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John Blewis, 36, a general manager in Fort Myers, Fla., started training for his first marathon 10 months ago, after seeing on Facebook that a friend from high school had run in their hometown race in Buffalo, N.Y. He joked that he would jog with her the next time around. Three half-marathons later (and 45 lb. lighter), he's registered to compete in the Buffalo marathon...
Books on training for a marathon always encourage people to tell everyone they know about their intention to run 26.2 miles in one grueling stretch. Facebook just might be the perfect forum for broadcasting such a goal and making the goal setter stick to it. Cara Sronce, a 24-year-old law student in Carbondale, Ill., says that soon after she signed up for her first marathon, the 2010 Chicago race, she posted a status update about getting ready for the October event. "I figure I can't stop now, unless I get some serious injury or something," she says...
Scroll through your Facebook newsfeed these days, and chances are you'll feel like a slacker. Why? Because everyone and his uncle seems to be getting ready to run a marathon. They're asking for donations, creating special support-me-while-I'm-training groups and posting status updates about returning from a 20-mile run at an hour when most sane people are lazily rolling out of bed. The nonprofit group Running USA reports that there were 467,000 marathon finishers last year, up nearly 10% from 2008 - and the highest number of finishers to date...
That's where the Facebook effect comes in. When you see a friend doing something online, you're more likely to follow - whether the activity is telling the world what color bra you're wearing or doing something more goal-oriented. Jennifer Weber says the site helped her catch the marathon bug. "When all these people around you are doing it, you look at them and think, 'Well, if they can run a marathon ...,' " she says. "It spreads like wildfire." The 23-year-old ran her first marathon not long after moving across the country to New York City...
Weber and Sronce are part of the age group Running USA says had the largest increase in marathon runners from 2008 to 2009: women ages 18 to 24. The second largest increase was in men ages 25 to 34, another key Facebook demographic. (See five Facebook no-nos for divorcing couples...