Illustration: Sigurður Oddsson For Bloomberg
I Trained for the Paris Marathon Using ChatGPT
Six months of pain and progress, 20 pounds lost and a trial-and-error test of what AI can — and cannot — do.
Twelve months ago, I signed up for the Paris Marathon. Within six months, I knew I’d be in trouble without a trainer. So, living in the San Francisco Bay Area — the home of artificial intelligence — I decided to build one myself.
Like many runners, I’d signed up for the marathon in a post-race haze of glory. At the time, I was living in Singapore and running almost daily in the tropical heat. A recent half-marathon in Hong Kong had gone well; I posted a personal best of 2 hours 47 minutes. I’d even joined a weekly running club, spending Tuesday nights circling a track with 100 other Singapore Falcons. My only previous marathon, more than a decade earlier in Washington, DC, had fortunately faded into memory: a seven-hour finish, blown-out hips, knees and feet, and a limp that lasted weeks.