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♪ Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam bam, bam, bam bam, bam, bam ♪

1:26

♪ Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh boo-boo-ba-boom-boom-boom

1:29

♪ ♪ boo-boom-bam boo-boom-bam

1:31

boo-boom-bam boo-boom-bam ♪ ♪

1:35

Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh boom-boom-bam

1:37

♪ Welcome

1:39

to the Marathon Training Academy Podcast where we

1:41

empower and inspire you to run a marathon

1:44

and change your life. I'm Trevor. And

1:46

I'm Angie. In this episode we bring

1:48

you a marathon success story with Chris Ferens, went

1:51

from a near disaster at his first

1:53

marathon last year to transforming himself into

1:56

a sub three hour marathoner in 2023.

1:59

Hear about the mistakes. Use

4:00

the code RUN for 15% off. Before

4:03

we jump into our conversation today with Chris, we'd

4:05

like to give some shout outs to folks in

4:07

the community, people that are running some end of

4:10

the year races here or something, right, something cool.

4:12

So, Angie, what do you got going on? Well,

4:15

we heard from Karen, she says, it's been 12

4:17

years since I ran my last marathon and not

4:19

only did I run the Fort Worth Marathon faster

4:21

by 52 minutes, but I

4:23

placed first in my age division. Thank

4:25

you, Social Distancing Run family for inspiring

4:27

and motivating me to keep running. And

4:30

this comes from a longtime member named Rachel.

4:32

She says, happy medal Monday. Usually

4:34

you got to bring rain gear for the

4:36

Seattle Marathon, but yesterday was great running weather.

4:38

This was my sixth marathon, but my last

4:41

one was in January, 2020. I've

4:43

traveled a lot since then and lost some

4:45

fitness. So I was starting my training almost

4:47

from ground zero. Luckily I had

4:49

MTA coach Kerry to guide me this time and

4:52

I felt strong by race day. I finished in

4:54

545.41. Not

4:56

my fastest, but I've always been a proud

4:58

slow AF runner. I'm very satisfied

5:01

with my comeback and I'm looking forward to

5:03

the next one. All right, got

5:05

to get in top shape for the Tour

5:07

de Mont Blanc next year, Rachel. She's going

5:09

with us. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing her there.

5:12

And this comes from a member named Leah Grace.

5:14

She says, this past weekend, I did something I

5:17

wasn't sure I could do. I completed my first

5:19

50 mile race. Just getting to

5:21

the start line wasn't pretty. I had an

5:23

injury flare up, ran a Chicago marathon, injured and

5:25

under train and had a rough time there, then

5:27

recovered from that and decided to get in

5:29

some training for the 50 miler. Then

5:32

10 days before the race, I got COVID. At that

5:35

point, I wasn't even sure I'd be able to attempt

5:37

50 miles. But by

5:39

race week, I was feeling better and decided

5:41

to just go and see what happened. I've

5:43

never been so nervous in my life. The

5:45

first 13 miles were enjoyable. The second 15

5:48

were a little rough. I had to do some walking and after

5:50

mile 28, I couldn't run anymore. So I

5:52

spent the rest of the race walking as fast as

5:54

I could. It was cold and

5:56

lonely and very challenging mentally and physically.

5:59

Thankfully with... About 10 miles to go,

6:01

I met three people who were also deep in

6:03

a pain cave. So we shared that cave all

6:05

the way to the finish. Pain cave is

6:07

such a great analogy. Yes, thanks to Courtney

6:09

DeWalter. She says, I

6:11

was so happy to cross that finish line

6:13

and see my daughter taking a video of

6:15

us. Though this was very painful and definitely

6:17

not ideal, it showed me just how strong

6:20

I was and that if you believe in

6:22

yourself and just keep going, you can definitely

6:24

conquer anything. Thank you MTA for always being

6:26

supportive and inspirational. And that comes from Leah.

6:28

Well, congrats Leah on finishing your first 50 mile

6:31

race. Angie, you know how painful that could be.

6:34

Sounds very similar to my experience, the

6:36

walking the second half. You've

6:40

done it a couple of times. I have, my

6:42

second one did not go that great, so. It's

6:45

a long time and a long distance for things to

6:47

go wrong. Indeed. So

6:50

yes, very proud of her for persisting

6:52

and it sounds like she is very

6:54

happy. She was able to overcome all

6:56

those challenges as well. We

6:58

got one final note here. This comes from

7:00

Mark who is a client of ours. He

7:03

works with Coach Abby on our team and

7:05

sent in this nice story. So we thought we'd read

7:07

this as our final one. Yeah, he

7:09

says, after getting COVID in 2021, my

7:12

next two marathons were a disaster. I

7:14

thought my marathon career was over, but an email

7:16

from the New York City Marathon in February of

7:18

this year told me it wasn't over yet. I

7:21

had thought about a coach in the past, but

7:23

I thought how hard could running be? And as

7:25

a 63 year old experienced runner

7:27

having done over 20 marathons in the last

7:29

10 years, why did I need one? After

7:32

swallowing my pride, I signed up for coaching in March

7:34

and was glad that I did. Coach

7:36

Abby designed a plan that included the

7:38

running and cycling that I desired. Her

7:40

recommendations and accountability was just what I

7:42

was missing. It was challenging, but

7:45

also fit me perfectly. Running through

7:47

the record heat in South Louisiana this past

7:49

summer was difficult, but having a plan and

7:51

a coach that took this into consideration helped

7:53

me train in a safe manner. Sticking

7:56

to the training plan, I was able to do

7:58

the New York City Marathon in... 437

8:01

which was 30 minutes faster than my previous

8:03

two marathons. I ran from start to

8:06

finish in an even pace with my last

8:08

mile being my fastest. This has never happened

8:10

before. I am now working with

8:12

coach Abby to run a 50k in March

8:15

of 2024 and I know her training will

8:17

guide me into completing this race feeling strong.

8:19

To anyone who is considering coaching it's never

8:22

too late no matter how long you've been

8:24

running or how old you are there is

8:26

always something to be learned. Thanks to the

8:28

entire MTA family and keep the podcast coming.

8:30

I have more miles left in me. Yes

8:33

you do Mark. I like that. Man

8:36

thank you for those nice words Mark. I'm

8:38

so glad to hear things worked out well

8:40

for you at the New York City Marathon

8:42

and all the training. So yeah this is

8:44

what we live for. Love it. And this

8:46

interview that we're gonna play now is really

8:48

interesting because it gives everyone a

8:50

good before and after snapshot of

8:52

the changes that are possible between

8:54

one's first marathon and second marathon.

8:57

I guess between any two marathons.

8:59

We're gonna talk with Chris Farrens.

9:01

He's actually a local here in

9:03

Carlisle, Pennsylvania where we live. He's a

9:05

certified public accountant and he started working

9:08

with me you know as my accountant

9:10

in 2020 and at that point running

9:12

marathons was nowhere on his radar. And

9:14

then you know the last three years

9:16

we have seen Chris just totally transform.

9:19

He's lost 90 pounds. He has worked

9:21

himself into shape to be a sub

9:23

three hour marathoner. That's amazing. He just

9:25

ran sub three at the Richmond Marathon

9:27

in the final weeks before the race.

9:30

He reached out to us and he

9:32

started doing calls with Coach Nicole. We have

9:34

seen a lot of people through the years

9:36

who are very driven, very successful and they

9:39

just push too hard in their training. They

9:41

burn out. They have the

9:43

opposite problem that I have. They

9:45

don't take rest days. I'm

9:47

a pro at taking rest days. Chris, he

9:49

was not taking any and so you will

9:52

hear. This is very reminiscent of our episode.

9:54

It was two episodes ago where we talked

9:56

about seven questions to ask yourself. Angie, do

9:58

you remember what the first question was? was?

10:00

Are you doing your easy days easy

10:02

and your hard days hard? Yeah, it's

10:04

a great question. So we're gonna play this conversation

10:06

with Chris Farrens. In addition to being a CPA,

10:08

he's got a wife and two kids. His wife

10:11

Mallory is also a runner and Chris also sits

10:13

on the board of our local YMCA. He's 36

10:15

years old and we got to do this in

10:18

person. Coach Nicole was there with me. Angie was

10:20

still in Montana. So you will hear coach Nicole

10:22

on the mic as well. Let's jump into it

10:24

right now. Oh

10:31

my. We

10:36

are here in person with Chris Farrens

10:39

here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Chris has an

10:41

awesome story and we always love to

10:43

do in-person podcasts. We don't get a

10:45

chance to do this very often. And

10:47

I'm joined today by coach Nicole. So

10:50

first of all, Chris, we

10:52

started working together. You're my

10:54

accountant. We'll

10:57

get that out of the way right now. Yeah, he's my

10:59

accountant too. We're

11:02

actually here in a conference room at Co-Hickens

11:05

and Associates. I guess you're an associate.

11:07

When do you get your name on the building?

11:09

It's in the works right now. It's in the

11:11

works right now. So I'm just a CPA here.

11:14

I've been a CPA for more than 10

11:16

years and work with a lot

11:18

of great folks and including you guys. Where did

11:20

you go to school? Where did you study? I

11:22

went to Shippensburg University. I

11:25

went to Carlisle High School and then went to

11:27

Shipp and had some great professors at Shippensburg and

11:29

I had a great accounting teacher in high school

11:31

that's largely responsible for me doing what I'm doing

11:33

today. Were you always kind of like a math

11:36

guy, numbers guy? To a certain

11:38

degree, yeah. But I didn't really know what I wanted

11:40

to do in high school. I was sort of all

11:42

over the map. And again, I had a great accounting

11:44

teacher in high school and I give him all the

11:47

credit in the world. So he's

11:49

largely responsible for me. Picking this is

11:51

my final direction. When I first

11:53

met you in 2020 versus now, I

11:55

was trying to figure out how much weight you

11:57

had lost. Is it 90 pounds? Yeah. So

12:00

in 2020, I was

12:03

probably about the heaviest I ever been in

12:05

my life. That's when we got a chance

12:07

to meet purely in an accounting area, not

12:10

thinking about marathons at all. And

12:13

that fall, like a lot

12:15

of the country was looking at getting, you know,

12:17

maybe a COVID vaccine, that sort of thing. And

12:20

I had a conversation with my wife. We

12:22

had just had our son. And I

12:24

had a conversation with my wife about the COVID vaccine.

12:26

And I said, well, I'm just going to wait my

12:29

turn to get the vaccine. They

12:31

kind of came out in ways, if you

12:33

remember back, it was like you could get

12:35

the vaccine if you had pre-existing conditions and

12:37

that sort of thing. And so

12:40

I had this conversation with my wife and my wife said,

12:42

well, you could probably get it right now. And I said,

12:44

well, what do you mean? I don't really

12:46

qualify yet. And she said, well, did you look at the

12:48

pre-existing conditions? And I was like, yeah, but I don't have

12:50

anything going on. I don't take any medications. I have literally

12:52

nothing. And she was like, well, did

12:54

you look at the height and weight chart?

12:56

She's being very delicate. She's

12:59

being very delicate. And so I looked at

13:01

it and I looked at, you know, the

13:03

government BMI chart or whatever. And

13:06

I was like, holy smokes. So I'm

13:08

considered to be like obese. I really

13:10

had never really thought about it. I

13:13

didn't consider myself to be obese. And

13:16

then I looked at this government chart and it's

13:18

telling me just how overweight and out of shape

13:20

I was. And that was kind

13:22

of the deciding moment for me. I was like, nobody's

13:24

ever told me. I never had a doctor tell

13:26

me. And so that was the

13:28

same thing with me. I was like, I

13:30

got to do something. And so that something

13:32

really initially was just, hey, I'm going to

13:34

eat better. And then I started like, you

13:37

know, walking and jogging, that sort of thing.

13:39

And then it just sort of turned into

13:41

like running and getting back into the local

13:43

YMCA. And it turned into in

13:45

2021. And

13:47

then in 2022, I just sort

13:49

of started running longer distances and there was

13:51

really no plan. It was just, can I

13:53

run five miles? I've never run five miles.

13:55

I ran five miles. I was like, I'm

13:58

actually okay. Can I run 10 miles? I run seven.

14:00

I run seven. That's really what I did for

14:02

a long period of time. I ran a half

14:04

marathon then in the fall of 2021. So

14:08

I lost a total of like 90 pounds really

14:10

when it comes down to it. What else did

14:12

you change about your diet? I

14:15

mean initially I went kind of the

14:17

low carb route. It

14:19

just produced the best results the fastest. I've

14:21

used it before. I knew it kind of

14:23

worked and so I did that. We could

14:25

talk about this more but I've since shifted

14:28

my mentality revolving around

14:30

nutrition and carbs dramatically especially in

14:32

this marathon prep. So I am

14:34

very much not anti-carb at the

14:37

moment. But back then that's initially what

14:39

I did. I kind of went kind of a low

14:41

carb route. You know, I just needed

14:43

to get some sort of control over my

14:45

diet. I got in this habit of

14:48

stopping at the local store, picking

14:50

up a carton of ice cream. That

14:53

carton of ice cream was exclusively consumed

14:55

by myself. There

14:57

was many times where it was eight or

14:59

nine or ten o'clock I'd be eating some

15:01

ice cream and I'd finish off the carton

15:03

and realize that no one

15:06

else had touched that carton. You were still

15:08

eating like a teenager in your 30s. Oh

15:10

I was very much still eating like a

15:12

teenager or potentially worse. And so

15:14

yeah I started out by just cleaning

15:17

all of that up and really getting

15:19

a handle and kind of some control

15:21

over my own personal diet decisions I

15:23

guess. That's awesome. When did the idea

15:25

of a marathon first come into your

15:27

mind? It really

15:29

just started off with I guess I

15:32

ran five or ten miles and I'm

15:34

like okay I survived. Now

15:36

I'm at run 12, run 15

15:38

and I think one day

15:41

I just it was like the night before I

15:43

was like I think I'm gonna wake up and

15:45

see if I could run like you know 18

15:47

miles I think it was. And

15:50

there was no pacing it was just kind of like I just want to go

15:52

do it and see if I could do it. And

15:54

so I did that and I found

15:57

out that I could survive it. I was

15:59

fine. And I was like, okay, well, that was kind

16:01

of interesting. And so I think a

16:03

friend of mine said, well, you're running a lot and he

16:06

probably, were you training for a marathon? And I was like,

16:08

well, no, but I should. And so

16:11

that's what, that's what started the thought in

16:13

my head. And as I

16:15

started to consider it, um, you

16:18

advertise, uh, the Richmond marathon as

16:20

being the friendliest marathon.

16:22

Yeah. Friendly. Yeah. So I

16:24

was like, okay, well, Richmond is not too far

16:27

away. And also the calendar was such that it

16:29

would sort of work out. And

16:31

so I signed up for the Richmond marathon in the

16:33

fall of 2022. And

16:35

that's really was kind of the

16:38

start of, uh, my commitment. I'll say still didn't

16:40

have any type of real training plan. It was

16:42

just sort of myself and I was

16:44

just sort of logging miles, I guess.

16:46

Uh, you got pretty far that way. Yeah.

16:49

I logged a lot of miles. I would say

16:51

two very big issues though,

16:53

with what my plan was. Um, number

16:55

one, I was still

16:57

a quasi anti-carb and so

16:59

my diet decisions were not,

17:02

uh, the best for

17:04

performance. And then also I just

17:06

ran way too many miles and

17:08

at the same pace. I ran the same

17:10

pace all the time. Um,

17:13

no real rhyme or reason. How would

17:15

you describe that pace? Just kind of a

17:17

medium, hard effort probably. Precisely.

17:19

No, no easy days. No

17:21

easy days. In fact, red

17:23

flags are going off in Coach Nicole's

17:25

mind right now. In fact, yeah, in

17:27

fact, no off days. So from, from

17:30

August of 2022 until November of 22,

17:32

uh, my minimum mileage

17:37

for a day was five miles.

17:40

It was all moderately difficult

17:42

effort. Um, so I would say

17:44

like kind of the best I could do for the

17:46

day. And I effectively

17:48

torched myself. Um, I

17:51

had like plantar spasciitis. Um,

17:54

I remember limping around all over the

17:56

place. I was wearing, you know,

17:58

a nighttime brace thinking that. would resolve it,

18:01

I didn't take a day off. And

18:03

my thought was if I took a

18:05

day off, this fitness that I gained

18:07

was going to immediately evaporate. And

18:10

that evaporation would occur

18:13

in the course of two days. And so I

18:16

didn't take any days off for

18:18

three, four months. I just ran every single

18:20

day. On Saturday and Sunday,

18:22

I would run between 10

18:25

and 15 miles. And then Monday through

18:27

Friday, I would run five. That's what

18:29

I did for months. Then in the

18:31

beginning of November, I quickly realized that

18:33

I may not be running this marathon

18:35

if I continue to do this. So

18:37

I did take a couple

18:39

of days off in this quote

18:41

unquote taper that I developed for

18:44

myself. And we're talking

18:46

about November of last year for November.

18:48

Yeah, November of 2022. Effectively, I came

18:50

into November of 2022 being so beat

18:54

up that I realized that I may

18:56

not actually be able to do the marathon if I

18:58

continued. So I took a couple days off. But

19:00

yeah, it was just sort of

19:03

logging long, moderate to difficult paced

19:05

miles that really

19:07

did not further my fitness much.

19:09

Yeah, I'm wondering if you could get

19:11

away with all of that, you know, obviously being 30,

19:13

were you 34 then? 35. And not being a runner in your path.

19:16

So your

19:20

body had never been beat up like that. So

19:23

maybe because you had a fresh body for running,

19:25

maybe that's how you got away with it. Because

19:27

most people wouldn't be able to get away with

19:30

that without severe injuries. Yeah, you know, I

19:32

mean, I definitely had some injuries. And again,

19:35

I had a lot of lingering problems, but

19:37

I just sort of was like, Okay, I'm

19:39

just gonna do it. And again, I had

19:41

it in my head that my

19:43

fitness level was going to diminish almost immediately.

19:45

And obviously, now that I know that's not

19:47

the case, but back then, I had it

19:49

in my head that if I gave up

19:51

for a day or two that I was

19:53

going to lose everything that I worked so

19:55

hard to gain. That was, you

19:58

know, a big thing that I had to

20:00

overcome within my own head. I

20:02

really don't have a running background at all. In

20:05

high school I played lacrosse. That was

20:08

the extent of really running for me.

20:10

In one regard, maybe I wasn't so

20:12

beat up coming into it, but also

20:14

I think that certainly exposed the lack

20:17

of knowledge that I had. Right.

20:20

And that first marathon was tough. Yeah.

20:23

Yeah, how'd that feel? Oh, it was terrible. It

20:26

was absolutely terrible. So again, I kind

20:28

of went into it being relatively beat

20:30

up to begin with. And officially

20:33

my goal was to

20:35

finish the marathon and to finish

20:37

it running the whole time. That

20:40

was kind of my goal. I wanted to say

20:42

that I ran it. That would be a

20:44

win in my mind. And I did

20:47

substantially accomplish that. Although

20:49

it was hot, I pretty much ran it.

20:52

Although at some very, very slow paces

20:54

towards the end, I was totally

20:57

burnt up. My nutrition going into

20:59

it wasn't good. I remember rationing

21:02

with myself in the morning of

21:04

that, I want to eat

21:06

really well after the marathon. So I don't

21:08

know that I want to burn up all

21:10

my calories before the marathon. So I'll eat

21:12

like an English muffin. Wow. And

21:14

I took two gels and an English muffin.

21:18

And I think I carried a banana with

21:20

me. That was my fuel for the marathon.

21:23

It turned into a super hot day. I

21:25

remember specifically prior to the marathon, looking up

21:27

the weather report and thinking to

21:30

myself, oh, it's

21:32

going to be beautiful. 78 degrees. What

21:37

a beautiful day. And

21:39

so I specifically looked, oh fantastic. And

21:42

it really did start off very

21:44

pleasant in the beginning. I had

21:47

my nutrition plan in place. Carrying

21:50

your banana. Carrying my banana and

21:53

my gel packet or two. And

21:55

I set off and I went out way

21:58

too hot also, as most people. I

22:00

would imagine do in the first marathon.

22:02

I went out at a super fast

22:04

pace, was feeling really good, was more

22:06

carved up than ever with

22:09

my single English muffin

22:11

and banana. So

22:13

I was feeling really good and that

22:16

quickly faded. I remember it was

22:19

about mile 13 or 14. I

22:21

remember kind of looking at my pacing and

22:23

evaluating how I felt and I decided

22:26

at that moment, I was like, I

22:28

need to substantially slow down or my

22:30

goal of finishing this thing and actually

22:32

running is completely out the window.

22:35

That was actually a good decision, I'll say

22:37

in my part at that point, really by

22:40

the end. I mean, the final five, six

22:42

miles, I was just focused on

22:44

finishing it and it was like, you

22:46

know, consuming anything liquid around me,

22:48

dumping anything liquid on my head.

22:52

The Richmond Marathon, of course, though you do have to

22:54

be very careful. People are handing

22:57

out beverages that may not be water

23:00

and or electrolytes. And

23:02

so I almost consumed

23:04

some pickle juice and I

23:06

almost consumed some alcohol. That

23:09

was just sort of being handed out by spectators.

23:12

And I had never experienced that before. So

23:14

I had no idea that somebody might just

23:16

be handing me a shot of

23:18

liquor. So it was real close.

23:20

It was real close. I handed

23:22

up to my face and I was like, oh, no, I

23:25

can't have that. But

23:27

yeah, I finished it and I finished it kind

23:29

of with the goal of running, but it was

23:32

definitely terrible at the end. I

23:34

felt awful. And what was your time? It

23:37

was a 350. I

23:40

mean, you finished solid on your first marathon.

23:42

Sub four just speaks to

23:44

your mental toughness to be able to keep

23:46

pushing yourself on that hot day. But once

23:49

you cross the finish line and you were

23:51

probably looking for a place to sit down.

23:54

Yeah, I was. I got to

23:56

the finish line. I had at least

23:58

a half a dozen. people, random strangers come

24:01

up to me and look at me square

24:03

in the eyes and say, are

24:05

you okay? No.

24:09

And I, I mean, it was my first marathon.

24:12

So I thought that's what everyone did. But

24:15

after talking to some other folks afterwards,

24:18

that isn't normal. And so, um, so

24:20

yeah, I was feeling rough. I got

24:22

the blanket that they offered and I

24:24

was completely cramped up and I found

24:28

a park bench. Um, so

24:30

when you finish the Richmond marathon, everything

24:32

finishes on an Island in

24:34

the middle of a river. They have

24:36

this nice park area. It's really a fantastic

24:39

setup. I found this park bench. I sat

24:41

down on it and I had no idea

24:43

the level of the relationship that I would

24:45

be having with that park bench for

24:49

the next hour plus. I mean, I really

24:51

was very thankful for that

24:53

park bench. Uh, but I

24:55

sat there and just sort of, I don't know,

24:57

kind of moaned in pain for a while. Um,

25:01

and then a few more strangers asked if I

25:03

was okay and I was like, yeah, I think

25:05

I'm okay. And eventually, um, my

25:08

wife was there. She had done the half

25:10

marathon. She probably trained more properly

25:12

and was feeling pretty good, uh, after

25:15

the half marathon. So she came over. Um, of

25:17

course it was like, are you okay? And I was

25:19

like, why does everybody keep asking me this question? Um,

25:23

she realized that, yeah, I was, I

25:25

was fine, but obviously feeling a little

25:27

rough. So I sat there for,

25:29

for quite some time and eventually I convinced

25:31

myself that it was time to move. And

25:33

so I was able to get in the

25:36

car. We actually drove home then, but

25:38

I was, I was completely sore to

25:40

levels I had never really experienced before

25:42

at that point. Oh yeah. What's your

25:44

thought when you finished that you're like, I want to

25:46

do another marathon or you're like, never again. What was

25:48

your feeling? Um, I thought

25:50

initially what, I mean, honestly, almost

25:53

instantly after I finished, I thought

25:55

I could have done that

25:57

so much better. I knew almost immediately.

26:00

that I made a lot of mistakes

26:02

and that I could do better than what I

26:04

just did. I didn't know what the mistakes were,

26:06

but I knew I made a lot

26:08

of mistakes. I mean, I don't remember if

26:10

I committed immediately in my own head to doing another

26:12

marathon on that at that very moment as people were

26:15

asking whether or not I was going to live for

26:17

the day, but pretty soon

26:19

thereafter I decided I think I want to

26:21

do this again and I think I want

26:24

to make some improvements. I also committed to

26:26

cleaning up the diet some more so, you

26:28

know, although it had gotten me a

26:30

long ways and I lost a lot

26:32

of weight, I still wasn't really making

26:34

the best diet choices in that I

26:37

was like anti-carb and this and

26:39

that and so I really kind of zeroed

26:41

in on my diet and then I made

26:43

a real commitment to like strength training, but

26:45

the whole time lingering in the back of

26:47

my head was just like, okay,

26:49

I want to do another marathon and so what

26:52

do I need to do to kind of get

26:54

to that eventually without running seven days a week

26:56

for nine months. Yeah,

26:59

that didn't work the first

27:01

time and I wasn't willing to go

27:03

through that same level of suffering again. Well,

27:06

I hope you've enjoyed this conversation thus far.

27:08

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30:09

So, marathon 2.0, right? Things

30:12

went just amazingly different the second

30:14

time. Not only did you run

30:16

faster, you got sub three

30:18

hour marathon, but you didn't die. Fire alert.

30:21

Yeah. I didn't die. Not

30:24

one single person asked me if I was

30:26

okay afterwards. Oh, wow. Not

30:28

a single person. My wife asked

30:30

me, how are you feeling? But, that was

30:32

it. Yeah, you looked fresh, dude.

30:34

I saw you at the finish line and you looked, you

30:37

weren't on a bench. I wasn't on the bench. I

30:39

looked at that bench. There was

30:41

one moment in time where I thought, do I need

30:43

the bench? Nope, I don't need the bench this year.

30:46

So, I was feeling good and decided to leave

30:48

that seat for someone else who might

30:50

be in need this year. Yeah,

30:53

so this year, I made a lot

30:56

of changes. I would

30:58

say, it started certainly with the strength work.

31:01

That absolutely paid off. And

31:03

then, again, I worked

31:05

this summer on just increasing speed a

31:07

little bit, continuing the strength work. And

31:09

then, in the summer of 2023, I

31:12

decided, okay, I

31:14

think I want to do a marathon again.

31:17

And, I'd like to improve the time. I didn't

31:19

know what my goal would be, per se, but

31:21

I knew I wanted to do better and I

31:23

knew that I needed to have a plan. Because

31:26

my own plan last year, again, led to

31:29

that park bench and a world of pain.

31:31

And, that's when I reached out to Trevor

31:34

and I said, hey, I've been running. I'm

31:37

in reasonable shape, certainly better shape

31:39

than the year before, but I'd like to buy

31:41

a plan. I wasn't really

31:43

sure what level of plan I should

31:45

buy. You guys offer plans for different

31:47

pacing. And so, you

31:50

and I had a quick conversation and you knew

31:52

some of my background at that point in time

31:55

and sort of my condition the prior

31:57

year of over-training. And, you had recommended.

32:00

I think it was it was like the 320 or 325 plan. So I

32:02

got that from you Bought

32:06

that through the MTA website and it

32:09

was super helpful So almost immediately

32:11

it was like a weight was

32:13

lifted off my shoulders because I was no longer

32:16

Responsible for what this plan was going to be.

32:18

I now had something that I needed to follow

32:20

and For me, it

32:22

wasn't so much that like I needed to wake

32:25

up the next morning and run a certain number

32:27

of miles It was I need

32:29

to wake up the next morning and that's my

32:31

off day Yeah, and

32:33

so I guess I made a deal

32:35

on my head with myself that if

32:37

I decided not to do an off day Like

32:40

I've officially not followed the

32:42

plan. I followed my own plan and Again,

32:45

so for me, you know having that plan

32:48

in place with set off days with

32:50

set days of extreme kind

32:53

of intensity and intentionality and other

32:55

days with easy pacing and One

32:59

long run a week and also having the whole

33:01

plan out in front of me that that I

33:03

could look at it and see what's coming Up

33:05

was super helpful. So I started with the 325

33:09

plan and I was feeling really good again

33:11

I was gonna stick very specifically to

33:13

what the plan was with

33:16

regard to number of miles in days

33:18

of wheat training because I decided again

33:20

if I Was gonna deviate from that now

33:22

if something goes wrong It's on me because

33:24

now I've left the MTA plan and now

33:27

I'm on the Chris plan, which Didn't

33:29

go so well the park bench plan the

33:31

park bench plan. That's right I

33:35

decided at that point. Okay, I'm gonna stick to

33:37

the mileage I'm gonna I'm gonna stick to the

33:39

number of days But if I was feeling good

33:42

as the training progressed I

33:44

decided I would increase the pacing on

33:46

the hard days the easy days would

33:48

always remain easy Perfect, and

33:50

then I always made sure that my hard

33:53

days were hard and if I was feeling

33:55

really good I would sort of adjust the

33:57

pacing for the hard days accordingly to make

33:59

them little bit harder for myself. On

34:02

my easy days I definitely

34:04

was very mindful of my

34:06

pacing. I did a

34:08

lot of nasal breathing so you know I

34:11

would just run and generally speaking try to

34:13

keep my mouth closed and so if I

34:15

could do that and I was maintaining

34:18

a certain pace I knew I was

34:20

sort of tracking well. I also would

34:22

occasionally make sure that you know on

34:24

my easy days that I actually looked

34:26

at my watch more frequently and I

34:28

would slow myself down if if I

34:30

was going too fast. I really

34:32

intentionally stuck to the easy days

34:34

and kept them as easy as

34:36

possible. You didn't use the heart rate

34:38

monitor? I did not. Since you're a

34:41

data guy you'd probably like having a chest

34:43

strap. I think that's the next

34:46

level for me in training would be maybe

34:48

you know getting one of those and using

34:51

that data to kind of move forward but

34:53

I do like tracking sort

34:56

of activity level. You're using an app to

34:58

track? I just use RunKeeper

35:00

or something. I use RunKeeper. I

35:03

like to have the data available. Your mind plays tricks

35:05

on you so it's nice to be

35:07

able to look back and really see

35:09

historically where you've come from or what you were

35:11

doing and eventually I got to

35:13

a place where on my hard

35:15

days whatever the pacing was

35:18

that was prescribed I was

35:20

subtracting about a minute off of it so

35:22

I was doing a 325 plan and you

35:24

know if it said like you know a

35:26

seven minute pacing then

35:29

I was maybe cutting it back to

35:31

like a six or a six ten something

35:33

like that. So was that like a tempo run

35:35

on the schedule? Yeah so if it

35:37

was like a tempo run I

35:40

would just subtract some some time off of

35:42

it if I was feeling good.

35:44

I just kind of kept doing that. Once I

35:46

got to that place I just consistently was subtracting

35:48

the same amount of time off

35:51

of whatever the prescribed hard run

35:53

was. But again that was only

35:55

on hard days and

35:57

it was the same exact

35:59

mileage. that was prescribed. It was

36:01

just basically backing up the time. And

36:04

my goal was then, okay, if I

36:06

could do that and if I could

36:08

maintain the rest of the schedule, then

36:10

I'm kind of tracking pretty well. But

36:13

you were one week behind on

36:15

the schedule, correct? You started one week late?

36:18

Yep. So I started one week late. I

36:20

knew it was a problem the entire prep,

36:23

but I just decided that's a problem for

36:25

tomorrow. So I

36:27

just kind of continued on and things were going

36:30

well. The long runs, they're just an

36:32

incredible confidence booster. And especially with training

36:35

in central Pennsylvania in the fall, you've

36:37

got the weather changing. So the weather's

36:39

in your favor. There were several mornings

36:41

that I got up 515, 530, and

36:44

I had set

36:46

off and my pacing was just substantially better

36:48

than I ever imagined. And I'd be like,

36:51

I'm feeling pretty good. And so I would

36:53

continue on. Yeah, I think a combination of

36:55

the weather and the appropriate

36:58

amount of days of training led

37:00

to some really great long

37:03

run progress and feeling fantastic

37:05

afterwards. Really feeling very good

37:07

after the long run, recovery was fine. And

37:09

it was after one of those long runs.

37:11

And I think I called you again and

37:13

said, Hey, I'm progressing pretty well. I think

37:16

I want to work with a coach. And that's

37:18

when you linked me up with Nicole. And it

37:20

was, I mean, again, one of the best decisions

37:22

that I made in this process for sure. So

37:24

I think we were like two weeks out from

37:27

the marathon. Yeah, it was the time that he

37:29

would be tapering. It was like, I talked to

37:31

him on the Friday. And that

37:33

weekend, he was supposed to do a

37:35

tapered long run, but he had it in

37:38

his mind to do another 20 miler. In

37:40

retrospect, it was a terrible idea. But I

37:42

had, I had it set in my

37:44

mind that because I was one

37:46

week off in the plan, that I

37:48

would skimp out on the taper week. And

37:51

I would peel off a little bit of

37:54

the paper. Okay. And, and so I had

37:56

in my head, this was a Friday, I

37:58

had my head that we were were gonna, I

38:00

was gonna set off the next day and

38:03

do a 20 mile long run.

38:05

So almost immediately, Coach Nicole said,

38:07

no, you're not gonna run 20 miles tomorrow. And

38:10

you're gonna say Angie said that too, because

38:12

I had bounced it off her. Yeah, I

38:14

wanna give my perspective of how the story

38:16

went. So Trevor first texted

38:19

me, and then I think maybe we talked

38:21

on the phone, and he said, you

38:23

know, Chris wants to run a sub

38:25

three hour marathon. His first marathon

38:27

was 350, and

38:29

you know, he's down to a couple of weeks.

38:32

He's been running faster paces on almost long runs.

38:34

Would you like to talk to him? And I

38:36

thought to myself, as the coach, the reason the

38:39

coach that I am, I thought,

38:41

wow, this guy's in trouble. He

38:43

is going to go to that

38:45

marathon totally overcooked. He's gonna run

38:47

too hard, and he's gonna blow

38:49

up in this race. This is before I

38:51

talked to Chris. So then Chris

38:54

emailed me some of his information

38:56

about his training runs over the last weeks

38:59

before. His long run paces and that type of

39:01

thing. And so I looked at them, I thought,

39:03

wow, he has been running quite fast for his long runs. So

39:06

I thought, well, I need to talk to

39:09

him. I need to find out really how

39:11

he's feeling, because you can run those fast

39:13

paces. You're pretty much racing every weekend potentially,

39:16

but you're gonna be pretty beat up. You're gonna be

39:18

tired, not gonna be recovering properly. Let's talk about all

39:20

those kind of metrics, like how are you feeling, you

39:23

know, your resting heart rate, all those types of things.

39:26

So once I got on the phone with Chris,

39:29

that Friday, I realized not even

39:31

halfway into the conversation that there

39:33

was a potential that he could

39:35

run a three hour marathon, which was

39:37

a surprise to me, to be

39:40

honest. And I just shared that with Chris

39:42

last week when we talked after the marathon. But,

39:44

you know, after talking to him, and I think by

39:46

the end of that first conversation, I did say to

39:49

him, I think it could be possible. And

39:51

I think that was encouraging to you just

39:54

to get that validation. But I said, you need

39:56

to be really smart over the next couple

39:58

of weeks. Let's really talk about. what

40:00

you're gonna do like scrap your own plan

40:02

let's talk about the two long runs that

40:04

you had left and let's talk

40:06

about the other you kind of follow the schedule and

40:08

you schedule for the last couple weeks except for the

40:11

long runs we made sure that

40:13

you tapered well and I think I gave

40:15

you maybe some marathon chase miles

40:18

on that 14 mile run that you did that

40:20

Saturday and some strides right we put some strides

40:22

in there somewhere yeah when I talked to you

40:24

I was very healthy I didn't

40:27

have any plants or fasciitis issues this

40:29

entire prep a

40:31

real knee issues or anything and

40:34

so I was coming into a pretty healthy I

40:36

was feeling good the long runs were definitely a

40:38

confidence booster and that was the reason why I

40:40

made that call when I initially set off for

40:42

this I didn't think I was gonna be in

40:45

three-hour shape by the end of it um

40:47

but in that final couple weeks I was

40:49

like okay well nothing has happened I mean

40:51

I'm healthy I've hit some paces it maybe

40:54

it is possible and yeah that initial phone

40:56

call with you was able to solidify my

40:58

head that yes it is possible but don't

41:00

mess it up you said listen you've done

41:03

the work we need to make

41:05

sure that you get there and that you're healthy

41:07

and the next two weeks are gonna really determine

41:09

whether or not it's possible because you've done the

41:11

work I don't like unlike the first build up

41:14

the first marathon you weren't

41:16

gonna lose fitness no even

41:18

in two weeks during the

41:20

taper and the rest so that and that's important

41:22

because we've heard this from a lot of people

41:24

through the years they call it taper madness because

41:27

people think that they're gonna start seeing diminishing

41:29

returns on their fitness if they don't keep

41:31

pushing hard all the way to the end

41:34

it was still mentally difficult I mean

41:36

even with Nicole and her

41:38

guidance I was very committed to

41:40

following her plan the plan

41:42

and not my own plan but

41:45

it was still difficult a couple things

41:48

were at play that initial phone call

41:50

we had the other 20 mile run

41:52

that I had earlier in the training

41:54

plan I had some plans

41:56

on Sunday and so I had to

41:58

run on Saturday and

42:00

Saturday's weather was terrible and

42:02

I originally had said in my head that I was

42:05

going to run outside of

42:07

course and the weather was

42:09

awful and so I said to myself, okay

42:11

I can run outside, potentially get a bunch

42:13

of blisters So it was another heavy rain

42:15

weekend that we had right here and

42:18

I could run inside on a

42:20

treadmill and so I picked the

42:23

inside route and so I went

42:25

to the Y, I went to the assault runner

42:28

with like some gels people

42:30

thought I was nuts and so

42:32

I set off and I did a 20-miler but

42:35

on a treadmill, he did 20 miles on a

42:37

treadmill It was a Bible and so people came

42:39

and went, several rounds

42:41

of cardio folks and friends I

42:43

saw along the way but

42:46

when we talked on the phone I was

42:48

set to do another 20-miler the next day

42:50

in my own head and it

42:52

was really to prove to myself that, okay I did

42:54

the 20, I did fantastic pacing I

42:56

did 20, it was between 630 and 645 the entire time

43:02

but it was on an assault treadmill, an

43:04

assault runner and so I wasn't

43:07

really 100% sure, like was that easier than

43:09

what I would have done outside or harder

43:11

So you were going to do another 20

43:13

the next day To prove to myself that

43:15

I could do it Wow That

43:19

would have set myself up for failure for sure

43:21

and so when we got on the phone,

43:24

I had in my head that I was

43:26

going to do 20 miles outside and you

43:28

convinced me very quickly that was a terrible

43:30

idea so we did the 14 and I

43:32

think initially you might have wanted to do like

43:35

a normal like 14-mile run and

43:38

I think I was a little bit disappointed and you said we

43:40

could mix in some marathon pacing in the middle and I was

43:42

like, okay I'll take it, that was like a Yeah,

43:44

it was a nice compromise and that

43:47

was a nice compromise and that did

43:49

feel good so I did the 14,

43:51

felt fantastic, had the marathon pacing which

43:53

was the confidence boost that I did

43:55

need at that point and

43:57

you guys talked like three times before

44:00

the marathon. Yep. We talked a

44:02

lot about his fueling plan

44:05

because I quickly learned

44:07

that he was under fueling on his

44:09

runs. He was barely hydrating so we

44:11

talked about the importance of that and

44:14

we talked about you know how many

44:16

carbs per hour and at

44:18

his pace we talked very specifically what kind

44:20

of gels worked for him and

44:23

if his stomach could tolerate it what was on the race

44:25

course. So that was that

44:27

second call we talked a lot about

44:29

fueling I remember and about pacing. Yeah

44:31

so important. And then the third call

44:33

was two days before the marathon we

44:35

talked on the Thursday the marathon was

44:37

on Saturday and that was kind of

44:39

I already had sent him a race

44:42

plan which specifically had a

44:44

pacing plan and a fueling plan and

44:46

it took into account

44:48

the course, the course elevation,

44:50

the hills all of that and

44:53

so he had already gone over that so that last

44:55

call was just like sort of confirming everything and I

44:57

think we also went over just be prepared

45:00

for this and that. Contingency. You

45:02

know the night before make sure that you

45:04

have everything prepared and then even after the

45:07

race we talked about after the race make

45:09

sure that you have a plan for fueling

45:11

afterwards and for when you have to get back

45:13

to your car and that type of thing because I shared

45:15

the story of my first marathon

45:18

which was in Zurich because I was

45:20

living in Germany at the time and

45:23

I didn't really have a plan for eating

45:25

afterwards I didn't think I needed a plan we were gonna

45:27

get in the car and drive back and

45:29

I thought well we'll just stop on the way back

45:32

at one of the great rest stops that they have

45:34

in Germany you know there'll be some spaghetti or something

45:36

I could eat right well we

45:38

were on the Autobahn and all of a

45:40

sudden traffic completely had stopped and

45:43

it was just everyone's cars were off we're just

45:45

all sitting there no moving no

45:47

idea what's going on no food I have nothing

45:49

I already think I had a granola

45:51

bar I don't think I anything after the marathon

45:53

I was still in my sweaty clothes this is

45:55

like Angie's nightmare right yeah I didn't I just

45:58

didn't plan for it because we were gonna to

46:00

stop and so find out that

46:02

there were some cows crossing the

46:04

highway so they had completely

46:06

stopped and we were there for it was

46:09

probably an hour before we moved and

46:11

I think once we got moving we did

46:13

stop but it was hours after my marathon

46:16

and that's not what you want to do

46:18

so I told Chris you might not like

46:20

what they have to offer at the race

46:22

have some food you know and maybe a

46:24

bagel something in your car because

46:27

I knew is driving home right away so

46:29

and they'll come into play later when he told

46:31

the rest of his story yeah all of that came

46:33

in all

46:36

that advice was so handy

46:39

I mean again night and day difference between my

46:42

plan and what I did the year before versus

46:44

what you laid out for me the entire

46:47

time that we worked together and

46:49

those phone calls completely changed what

46:51

I likely would have done on

46:53

my own the taper was

46:55

well thought out and well set up

46:57

and it kept my confidence

47:00

up and I was able to

47:02

stay in the right sort of mental

47:04

headspace throughout that two-week period of time

47:08

the phone calls I of course looked

47:10

forward to them we talked a lot

47:12

about nutrition like you said and the

47:14

importance of fueling and so you're right

47:16

I mean my training runs I

47:18

was not treating them appropriately especially the

47:21

hard days the the easy days I

47:23

think for me you know

47:25

I wake up early in the morning if I'm gonna

47:27

run an easy five miles I'm probably okay

47:29

if I don't eat anything but

47:31

on my hard days and this is

47:33

an improvement for myself for next year

47:36

to really make a better effort of

47:38

properly fueling for those and so I'd

47:40

say generally speaking you want to you

47:42

want to do on race day

47:45

exactly what you've been doing I'm lucky enough

47:47

to have a pretty agreeable stomach and so

47:49

I was able to make some changes in

47:51

the last two weeks and really ramp up

47:53

the fueling that I was gonna have on

47:55

hand and my stomach was

47:58

able to tolerate it just fine that's

48:00

not necessarily gonna be the case for

48:02

everyone. So I just sort of lucked

48:04

out, but we dramatically changed what my

48:06

race plan fueling was going to

48:08

be. And I think that

48:11

I potentially consumed as much carbohydrate

48:13

and total calorie intake in the

48:15

first eight hours of my day

48:18

on marathon day than

48:20

I did the entire day of the year before. And

48:22

so I think I did a total

48:25

of like five gels the day of

48:28

during the marathon. And I had

48:30

plenty of fuel the morning of. Nice.

48:33

So it was a dramatic change to

48:35

say the least. But what

48:37

was the most beneficial thing is you just,

48:39

you helped lay it all out. And it

48:41

set me up in a place where I

48:43

could perform my absolute

48:45

best the day of. I came into

48:47

it fresh, I came into it completely

48:50

fueled, and things are gonna happen along

48:52

the way. But

48:54

having the plan. Talk about what happened with

48:56

your wife, with her plan for running her

48:58

half marathon. Yep, so my wife forgot her

49:01

sports bras. And so we ran out actually

49:03

the morning of. Of the marathon. Of the marathon.

49:06

Oh wow. Ran to a Walmart, not ideal for

49:09

her either. I mean, not, you know, she

49:11

would not be buying those at Walmart necessarily.

49:14

But Walmart bailed us out. Walmart

49:16

is not a sponsor of the podcast. There's

49:19

only one to open that hour probably. Yeah,

49:21

Walmart bailed us out. Again, so having a

49:23

plan and having you help me with that

49:26

plan really had me set up as well

49:28

as possible coming into race day. And

49:30

things still happened. But it's not

49:32

for lack of planning, it's just life happens.

49:35

And because we had a plan in

49:37

place, everything else was lined up very

49:39

well. So these little types of things

49:41

that came up that we forgot or

49:43

whatever sort of rolled right off.

49:46

And we're less of a problem because we had everything

49:48

else in place. Hey,

49:50

quick break to thank our sponsor, MetPro. When

49:53

it comes to figuring out nutrition, it's pretty

49:55

tricky to figure this stuff out on your

49:57

own. Of course you definitely can. You heard

49:59

how Chris... was able to drastically cut carbs

50:01

in order to lose weight. Then he had

50:03

to start adding more carbs into his diet

50:06

in order to boost up his energy for

50:08

long runs and also on race day. So

50:10

yeah, you can definitely figure it out on

50:12

your own, but it also is a lot

50:14

easier if you have an expert to guide

50:16

you. And you know, Angie, when I heard

50:18

Chris talk about cutting carbs and then adding

50:21

more carbs in, it reminded me of the

50:23

up adjusting and down adjusting that we've heard

50:25

the folks at MetPro talk about. And

50:27

this is really helpful as a runner because you

50:30

want to be fully energized and

50:32

fueled well for races. So basically

50:34

you want to be focusing on

50:36

performance during certain times of the

50:38

year and you want to be

50:40

focusing on other goals like maybe

50:42

changing your body composition or losing

50:45

weight during your off season

50:47

and during certain times of the year. So

50:49

it's really helpful to have a coach

50:52

to guide you through that and an

50:54

accountability partner and just helping you every

50:56

step of the way. For females, often

50:58

certain times of the month, it's really challenging

51:01

to be on a down adjust. And so you

51:03

need sometimes a few extra carbs in your diet

51:05

just to help with cravings and things like that.

51:08

And they are all about that. It's really amazing. Check

51:10

them out at metpro.com/MTA. Talk to one

51:12

of their experts, see if it's a

51:14

good fit for you. And if you

51:16

decide to work with them, you can

51:18

save 500 bucks if you tell them

51:20

that we sent you. metpro.com/MTA. How

51:36

did it feel across the finish line? You didn't

51:39

know your exact time, but I'm sure you knew

51:41

that you'd done pretty well. No,

51:43

so I woke up well fueled.

51:45

I ate a tremendous amount of

51:48

calories beforehand. You had

51:50

given me the advice of taking

51:52

a gel right before the race

51:54

starts, which I would never consider

51:56

doing. So I took a gel,

51:59

felt very good. fantastic, a swig of

52:01

water and set off. You

52:04

gave me the advice of just sort of hang

52:06

back. So I hung back a little bit, just

52:08

back of the three hour paces and

52:11

we were a little ways in and

52:13

I realized that the pace was substantially

52:15

faster than the three hour pace. And

52:18

so at that point I was already

52:20

miles, miles in and so I was

52:22

a little bit worried for a while that we might have went

52:24

out too fast. I still was

52:27

feeling good. We had perfect weather and

52:30

although I set off a little bit too hot

52:32

with that three hour group, I guess it was

52:34

mile eight or nine, I was still feeling good.

52:37

I hung with them a little bit longer. Really

52:39

the good chunk of the early

52:41

part of the race, they were

52:43

all running faster than a three hour pace. And

52:45

you had warned me that that could be a

52:47

possibility. So yeah, I ran along,

52:50

ate the gel packs, stuck in the

52:52

decision plan that you lined up and

52:54

it really worked out very well. The

52:57

final, I guess three miles, I

52:59

had this realization like effectively,

53:01

okay, I'm done. I'm

53:04

there. I mean, I could do a 10 minute

53:06

and a mile pace for the next three miles

53:08

and I'm gonna basically be there. I

53:11

did the epic downhill finish, which you

53:13

really do have to pay attention to

53:16

your feet. In that final down,

53:18

we don't wanna. It's like a ski slope. It

53:20

really is. I

53:22

didn't know I was coming in where I did. I

53:24

ended up at 257 and change. I

53:27

think it was 257, 415. I

53:30

didn't know that's exactly where I was, but I

53:32

knew I was well under three hours by

53:35

a couple of minutes. So yeah, I

53:37

ended up feeling absolutely fantastic. That's

53:41

awesome. It was tremendous. I

53:46

got to the end and I

53:48

looked at that park bench. I was

53:50

like, not today, my friend. So

53:53

that I was able to walk past it

53:55

successfully. My wife and I

53:58

got reunited. I was feeling really good. Then

54:00

I was able to run it into Trevor.

54:02

We were standing in line and at

54:05

that point, yeah, I was feeling great Night

54:07

and day difference over the year before

54:09

actually got to enjoy the experience Got

54:12

the smile and really soak it in a bit It

54:18

really speaks to the discipline that you have

54:20

the mental toughness to be able to execute

54:23

like that to run a sub

54:25

3-hour marathon You're probably in like the

54:27

top 5% of people

54:29

that run marathons. He qualified for Boston I was

54:31

looking at the Boston numbers if you run a

54:33

sub 3 you're in Boston you qualify at any

54:36

age So yeah, tremendous tremendous

54:38

work Chris. We're honored that we could

54:40

have a small part in helping you

54:42

accomplish this No, I'm I'm

54:45

eternally grateful to both of you guys

54:47

your support and making this possible for

54:49

me again my own

54:51

plan did not work out the year before and

54:55

Nicole's advice continued after the

54:57

race. I finished the 257

55:00

I'm feeling ecstatic. I ate a slice of

55:02

pizza and We

55:04

were driving back home. We've got kids at home.

55:06

And so We drove

55:08

back home and we planned to stop

55:10

we generally try to stop somewhere. That's

55:13

maybe not a chain and So

55:15

we start looking at different places to

55:18

go and my wife finds a great

55:20

place off of a exit in Virginia

55:23

and so we had driven about 45 minutes and So

55:26

this is probably two hours after the marathon

55:28

and ended we got off this exit and

55:30

almost immediately It was

55:33

like eight lanes of traffic office exit

55:35

And it was leading to a shopping center

55:38

that apparently was like the only place

55:40

to shop in a hundred mile radio So

55:43

we we got off and we're sitting in

55:46

bumper to bumper traffic We get to the

55:48

restaurant and the restaurant hostess was

55:50

very nice and she said well We don't

55:52

have any seats available, but you can sit

55:54

at the bar if you'd like fantastic I'll

55:56

sit at the bars. We got to the

55:58

bar and we were But

58:00

you really, you talked me off of that pretty

58:02

quickly. And I think what you said initially in

58:04

saying, you've done the work, don't mess it up

58:07

in the fourth quarter. When I

58:09

do the coach consultation calls when I talk

58:11

to people, I usually get a pretty

58:13

good idea in the first few minutes talking

58:15

to them, whether they're going to be an

58:17

ideal coaching client or not. And

58:20

if I feel like they're going to be resistant

58:22

to it, I do talk a little bit about

58:24

trusting the process. So when I

58:26

do have someone I'm talking to, and they're

58:28

very open to what I'm talking, even on

58:30

this call, I will tell them, you're going

58:32

to be an ideal coaching client. And

58:34

I think that makes them feel good.

58:36

But it's all about trusting the process. So

58:39

glad that we got linked up together and super

58:42

excited to have qualified for Boston. I

58:44

realized and I recognized that a lot

58:46

of folks work for a long

58:49

time to be able to potentially do that.

58:51

And for me to be able to get

58:53

there this year was certainly unexpected when I

58:56

set off this summer. But

58:58

I'm eternally grateful to be

59:00

able to have gotten there. And eternally

59:02

grateful for you guys for helping

59:05

me make that happen. We

59:07

appreciate you, Chris. Thanks for sharing your

59:09

story on the podcast and all the progress

59:11

you've made from the weight loss, all

59:14

that countless hours of training, the cross training,

59:16

the long runs, the speed work. You put

59:19

in the work and it paid off big

59:21

time. And so we're super proud of you.

59:23

And again, thanks for sharing your story on

59:25

the podcast with us. Absolutely. Thank you guys.

59:27

Nicole, thanks for joining us. It was my

59:30

pleasure. All

59:39

right. Well, big thanks to Chris Farrens

59:41

for sharing his story on the podcast.

59:44

Angie, have you ever finished a marathon and just been so

59:46

exhausted you just collapsed on a bench? No,

59:48

I have not. But you have. I

59:51

think I have. I always keep moving because I know

59:53

I'll stiffen up otherwise. Angie finishes

59:55

the marathon and doesn't sit down until the

59:57

next day, just on principle. That is

59:59

untrue. And

1:00:02

we do have a team of coaches who

1:00:04

are experts at guiding runners no matter where

1:00:06

you are in your journey. You could be

1:00:08

a new runner, you could be an experienced

1:00:10

runner. You don't know what you don't know

1:00:12

as they say. But coaches they can give

1:00:15

you that good outside perspective. Sometimes it's the

1:00:17

voice of reason. So if you're wondering what

1:00:19

coaching could do for you, you can get

1:00:21

on a free call with Coach Nicole and

1:00:24

you can access that on our website marathontrainingacademy.com/coaching

1:00:27

or just go to

1:00:29

our website and look

1:00:31

for the coaching page.

1:00:34

That's marathontrainingacademy.com/coaching. Hey also

1:00:36

look for us on social media. We'd love

1:00:38

to connect with you anywhere really. We're at

1:00:40

Marathon Academy on Instagram and Facebook. We also

1:00:42

have a contact form on our website if

1:00:44

you want to send us a question. We've

1:00:46

got a couple more episodes before the year

1:00:48

is over. Here's to a strong finish to

1:00:51

2023. Good luck to anyone out there listening who

1:00:53

has a race or two on the calendar still

1:00:55

squeezing them in before the end of the year.

1:00:57

Until next time, stay safe out there. Remember you

1:00:59

have what it takes to run a marathon and

1:01:01

change your life.