Nowhere is the pounding of feet louder than during the historic Boston Marathon, a race that has been held on the third Monday of every April for the last 108 years. This year 20,000 runners ran in Boston on April 19. Next year one of those runners will be Willow Glen resident Jim Gardner, and he's not the only Willow Glen runner putting in the miles. Colleen Harrington and Eric Alemany are also members of the long-distance club.

Willow Glen resident Colleen Harrington says she never considered running a marathon until a friend talked her into training five years ago. Her friend invited her to a meeting of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training—a sport endurance training program that also raises money for cancer research—in 1999. Meeting the cancer survivors "sealed the deal," she says.

"I thought, 'If this 5-year-old can survive chemotherapy, I have to give it my all,'" she says.

In March, 27-year-old Harrington completed her fourth marathon, in Napa Valley. After her first one, she says, she became hooked on the experience.

"It's a Catch-22—I always think I could have done it faster, and that keeps me coming back," she says.

Harrington adds that runners do not need any special skills or body type.

All that's needed is consistent training. "It's an equal-opportunity sport," she says.

Before she began training, she had never run more than a few miles and had only played sports in high school.

"People say they could never run a marathon, but anyone can do it if they take time to train," she says.

With Team in Training's help, she was able to comfortably reach new milestones every weekend through the 18 weeks of training and learn the training regimen for future races, she says.

Besides the pace of training, diet also plays a factor in performance. An athlete's nutrition requirements are low-fat and high carbohydrate content, requirements that oppose all the fad diets, she says.

Her weekly training includes two short runs and a run that is seven miles long at the beginning of the training cycle and increases by 10 percent every week. Harrington completes one 21-mile run three weeks before the marathon and then tapers down her mileage until the race to allow her muscles to recover.

"When I start training, I think it's exciting, but by the week of the 20-mile run, I ask myself why I do this," she says.

When training becomes difficult, her running teammates give each other pep talks.

"Running with people makes it feel like a team sport," she adds.

During the race, she focuses on what her coach taught as the three C's: control, confidence and collection.

"The last six miles are completely mental," Harrington says. "After 20 miles, the human body shuts down."

In spite of the physical exhaustion and pain toward the end, running a marathon provides an unrivaled sense of joy and achievement, she says.

"'Runner's high' is a real thing," she says. "You build an addiction to it."

Besides the physical benefit, it's refreshing mentally to have a challenging goal outside of her career, Harrington adds. She works in corporate communications in San Francisco.

But like other athletes who train for months and then have a less-than-satisfying performance, she says her most recent race taught her how to cope with disappointment.

"Every race is a different experience," she says. "I felt like I was in my best physical condition, but there were other variables."

She didn't count on her running partner having the flu and still competing, and the Napa trail was in a different climate than the one in which she had trained around San Francisco.

Harrington and her partner finished in 4 ¹/2 hours, which was a half-hour longer than her set goal.

"Finishing together was more important than leaving someone behind," she says. "And it's an accomplishment whether you have a personal record-setting day or not."

Even though it was a tough race because of unforeseen circumstances, Harrington says she will definitely do another marathon. She even signed up that same day for the Wine Country Half Marathon in July.

Another Willow Glen resident who ran in the Napa Valley Marathon on March 7 was Jim Gardner. It was his fifth marathon in the last 20 years. His time of 3 hours and 22 minutes was fast enough to qualify him for the 2005 Boston Marathon. He will run in the 50­54-year-old age bracket. He heads to Boston next April to follow in the footsteps of one of his brothers, who ran this year's Boston Marathon.

"I'm pretty pleased," the 53-year-old says, about qualifying for Boston after he missed the cutoff in the December 2003 California International Marathon in Sacramento by three minutes.

One of five sons and two daughters, Gardner started running marathons when a few of his siblings urged him to participate.

"There's a sense of accomplishment and loads of memories," he says.

He adds that it's only one of his fitness hobbies, which also include sailing, bicycling and yoga.

"Running is great for quality of life," Gardner says. He notes that after he runs, his mind is clearer and whatever stress he has is lessened.

Because he runs his own technical-writing business on Lincoln Avenue, he can leave work in the middle of the day to run three or four times a week. To get in 20 miles, he runs the Los Gatos Creek Trail from Starbucks at Lincoln and Minnesota avenues to Lexington Reservoir and back.

With the miles marked out and with its various inclines, the Los Gatos Creek Trail was good training ground for Napa Valley, he says. On the creek trail and at Rancho San Antonio where he also trains, Gardner says he sees "great runners. There are some tremendous ones in this area."

And during marathons, his strategy is to find the one runner ahead of him and pass that runner.

"You're competing against yourself and the clock, but you keep motivating yourself that way," he says.

For Willow Glen resident Eric Alemany, marathons were not enough to keep him motivated, so he began training for triathlons six years ago.

A native of France, Alemany always liked to do things differently, he says. Instead of playing the most popular national sport, soccer, he opted for rugby and basketball growing up.

Triathlons were more up his alley than those sports because he likes to rely on himself rather than teammates, he says.

"It's me against the watch," 40-year-old Alemany says. "How fast can I swim, how fast can I run and how fast can I bike."

When he's bored with swimming, then he trains for running or biking, because "it's a good mix for body and mind," he says.

Switching between the three sports also helps prevent injuries, he says, because runners can lose their toenails, swimmers injure their shoulders and bikers hurt their lower back.

He also believes that injuries can result from improper technique.

"Technique is more important than speed or strength," he says. "If you just jump in the pool [without proper form], you'll be exhausted after 15 meters."

And what's difficult about a triathlon is the quick turnaround to the next event.

"You try to take the wetsuit, cap and goggles off while you're running," he says.

Alemany doesn't rely on a coach; instead, he finds drills and training exercises on the Internet. Like Gardner, he trains during the middle of his workday. He works as a computer information system analyst at Stanford University School of Medicine's oncology department and uses the school's sports facilities to work out. Alemany participates in masters swimming on campus and serves as a coach in a health-improvement program for Stanford faculty and staff.

He also maintains a diet of healthy foods like boiled chicken and steamed vegetables throughout the week, allowing himself chocolate and soda on weekends.

"My wife says I'm extreme," he adds.

Yet he wasn't sure he would ever attempt another triathlon after his first race.

"During my very first race, I thought I'd never do it again," he says. He used a $10 road bike to compete in the race. "But when I finished, I said, 'I want to do it again right now.' Then decided I'm going to do this for the rest of my life."

Alemany started with the shortest triathlon, called the Sprint, which is a 400­500-yard swim, 11­15-mile bike ride and 3-mile run.

"A lot of people say the Sprint is easy, but they can't finish," he says.

During the last six years and 25 triathlons, he has worked his way up through the Olympic Distance—a 1-mile swim, 25-mile bike ride and 6-mile run—to qualify for the Half Ironman—1.2-mile swim, 58-mile bike ride and 13-mile run—in Santa Cruz on Sept. 12, 2004. The Half Ironman is the qualifier for the Ironman in Hawaii.

His goal is to compete in the 2005 Hawaii Ironman, which is a 2.4-mile swim, 110-mile bike ride and 26-mile run.

"Once you reach a certain level of races, you need top competitors," he says.

Also, entrants need to be able to last eight hours.

"What counts is endurance," Alemany says. "It's what you have in the heart—the pump and the mind."

He adds that like marathoners, triathletes are a diverse group. He notes that triathletes are required to put their age on their calves, which makes it interesting when someone 15 years older passes him on the bike.

"I say there's hope for me that every year I can improve my time," he says. "I don't see any limit."

Alemany acknowledges that when he hits a certain performance, he may plateau, but says becoming a triathlon trainer is at the back of his mind.

"It may be a good retirement plan," he says.

And he notes that Lance Armstrong is one of his sports heroes. Before Armstrong was known as the five-time Tour de France champion, he was the swimmer, Alemany says.

When Armstrong's father told him he wouldn't make enough money in swimming, he became a triathlete before switching to cycling where the money was, Alemany says.

"I always tease other people that the best athletes are triathletes," he says.

Despite the teasing and the intense competition, Alemany says that participants in triathlons encourage each other. If someone gets a flat tire, people will stop during the race to help.

And finding he can push his body in endurance sports encouraged Alemany to work hard at something that not many other people do.

"It's a lot of fun," he says. "I love it."