Week 12 – Marathon Musings: Embrace Your Training
Photo from the 2024 Pittsburgh Half. The course was with us all, but each runner had a unique experience of it and that's part of what makes running such a cool sport: you can run with thousands of runners and still walk away with an experience that is unlike anyone else's.
No one else is like you. No one else has your exact life or your specific life stressors. So, if no one else is exactly like you, then why would you approach your training like someone else? Why would you do what everyone else is doing when you are wholly unique? While there may be many similarities, how we each respond to stressors is different. For example, my mental game falters when it’s over 70-degrees outside on a run. Meanwhile, I have friends that I envy because they either thrive or aren’t as affected by the heat. I can’t (and shouldn’t) compare myself to them when our perceptions and reactions are so different. We’re starting at different places and traveling down different paths, even if the end goal (race) is the same. It isn’t fair to me and, quite frankly, it’s a distraction from what I need to do to prepare myself for my race. And that’s the main point this week:
Your training should reflect you. It should reflect your current fitness, your goals, and what makes sense given the context of your life.
What other people are doing is just that: what they are doing.
No one else is running my race for me. No one else can fight the mental battles I know I will fight on race day. No one else has dedicated my time and my effort to training. No one else is me and that’s what makes training so special. I am making the time for training. I am making the sacrifices that will help me feel ready for race day. I am doing what I can to make myself the best athlete I can be given what I know about myself today. I can’t (and shouldn’t) worry about what others are doing because they won’t be doing the work of running a marathon for me. We may share the roads on race day, but race day is my victory lap. You have yours and I have mine and there’s room for it all.
Trust me, I get it. It’s easy to get distracted by what others are doing and to fall down the rabbit hole of comparison. I’ve been there and done that – I’m still thinking about that Boston Marathon “progression” chart I created back in 2015 and the pivotal conversation with my coach about Boston back in 2018. Trying to do what others were doing took away from the experience of being me and, in my case, made running feel like a chore. I was neglecting my needs by trying to be like someone else. I was worried about what others were doing when they weren’t even thinking about me.
I know it’s hard, especially with how information about training is shared nowadays. Perhaps we need to invite in a little mystery by sharing less of our own training or maybe even turn down the volume on people who share all the details about their training online. Whatever it is, I truly believe that longevity in the sport of running is tied to remembering you specific WHY for running. We each have unique reasons for being runners and going after the goals that we go after; to honor that, we start with our training and embracing an approach to training that centers who we are as individuals.
I love my cookies, but being cookie-cutter with training doesn’t serve me.
Marathon History:
2014 Chicago Marathon
2015 Miami Marathon
2015 Berlin Marathon
2015 Chicago Marathon
2016 Chicago Marathon
2016 NYC Marathon
2017 Chicago Marathon
2018 Chicago Marathon
2021 Chicago Marathon
2023 London Marathon
2023 Marine Corps Marathon
Marathon Musings series:
5 weeks until Chicago and 12 weeks of musings written. Here’s to embracing it all in our own unique style.
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