Sticking it Out for Tokyo
Throughout my childhood in sports, I was always known as the slowest kid on the team. After many years of hard soccer training followed by a little puberty magic and thousands of miles running, I’ve finally qualified for one of the most prestigious races in the world, the Tokyo Marathon.
Tokyo will be my fourth out of the six major marathons leaving just the London Marathon and the Boston Marathon to go. Thus far, Berlin has been the favorite race I ran. How can you beat running your fastest ever marathon in the country where your grandfather was born in and celebrating after the race with other runners at Oktoberfest! Berlin was one of the hardest training cycles I’ve had in my entire running career. The most miles I did in a week was 80 miles with fast workouts up to 3 out of the 6 days that I ran. This totally kicked my butt.
Turn around to five months later, I’m almost through another marathon training cycle. This time I’ve maintained a similar intensity but feel WAY better. Throughout this training cycle I’ve focused more on what I enjoy with running. My favorite thing is running with other people and growing relationships through running. I run with the Fleet Feet Racing Team on Tuesdays and Saturdays leaving the rest of my week open to find different people to run with. I’ve probably spent my most time running with my friends Wes, Tim, and Rob. We’ve run hundreds of miles together over the last few months with our longest being a 20 mile run through the rolling hills of Cincinnati.
With our runs together we always run hillier routes. My elevation gain every time I run with them is off the charts. Shaking up every run with a big climb has really helped not only my physical strength, but my mental strength. Continuing a run for another 10 miles after you’ve already done 10 with a massive uphill really teaches you how to stick it out. Sticking tough at the end of races has been one of my biggest flaws over the last couple of years. I’ll be on pace to exceed my goal then boom, I hit the wall and slow down drastically. The more I run with these guys though, the further I feel like I can go with every run. I’m looking forward to see what kind of success awaits me at the finish line of the Tokyo Marathon because this time, I’m sticking it out.
