how do I train for my first marathon?

Start slowly and then build up , Never increase your weekly mileage more than 10% , Have a step back week every 3 or 4 weeks to give your body a chance to recover. Get good shoes and a good training plan , Sign up and go for it .

There are a variety of training plans and tips for the new runner at

http://www.phidippides.co.uk/

I strongly support the suggestion by Active.com. I'm into week 10 of the Hal Higdon's intermediate II running program and have found it to be excellent to improve distance as well as speed. There are training programs from novice to advanced.

I'd start with the novice program and then if you are managing the runs easily, you may step up to the intermediate level. Remember, unless you are running long distances already, a marathon is something that requires many weeks/months to train for.

However, If you're doing longer runs on a regular basis now, you can find the distances in the training program that match your current running schedule and jump in at the appropriate week.

As well as the training program links and suggestions given by others, you might consider joining a group that is specifically training for a marathon. In the US, that's probably going to be either the Team In Training, or USAFit. The motivation required to train properly is tough to come by on your own. It's much easier to have a peer group to run with.

I've had a few friends run successful marathons by following Hal Higdon's training plan. He has plans for various levels of experience which usually involve running 3 times a week and then a long run on the weekend, gradually building up the distance. The plan for beginners to running marathons can be found here: http://www.halhigdon.com/#marathon

Find more discussion, information, articles, tips, drills, etc on training for running marathons and more at http://www.active.com/ and http://active.typepad.com/teamsports.

Work on your first 5 miles. Start achiving it and them iprove its timings. Once you improved, slow down and run longer. To run a full marathon it does not mean you have to run 26 miles every day to train urself.

Know your body and its langauge. Stop running during training, take break often, when muscles pain dont go away. learn to find out when ur body fluid deplete and takes sips of water or energy drinks. a light stinge on the neck occompanied by muscle fatigue may be an indication of blood sugar drop and body consuming fats, This is positively time for a bar or energy drink.

Good idea to keep a watch on ur heartbeat. the trick is to push it to 165 plus next time slow down and push. ideally when u trained well it will keep much lower.

another good site to use is www.runnersworld.com they have a program they will design training program for you ability called smart coach. The long runs are the most important. www.coolrunning.com also has a lot of good information for training

Depends on your existing fitness. Two on whether you just want to run the distance or win it ?

Your age ?

Where ?

lots of water

running as much as possible

It's great that this question isn't incredibly broad!