Training for my First Marathon

I have been training for my first Myrtle Beach Marathon now for almost a month.  It hasn't been easy.  When I started I was about 30 pounds overweight.  In my first month I have lost 10 pounds.  When I first start running I could not even run 1 mile.  The few times I have been running I ran the first two miles, and took a couple minute fast walk break and ran the rest of the way to get to mile 3. 

I bought a Pro Form 8.5 Personal Trainer treadmill to assist me with my training.  It doesn't get any more convenient than that. 

The treadmill came with an IFIT Weight Loss Treadmill Workout Card Level 1.  I bought Level 2 and 3 off of Ebay.  I wasn't paying attention and bought a performance level 3 card off of ebay too.  I am not sure if I will continue to use them until after the marathon or not yet. 

I started using the IFIT card every day before I started my run, but I found that the workout I was getting from the card was tiring my muscles out, and I wasn't able to do my full runs.  So now I only use the workout card once per week unless I am not feeling up to doing a full run.  I still need to lose some more weight so if I am feeling lazy I use the IFIT card to make sure I get a workout in.  Usually after I do the workout I do some sprints because I am pumped up.

My goal for the rest of September is to keep running 3 miles alternating between 12 minute, and 10 minute miles, with a couple of the days doing sprints to get to the 3 miles.  I find the hardest part about running is the breathing.

I have tried a couple different breathing techniques.  The first one was breathing in the nose and out the mouth through a hole the size of a straw.  I read or heard somewhere that if you learn to breath like that you can actually get more oxygen to the body.  I found breathing that way leads to my upper body being more tense as I need more oxygen further into the workout. 

The second method was breathing in and out of the mouth.  That seems to be the best way to go.  It doesn't lead to the tense upper body.  Though it wasn't until I started breathing in and out the mouth that I started to get cramping on ocassion on the right side.   Which reminds me I need to research cramping to find out what I can do to prevent that.

At first I thought one of the hardest parts of training for a marathon was going to be the diet.  I knew I was overweight so at first I started eating a lot less and making sure I stayed away from all the bad stuff.  Then I did some research and found out that I don't really need to diet, I just need to make sure that I eat a well balanced diet, and stay away from the really bad stuff because I will naturally be burning lots of calories especially when I really start increasing the distance.

I am hoping that I can lose another 10 pounds my second month of running as I increase the pace and the distance.

Do you have any advice for the first time marathon runner?