Nationally ranked ultramarathoner Missy Foy has a peculiar way of motivating the masses. A keynote of her 20-minute pep talk to aspiring marathoners last week? Throwing up. "The Kiawah Marathon was the first marathon I really trained for," Foy told members of the Carolina Godiva Track Club as they embarked on an 18-week marathon training program. Her goal was to run it in three hours, but she surprised herself by crossing the finish in 2 hours and 47 minutes. Then she surprised her waiting husband: "I fell into my husband's arms and threw up on him."

It might not have been what the prospective marathoners and half-marathoners expected to hear, but it didn't seem to faze them, either. Two days later, on Saturday morning, more than 60 runners gathered on the Duke campus for the first group run in Godiva's eighth annual Marathon Training Program.

The Godiva program is based on one developed by renowned distance runner and coach Hal Higdon. The program promises to turn anyone capable of running 6 miles into a marathoner in 18 weeks. Gary Schultz, who coordinates the program for Godiva, estimates that at least 300 runners have successfully completed its program since it began in 2000.

Because it's a beginner-oriented program, most of those 300-plus had never done what Pheidippides inadvertently popularized in 490 B.C. when he set out by foot from Marathon to deliver a message to Athens, 26 miles and 385 yards away. Pheidippides set a personal record of about 3 hours on that run; there is no record of him throwing up at the finish.

He did, however, drop dead.

Yet marathons continue to grow in popularity. According to Marathonguide.com, 382,000 people ran at least one marathon in 2005, a 22 percent increase over 2000.

"When you get involved in it, you realize it isn't about pain," says Dr. Peter Leone, a physician at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill who is training for his first marathon, in Philadelphia, in November. "It's about discipline and sticking with a plan."

Godiva's 18-week plan reflects years of development by Higdon and a little tweaking by Godiva. Higdon, who is 75, started running at the University of Chicago in 1947 and hasn't stopped. He participated in eight Olympic trials, placed fifth at the 1964 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:21:55 (the current world record is 2:04:55, set by Kenyan Paul Tergat in 2003), and won masters (runners 35 and older) titles in 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1991. The whole time he has been tinkering with various training regimens, including the 18-week marathon program that his Web site says has been used by more than 100,000 runners over the years.

Eighteen weeks may seem like a short time to go from running 6 miles -- roughly equal to running from downtown Raleigh to the RBC Center -- to 26 -- continuing on to Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But Leone, who has been running for 20 of his 49 years, thinks it's ideal for first-timers.

"In 18 weeks, you're not looking at people who will be running a three-hour marathon," says Leone. "Their goal is to just finish."

Just to finish

That's what Thomas Markham has in mind. Markham ran cross-country at Durham Academy and in college at Washington & Lee, but those races never exceeded six miles.

A few years into the work force now, Markham, who is 28, realized he was losing his runner's form and needed to get back into shape. Going back to 5Ks and 10Ks, he said, "wouldn't push me as much." So Saturday he joined the Godiva crew for the inaugural 6-mile run, his first steps toward running either the Richmond Marathon on Nov. 10 or the Outer Banks Marathon the following day. As Leone suggested, Markham isn't even thinking about a sub-three-hour marathon, the grail of many marathoners.

"Finishing the race, running the whole way, will be good enough."

Here's how Godiva's 6-to-26.2 plan works: Every Saturday, the marathoners gather for a group run, typically on a rolling, natural surface trail in the Durham area. Last Saturday, the first-time marathoners ran 6 miles. This Saturday they'll run 7 and come Sept. 1, they'll be up to 10. By gradually increasing those Saturday training runs, they should be up to 20 miles by Nov. 10.

Meanwhile, during the week, they'll be training on their own, doing various prescribed workouts. Typically, after Saturday's long run, the rest of the week will unfold like this:

Sunday: Cross-training. A bike ride, perhaps, or a swim. Something to keep the body active but work different muscles.

Monday: Rest.

Tuesday-Thursday: Shorter runs, generally between four and 10 miles.

Friday: Rest, for Saturday's long run.

The program is overseen by more experienced Godiva club members -- the club numbers more than 450 -- who offer advice and, on Saturdays, act as "pacers" to keep the runners in line. That's one part of the program Heiko Rath liked when he trained with Godiva last fall for the Outer Banks Marathon: "the sound advice from others, and the encouragement."

More important, though, may be the dynamic of training with others.

"I enjoyed bonding with the people in my pace group, going through the preparation for the event," says Rath, who finished last year's blustery OBX marathon in less than four hours. "It is easier to do the long runs in a group versus running by myself."

Markham agrees. "It keeps your mind off how you're feeling. A little bit." He also has a more visceral reason for running in a pack.

"It keeps you going. You don't want to embarrass yourself."

Who runs and why

Godiva's Marathon Training Program attracts a mix of runners. Last week's kickoff meeting was dominated by 20-somethings and baby boomers. Some had run competitively in high school and were getting back into it, others, such as Rath, were recent converts. There were more women than men. ("Men do not readily join any kind of beginner classes," Schultz observed.)

There seemed to be one commonality, which Jen Katz, a 28-year-old Durham runner training for a half-marathon, expressed: "Mostly, I'm concerned about injuries."

A valid concern, says Leone, the UNC physician who runs 50 to 60 miles a week. One reason he said he likes the Godiva program is that it does a couple of things to make marathon training easier on the body.

One, the long runs are on a more joint-friendly natural surface with hills. "With a variation of terrain, you don't have the same repetitive motion injury you get on pavement."

Two, the once-a-week interval workouts -- working short sprints into longer stretches -- work different leg muscles and help build aerobic capacity.

Still, to the nonrunner, the question remains: Why?

Some take a big-picture approach. "Long term, I'm running for my health," says 31-year-old Nicole Roberge, who is training for a yet-to-be-determined half-marathon. "I would like to be able to maintain a routine throughout my life so I can keep doing fun things" -- like climbing Africa's 19,340-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, which she did a few years ago -- "for a long time."

Jen Kates, who ran cross country in high school and plays in the Durham open women's soccer league, cites a heightened appreciation for being active. "My mom has multiple sclerosis, so it's my goal to do as many physical challenges as I can in my life since my mom isn't able to."

For Leone, his daily run is a time of escape. "I have a clearing out of my head. I'm more focused." Then he adds what what many distance runners get but likely sounds plain crazy to anyone for whom dashing to catch an elevator is a breath-taking ordeal.

"It has a calming effect."