrilled to be there. About five months ago, I declared that I was going to transform myself from couch potato to runner and complete a fall marathon. I trained using a combination of running and walking, a method espoused by the Olympian distance runner Jeff Galloway and now used by hundreds of thousands of runners around the country."