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Tue 06 Jun 2007Voices of experienceMost people start out on the process of training for their first marathon with little real idea of what the race is going to be like. Here, five people who have completed the distance at least once in recent years talk about how those debuts over 26 miles compared to their pre-race expectations.•Don Ryan: "I prepared for Paris one year, but didn't feel quite ready when it came around so I blew it back 12 months which meant that I was probably a good bit better prepared than most first-timers when I did the race. In the end, it was great. I had done the long runs and took care to take on fluids during the race so I never really hit "the wall" and I had a good bit left at the end. The setting was terrific and I even managed a bit of a sprint over the few hundred metres."