When it comes to the sport of running, the national spotlight typically focuses on those who run unbelievably fast. Although track stars like Usain Bolt and Marion Jones claim most of the headlines, it is, arguably, those who run marathons who have a greater impact on the community.

Megan Godwin, health and exercise science sophomore, said she has been running since the 8th grade, participating in numerous competitions throughout grade school.

Although Godwin has been running almost seven years, she said she started training 18 weeks before the April 2009 Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

“It was really easy at the beginning because you would do maybe three to six miles a day max, which is bearable, ” said Godwin. “But then, towards the end, you started having to do 18 to 20 miles on a Sunday.”

Godwin said she ran the marathon because a lot of her friends run marathons, which inspired her to participate in the event.

“I like running, but I’m not the fastest runner,” Godwin said. “It took up a lot of my time and it was very physically tiring, emotionally tiring. … It’s a really time consuming training regiment.”

Godwin said although she has been running for a long time, runners should not decide to run a marathon at the spur of the moment.

“You could not just wake up one day and decide that you’re going to go run a marathon, not even two months [beforehand],” Godwin said. “You need at least four months to decide that you’re going to do the marathon and train for it.”

Running in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon was strenuous, but definitely worth it, Godwin said.

“It felt great to do that,” Godwin said. “I remember towards the end of the marathon, it just seemed like it kept stretching out further and further. People kept saying ‘only one mile to go, only one mile to go.’”

At that point Godwin had run 25.2 miles of the 26.2 mile marathon.

“I was like one mile – that’s going to be the worst mile of my life, but I just told myself ‘I’ve paid for it, I’ve done more than 90 percent of the marathon, I’ve got to finish it,’” Godwin said. “It’s totally worth it, especially because it’s for a great cause.”

Ashley Tims, health and exercise science junior, said she has run in one full marathon, 26.2 miles, and three half marathons of 13.1 miles.

Tims said she has been training for marathons since high school and uses halhigdon.com, which provides a variety of training programs for running a marathon. She said she used the intermediate course level 1, which requires you to run five days a week. Long runs, which were done on Saturdays, ranged from eight to 20 miles, she said.

Tims also said running a marathon requires a lot of commitment and determination.

“Some months are going to suck, but if you follow through, it’s just going to get easier and easier,” Tims said. “It’s such a great accomplishment and after I did it, I felt like I could do anything.”

While she has only run marathons competitively, Tims said she wants to run a marathon for a good cause in the future.