Obstacle #2: Staying Healthy

There are a lot of aspects that go into staying healthy. First, is nutrition. Eating a variety of foods is key, to make sure you get all your necessary vitamins and amino acids. Along with eating healthy, take a multivitamin just to make sure you cover all your vitamins. Eating red meat is important for iron levels, but excess red meat does nothing for you. Also, there are many plant sources that have high amounts of iron and you can get a significant amount of iron from these sources BUT Remember that only a small portion of the iron you eat from plant sources is absorbed, so you must eat red meat at least 3-5 times a week. The ideal portion is 3-4 ounces, anymore and it does you no good because your body can only absorb a certain amount of iron at a time. how much can it absorb? Only 3-4 ounces of red meat worth of iron, so don't eat more than that unless you just want to build a fat reserve. If you are still not sure you are getting enough iron, take iron supplementation but make sure to check with your doctor to see where your iron level is at. There is such a thing as too much iron and it can kill you.
Stay away from sodas and alcohol-both of which have no nutritional value. Both dehydrate your body and leave your body in a state of stress. The more stress, the more of a chance you have of getting sick.
So, in terms of nutrition its real simple. Just eat:
Fruits and Vegetables all the time
Red Meat in 3-4 ounce portions 3-5 times a week
Oatmeal and other carbohydrate rich options
And avoid alcohol and sodas at all cost.

The second aspect is sleep. For distance runners, there is no amount of sleep that is too much sleep. If you can sleep 11 hours a night, fine. Do it! If you feel fine with 9 hours, then sleep 9. But any less than 9 and you are not giving your body the amount of rest that it needs. If you are serious about staying healthy while running you will see to it that you are in bed well before midnight and that you sleep as long as your body needs to feel rested.