Thinking about trying your first marathon? Prepping for your fifth? The thought of taking on 26.2 miles is both exhilarating and intimidating— Can you really figure out how to squeeze training into your already hectic schedule?

Learn from Chris Hook (CWR '03, GRS '04), who's completed 17 marathons since he first started running in 2005. Despite working long hours as a budget analyst for the U.S. Department of Justice—"It's nine-to-five every now and then," he jokes—Hook has discovered some tricks to make it happen.

Set realistic goals: If you're angling to run your first marathon, give yourself six to eight months to train. And if you rarely work out, don't announce you're going to hit the gym daily. Set the bar lower so you won't get discouraged. Fifteen or 30 minutes of cardio three days a week is a good place to start. Once you've tackled that, you can bump it up to four days, and so on.

Break up the monotony: Hook says in the colder weather when he doesn't feel like hitting the streets for a run, he finds running on the treadmill for 45 minutes straight "incredibly monotonous." Instead, he'll break up his session into 20-minute increments on the treadmill, elliptical and arc training machines. "It gives you another option, and it changes the muscles you're forced to work," he says. "It's better overall training."

Exercise with a friend: "The thing that really works for me is having a workout partner," says Hook. "It keeps you accountable—you have to show up, put in the full effort, that sort of thing." Use marathons as an excuse for travel: Hook has planned trips around marathons in Berlin, Buenos Aires, New York and his hometown of Louisville, Ky. This year, he plans on running the Chicago Marathon and maybe one in San Francisco.

Check out running maps: When he first moved to D.C., Hook joined a running club and met veteran runners who shared some great routes. He also suggests checking out route maps at mapmyrun.com. Some of his favorite routes include one around the Jefferson Memorial and a particularly fun one along Embassy Row (which during one run brought him in front of the British Embassy's street party complete with bagpipe players!).