Train for Marathons the Joe Strummer Way!

I know I’m late to the party on this story, and several running bloggers have already told the tale over the years, but only just today was I introduced to the saga of Joe Strummer and the Paris Marathon by Jane Bainbridge of The Independent.

Strummer died in 2002, but in 1982 he was at the height of popularity as singer and guitarist for The Clash. He decided to “disappear” to Paris and turned up at the marathon starting line. During a 1999 interview, he described his training regimen:

Q: Didn’t you once run in the Paris Marathon?

Joe: Yep. I ran three of them.

Q: Correct me if I’m wrong but is it also true that you never trained for any of them?

Joe: You shouldn’t really ask me about my training regime, you know.

Q: Why?

Joe: Because it’s not good and I wouldn’t want people to copy it.

Q: Don’t make me beat it out of you.

Joe: Okay, you want it, here it is. Drink 10 pints of beer the night before the race. Ya got that? And don’t run a single step at least four weeks before the race.

Q: No running at all?

Joe: No, none at all. And don’t forget the 10 pints of beer the night before. But make sure you put a warning in this article, “Do not try this at home.” I mean, it works for me and Hunter Thompson but it might not work for others. I can only tell you what I do.

Strummer claimed that he ran the 1983 London marathon in 3 hours and 20 minutes. Now, your blogger (tall, svelte and athletic) has been training to run next Sunday’s Paris marathon in 3:20 too. So, we’d like to see some documentary proof that the Strummer routine can produce those results, please. Either our Joe was secretly doing regular laps of the Casbah before rocking it every night, or else this is just one more legend in the Clash mythology.

Maybe Strummer was onto something. After all, have you ever seen a zombie bonk?