You may have decided to start running so you're able to participate in a charity 5K or finish a half-marathon with a close friend — and that's totally OK. But you may want to hold off on signing up for the event or setting specific goals (think: finishing time) until you've been running consistently for at least six to eight weeks, Norris says.
A 5K may not seem that far before you start training, but once you're in the thick of it, you might realize you need six months to safely build up to that point, she explains. "Usually, once you get past the six- to eight-week mark, you know how you're responding to running, how it feels, and honestly, if you really want to do that [race]," Norris says. "Once you start running, you realize how hard it can be, and it kind of helps put things in perspective with race distances."
