Tiki Barber Talks Marathons, Motivation, and What’s Next

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob Simmelkjaer (00:11):
Hey everybody, and welcome to Set the Pace, the official
podcast of New York Road Runners. We are presented by
Peloton. I'm your host and the CEO of New York
Road Runners, Rob Simmelkjaer. And with me this week and
just about every week, my lovely co- host, a Peloton
running instructor, and an incredible runner in her own right,
Becs Gentry. Hey Becs, nice to see you.

Becs Gentry (00:32):
Hello. Hi, I missed you. It's been a couple of
weeks while I was having a bit of family time,
but I missed having our chats.

I know. It's always hard, but we knew you were
coming back and I follow you on your Instagram and
all the places so it sounds like you guys had
a great, great time and Becs-

We did.

... this is exciting. We are joined today by a
whole new audience. We've got now a new partner in
iHeartMedia, and for the first time this week, our podcast
is being broadcast over the airwaves of WOR 710 AM here
in New York City, so welcome to all of our
new listeners-

What's up?

... on WOR with iHeart. It's super exciting to welcome
a whole new group of people to this podcast. And
for those who don't know what they're listening to right
now, this podcast is all about running. We are New
York Road Runners, which of course is the nonprofit organization
in New York that puts on the TCS New York
City Marathon and many, many other races. And so every

(01:32):
single week, Becs and I get together, we talk a little
running, and then we always bring in a guest sometimes
too, to talk about what running has done for their
lives. And we've had so many different kinds of people
over the years who have been runners and have had
their lives really transformed by running. And so we like
to talk to those people, and that's what we do here on Set the Pace, Becs.

Exactly. And it is so awesome to have all these new ears listening
and maybe getting inspired to come along to their first
New York Road Runners event in the future.

That's the idea. And you don't have to see yourself
running a marathon-

No.

... to just go for a run. You can go
outside and run a mile, find a track nearby, run
a couple laps, and guess what? You've started to run.
And then we've talked to so many people on this
show over the 100- plus episodes we've now done who
said they never thought they would run and then they
something or someone inspired them to give it a try,

(02:32):
and they took that first little jog and that turned
into a longer one and a longer one. And some
of those people end up at the starting line of
the New York City Marathon. Some of them don't, and
that's okay because it doesn't mean you have to run a marathon just when
you start running, you can just love running and get
something from it at any distance.

Exactly. And even if you do one, that's it, one
and done of any distance. The other thing you do though,
once you're in the running world, is you come and cheer for all
of your friends in the running world. So if you've never
come down to a New York Road Runners event in either
capacity, we can't wait to welcome you down however you
choose to be there.

That's right, that's a huge part of our community. It's
a huge part of what we do and talk about here
as well as all the support that runners need from
folks. So hey, the New York City Marathon, we call
it the best day of the year in New York City.

True.

But it's just one day of the year in New York
because New York Road Runners is putting on running events
just, well, not just about every single week and weekend
of the year, whether it's one of our 40 races
or our open run, which are free races and free
runs, 5K runs in New York City parks, our rising
New York Road Runners program where we've got over 100,000

(03:45):
kids in schools running. So there's so much we're doing
and you can be a part of it. So if you are new
to us, you can check everything out at nyrr. org
and come join the party. Well, Becs, the running community did
get some sad news this week we have to talk
about. New York Road Runners Hall of Fame member Nina

(04:05):
Kuscsik, a legend in women's distance running and a lifelong
advocate for women's participation in sports died this week at
the age of 86. Becs, Nina was the first official
woman finisher in the history of the New York City
Marathon. In 1970, she was the only woman to participate.

(04:26):
She had to drop out due to illness that year in 1970.
In 1969, she ran the Boston Marathon unofficially as the
race didn't even recognize women finishers at the time. And
then in 1972, of course she was famously part of
the Six Who Sat. Those were six women who showed

(04:47):
up at the starting line of the marathon in Central
Park. But when the gun went off, they sat down
because they were protesting the fact that women had a
separate start and they thought they should be able to
start with the men. After the press got a hold
of that story, the women stood up and they started
running. And Nina, she won that race in three hours

(05:07):
and eight minutes. She was, Becs, a real legend in
the sport of running.

She truly, truly was. And also that year, 1972, she was
a Boston Marathon champion, and that was the first year
that women were officially able to actually run the Boston
Marathon, which is just wild. She's worked with other friends
of New York Road Runners, Fred Lebow, Kathrine Switzer, and

(05:34):
together the three of them actually co- founded Crazylegs Mini
Marathon. Have a Google of it, it is amazing. And
she worked tirelessly alongside Kathrine Switzer to bring the women's
marathon to the Olympics, which we all know finally did
happen in 1984. Go JBS for winning that one. And in

(05:56):
2022, so relatively recently, Nina received the Abebe Bikila Award
presented annually by New York Road Runners to an individual
who has made an outstanding contribution to the sport of
distance running. I think that is really, really just the
icing on the cake of how she will be remembered

(06:18):
and celebrated forevermore in the world of running.

Becs, it is hard to imagine running and distance running
and marathons without women today in 2025, just about half
of our finishers are women these days. They've made such
huge contributions at the professional level, at the amateur level.
I just can't imagine this sport without the incredible gender

(06:47):
equity that we have, and Nina was a trailblazer in
making all of that happen. I mean, she was running at
a time when there was a widespread belief by the
powers that be in the sport that distance running was not
something that was appropriate for girls and women. And she
realized that was hogwash and she stood up and sat

(07:10):
down and did all the things that make the world
that we have today possible. So she just was a huge force for change in the sport

She was, and as a female in the sport of
running, I will be forever in her debt for allowing
us to be here and doing all the things that
we get to do today. So guys, if you want
to learn more about Nina's incredible legacy, head to the
link in today's show notes and deep dive and learn

(07:42):
more and more will help widen your mind, which she's
always a bonus.

That's right. You can find out more about her at nyrr. org as
well. We had a great blog post about her and
our social media as well. So rest in peace, Nina
Kuscsik. Well, Becs, last Saturday was a little bit rainy.
We had some wetness, but luckily no thunder, no lightning.
And so that allowed the show to go on at
the Citizens Queens 10K. A giant field turned out at

(08:11):
Flushing Meadows Park right there between Citi Field and the
US Open National Tennis Center and the Hemisphere. It's such
a great environment where the old 1964 World's Fair took
place and the rain did not hold 10,997 runners back.

So good.

Including yours truly by the way.

Well done.

Running that race for the second year in a row.
It was a great day and luckily the rain eased
up. By the time the race really got going, there
weren't too many raindrops and it was such a fun
day out there in Queens for the Citizens Queens 10K. It's
one of our Five- Borough race series. It's the fourth
Race of the year in that Five- Borough series. And

(08:55):
the winners this year for the women it was Khia Kurtenbach
with a time of 34
Track Club. The non- binary winner was Pierce Lydon at
36:44. And for the men it was Bekele Shiferaw Agunafr, hopefully
I pronounced that correctly, with a time of 30 minutes
and 52 seconds from West Side Runners. Becs, this is a

(09:20):
fun race.

So fun.

And having Citizens on board as our partner has made
it even more fun because there's just this giant festival
that goes on a big stage and music and giveaways
and it's just a fun spot to be. And you
know what, there was one really big piece of news
actually, Becs, out of the Citizens Queens 10K, speaking of
the marathon, are you familiar with the rapper named Nore?

Yes. And I follow him and it was all over Instagram, yes.

That's right.

So cool.

Nore, who is a native of Queens and has had
a very successful hip- hop careers, had a couple of
big hits, Nore with his whole crew, he's got a
run club that he runs with, and they get to
the finish line of the Queens 10K, and then Nore drops

(10:04):
the big news that he is going to run the
TCS New York City Marathon this fall, first marathon of
his life, and yeah, the internet went crazy when he
announced that.

Yeah.

But yeah, we love it when someone who has a huge
fan base like Nore and think about it, a guy like
that who's got this huge number of fans, many of
whom probably most of whom are maybe not runners, and
they see him taking on this challenge. And I love
this announcement because he said, " Running makes me happy." That's

(10:36):
what he said when he announced that he's running the
marathon. I'm like, " That's a beautiful thing to hear." It's
not the kind of sentiment that we maybe expect to
hear from rappers like hip- hop guys running makes me
happy and I love that. And that was the reason
why he said he's going to take on the marathon.

That sentiment is really permeating all of the world right now. As you say, you
don't expect to hear it from certain types of people,
but it really is coming through with musicians, actors, business
people, whoever. Oh, it makes my heart sing, I was
so happy to see that. And then I went on
a deep dive on his Instagram and yeah, great. We

(11:16):
can't wait to see you crush it, Nore.

Something to look forward to this fall.

Absolutely.

All right, Becs. Coming up on the show, it's a great show. We have an amazing guest
today, a New York City sports legend, a longtime friend
of New York Road Runners Tiki Barber will join us
to talk about his running journey and how he went
from running back to runner. And then later on you
can check in for today's Meb Minute. Meb Keflezighi, if

(11:41):
you don't know him, of course, a legendary runner in
his own right, New York City Marathon and Boston Marathon
champion. He joins us every week to give us a
little bit of a running tip. And this week, Meb's
here to remind us of what we should be thinking
about as we begin summer training for fall marathons.

And before we go into too many more marathons, Rob,
I just want to tell everybody a little bit of
my marathon news if that's okay.

Absolutely. Now, we knew that you were planning to run the Grandma's Marathon
out in Minnesota.

Yeah, this coming Saturday. And unfortunately, but fortunately in many
ways, I have decided to withdraw from the race because
I talk a lot about mental health and enjoying running
and the love of running. And if you followed me
during this training, you know it's been a strange one

(12:32):
for me, Rob, to be quite honest, I thought I
was ready to go after 777, ready to push it. I
was invited to run this race as an elite. My
body just was giving me so many signs that it
wasn't the right time to do this. There's no injury,
I'm absolutely fine, I'm running every day, but my heart

(12:54):
was not in it to race the marathon distance this
Saturday. And sometimes you've just got to put your gut
instinct first and look after yourself. And I thought long
and hard about why am I putting my body through
this stress? What was the reason? And I live by
the mantra forward is a pace, and I know I
could have run it at any pace and finished in

(13:16):
any time and been proud of it. But alongside that,
I have to remember, and I always remind people that
26.2 miles is a lot of cortisol on the body.
And oftentimes you have to just say, " Hey, you know
what? My body doesn't need that right now," and that's
where I was. And serendipitously, alongside that, I am hosting

(13:40):
my first ever run event alongside the actress Jennifer Garner
this weekend in Los Angeles.

Wow.

So logistically, it would've been really difficult for me to
do both getting from New York to Duluth to Los
Angeles all within 72 hours. But if you have followed
mine and Jennifer's Instagram, Jennifer decided to run a mile
a day for 67 days for Save the Children. And

(14:08):
I had this harebrained idea a few weeks ago. I
said to her, " Hey, we should do a run on
day 67 as a finale," and it's spiraled into an
event that will be held in West Los Angeles on
Sunday. Event details will have dropped when we air this.
We're really, really excited to just help spread this radical

(14:31):
love that we're trying to get around the world to
help save as many children as possible from the brink
of starvation to help improve their nutrition and health because $
67 is all it takes to help that journey kickstart.
We've already helped just over 6, 000 children since this hashtag

(14:51):
has been rolling 67 strong for kids, so we're hoping
it's going to at least double it. So if you're
interested, check it out on my Instagram, check it out
on Jennifer Garner's Instagram and on Save the Children. And if
you're in the West Los Angeles area, look out for
us on Sunday.

That is amazing. Absolutely a phenomenal reason to change your
running plans and an incredible cause as well, so congratulations
to you to Jennifer Garner as well. So cool that
I know someone who knows Jennifer Garner. That's the headline
for me to this entire conversation, but it sounds really cool.

(15:29):
And for those who don't know or who are new
to the podcast, Becks referred to 777. That was seven
marathons on seven continents in seven days that she took
on back in November, so yeah, I guess I could
see how your body might still be in recovery mode.
I think I'd be in recovery mode for the rest

(15:49):
of my natural life if I did what you did. I
think that you're owed as much time as you want
before you decide to race the marathon distance again.

Thank you.

And I think people talk about running marathons, but you just can't
overstate the physical toll that a marathon, especially when you're
going all out and racing a marathon, takes on your
body. It is really a hard thing to do.

It is, so we have to listen to those signs and
as joyful as it can be to get out there
and get those medals, I'll be cheering from afar with
our podcast friend Carrie Tollefson will be there. Dick Beardsley,
their amazing panel that they host out there, and my
girls from the 777 race, Ash, Hillary, and Chirine will

(16:35):
be there still competing so I'm definitely going to be
cheering so loudly for everybody running that race this weekend.
Try the Peloton app for free and access classes for
every type of runner. Whether you're training for your first
race or you're a seasoned pro. From outdoor runs and
intervals to strength yoga and stretching, you'll find the perfect

(16:55):
fit for every part of your routine. Whether it's a
long run day or you just need a quick five-
minute reset, the Peloton app meets you where you are and
helps you become a stronger, faster runner because it's designed
for someone like you. Try the app free for 30
days and download it now from the app store or

(17:15):
Google Play. Terms apply. Peloton, the official digital fitness partner
for New York Road Runners.

Our guest today is a New York sports legend and
one of my heroes as a lifelong New York Giants
fan. Tiki Barber spent 10 seasons as a running back for
the Giants before retiring from the NFL in 2006. In 2014, he
ran his first New York City Marathon and he was
hooked. And over the next decade, Tiki completed more than

(17:43):
15 marathons including Boston, Chicago, Big Sur, and Jerusalem. He's
been a regular in New York Road Runners events, and
also served as an ambassador for Team for Kids raising
money to support youth fitness programs. His last official race
with New York Road Runners was the 2023 Achilles Hope and Possibility
four miler, where he served as a guide runner, and

(18:05):
so Tiki is here to talk a little running and
maybe a little football. This is an honor, my man.
I've seen you around in races a lot. You're such
a great part of our running community, but to me
you'll always be one of the best running backs in
New York Giants history. I think the best, I'm not even going
to say one of, the best running back in the
history of the Giants. So it is great to have
you on. How are you?

Tiki Barber (18:26):
I'm doing fantastic. It's great to see you Rob. And Becs,
I run with you daily on Peloton, so I feel
like I know you even though I don't actually have
met you yet, but this is exciting for me. Yeah,
I'm a different kind of runner these days. And you
talked about that first marathon in 2014, I sucked so bad.

(18:46):
I basically walked the last 10 miles, but I finished
and then I was hooked.

Yes, but you know what? Getting to the finish line, Tiki, that's
what we always talk about. It doesn't matter. Forward is
a pace. You get there and it's learning, it's all
learning. And the most beautiful thing is, as you say,
you were hooked from that.

Yeah.

That sucky 26. 2 wasn't enough to make you go, "
Nope, not doing that again." It made you go, " Ah,
how do I do this better?"

Well, my body said, " Don't ever do this again." And
then about a week later my mindset said, " You can't
be that bad as a runner." I also had to
change my body. I mean, I still had a little
bit of a football body in 2014, I was weighing
over 205 pounds or so.

Wow.

I couldn't push my muscles for 26.2 miles. And so
over the next couple of years I got down to
more of my natural weight. You guys know I have
an identical twin brother.

Ronde, yeah.

Yeah, Ronde. Our natural weight is about 185 to 190.
And so now I weigh about 190, so I'm back
to a natural weight as opposed to wearing shield of
muscle to play football.

How does that feel different, Tiki? Just walking around day
to day must feel a lot different. You must feel
so much lighter just going up and down stairs and
doing your day- to- day stuff versus all that mass
you had to carry to take and sometimes deliver a
hit on the football field.

I'd say, Rob, it's freeing in a way. There was
a point in my life where I had to have this
padding on me because I'm getting hit 30 times a
game, and it became natural for me even after I
retired to want to lift weights, power lift, dead lift,
bench press 300 pounds, all the stuff that was just

(20:36):
part of my existence for two decades. But I realized
that once you get older, once you hit 35, your
body doesn't respond to things anymore and you actually started
doing yourself damage, and so I just started to feel heavy
and once I lost a lot of weight, I actually
got down in one year because I ran three marathons.

(20:59):
I was down to 178, which was a little bit too skinny.

Wow.

Yeah.

You could really see it. But I feel so much
better. I changed my diet and I'm not as much
of a carnivore as I used to be, but I
feel so much better as of now, a 50 year
old than I did when I had all that weight
on me.

Isn't that just incredible that you at 50 can say
that and having such a massively successful sports career before
you turn to running that you feel better now? I
think most people would just be like, " That's unfair, man.
That is so unfair," because you were the top of the world
in football and now you are saying how incredible it

(21:41):
is to run, but.

Yeah, it's funny, Becs, because people always ask me why
I work out so much because I still run, even
if I'm not training for marathons and putting in 50 miles
a week, I still run three or four times a
week and I'm always working out. I'm always in the
gym. People always ask, " Why do you keep doing that?" And I say, "
Because I'm vain." I like to look good.

Listen, that's totally fine because it's important when you look
in the mirror, if you're happy with what you see
that does translate to the rest of your day and
how you are outwardly and how you are outwardly is
how you affect other people.

100%.

Circular, it's all circular.

And it also, so it's part being vain, but I
also am so competitive that I wake up one day
or I wake up in a couple of weeks and
I'll be like, " Man, I used to have better abs.
I want to get that back." Or, " Man, I used
to be strong. I used to be able to put
up at least 225. I want to try to do

(22:37):
that again." And the same thing happened with running. The
first one, I told you I finished it, and you
have it Rob, I think it's five hours and 18
minutes or something. I finished right with my wife Traci
because I waited for her and then we come just walked
across the finish line together.

Aw, I love that.

And then since then I've taken an hour off.

That's right.

So I don't think I'll ever get under four hours just
because my body is not built-

Never say never.

... for 26.2 miles, but.

I got you buddy. I got you. I can get
you that.

Okay, maybe. But it's a competitive nature in me to just want to
continually improve, even if I'm getting older.

Yeah, absolutely. Tiki, I have to ask you a question,
because being English, I've got to stop saying that really
after I've been here now eight years, I should know
a lot more about American football. I have to paraphrase that
as American football. And initially when I see running back
I'm like, " Well, he should have always been really good

(23:36):
at running. I don't understand." And then my partner's explaining
it to me and he's like, " No, he basically sprints
for a living really, really fast but then has to
stop dead because there might be another massive guy coming
towards him at the equal speed and he has to
try and stop him but then carry on sprinting." I'm like, "

(23:56):
Oh, got you."

Right, that's exactly right. It's a bunch of starts and
stops and change directions.

Start and stop. See, you're HIIT training.

I was never the super fastest guy, but I always
was elusive and I always considered myself above the Xs
and Os and so I could tell where the contact
was coming. So I didn't get hit a lot, but
I did have to have a quickness to me, just
not an endurance. It's not like the football that you're
probably used to in London or England, wherever. Where are you

(24:24):
from over there?

Originally from Worcestershire. Like the sauce, yes.

So what's the team? I'm a Liverpool fan.

Okay, Worcester doesn't have a team that we'll talk about.

But which one's good?

Well, they're terrible. My dad supports Ipswich because he's from Ipswich.

Got it.

If I had to say I supported anyone, it would
probably be Chelsea.

Chelsea?

But definitely Chelsea women's.

Right. But they're playing in the World Cup or the
Club World Cup. I saw them yesterday against, I forgot
who they were playing, but they won yesterday 2-0.

Doing well.

But those football players run miles.

They do, but the stats are so different.

We don't run nearly that far.

Exactly, yeah. So that's why in my mind I was just like, " I rarely have to get
to grips with this American lingo here."

It's very different, and most Europeans would argue shouldn't be
called football because the feet are rarely involved in actually
touching the ball. Only one or two players on the
field actually kick the ball. But that's another conversation. We
love American football, I love football. I have to ask
Tiki, what was it that first put the idea of
running the marathon in your mind?

The first inkling I had of it was, well, first
of all, I have a long experience with the marathon,
but really not in a good way. So I lived
on the Upper East Side and so every marathon Sunday,
I used to go home before games. So wake up
at 5
my kids then have to be over at Giants Stadium
by around 11:00 or so. I remember the first time

(25:59):
I got caught in marathon traffic on the Upper East
Side and I couldn't get across town. And I'm like, "
What in the world is going?" I'm panicking because I'm going
to be late for the game. And eventually I just
went to the outsides and went all the way down.
It took forever. But CC Sabathia, CC and Amber Sabathia
have a foundation. And we were over at their house

(26:20):
one Memorial Day and they started talking about ways to
raise money for PitCCh In which is their foundation. And
I said, " Yeah, let's look at the marathon." So they said, "
Yeah, let's do a marathon team." I was like, "Yeah, I can do that.
It's easy." And so I kind of trained but didn't
really know how to train and got hooked because the PitCCh

(26:42):
In Foundation was sponsoring a bunch of runners to run
that first marathon in 2014. And the thing I remember most about
it is it was freezing. I'm scared of heights, not
really, but just if I feel like I can fall,
I get scared being at altitude. And so we start,
we're on the Verrazzano Bridge and we're running up this

(27:03):
bridge and I'm like, " It is windy and this wind
might throw me over the side." You know the barrier
in the middle? I hug that thing like it was like my child.

Oh, no.

I was so scared running over this bridge, but I
was flying. I mean I'm naturally about a, I don't
know, I run nine and a half, 10 minute miles
maybe. I think I did that first mile in seven minutes.

Oh, gosh. Took a bunch of that downhill.

And that was uphill. And then going down, I did it in probably 6

Oh my God.

And then we get to the bottom, I'm like, " I am
going way too fast. I'm basically sprinting right now." So
I had to pull myself, I tried to pull myself
back and it was challenging, but it was awesome. Running
through the burrows and the support that's out there, it's
something that you never get tired of.

No. And I can imagine for you having been supported by
New Yorkers for your whole career, having New Yorkers show
up to every game you played, even if you were
on the bench for some reason, they were there screaming
and shouting and supporting you, and then it's like you're in
a different role.

It's true.

And they're truly getting you through in this one.

Well, the beauty of running is that it is all encouragement.
Unlike in football, there are times where they will boo
the hell out of you. That happened to me often.
And so the one thing I always felt that running
before I got really involved with it was a solitary
event. You train, maybe you train with a partner, but

(28:42):
when you're out there, you're running by yourself. It's a
mental fortitude that you have to have. But the reality
is it is so collective. And after my third or
fourth one, I kept hearing this mantra, right? You're not
going to win, so just best yourself. I found myself
always just challenging myself, but then as I got to

(29:05):
six or seven or eight of them, you realize that
everybody there that you're running with is your teammate. And so
that's what I've come to love most about running is the
community of it. And you don't have to know anybody yet
you do know them and they will pick you up,
especially if you're struggling. And it's a beautiful thing. It's

(29:25):
a solitary thing, but it's also a collective beauty that
comes with being out on the pavement and trying to complete
a marathon or a half- marathon or a 10K or
whatever race you happen to be in.

I'm always curious with people who have crossed over to
running marathons from other super successful athletic careers and other
sports where they see the similarities and the differences. I
think you just talked about one, I mean the community
and the support you get from other people. I know
on a, certainly on a team, an NFL team, obviously

(29:57):
the support you get from your, especially on the offensive
side, you've got linemen and people who are there and you
can't be successful without them so it's a different kind of
community. What about the differences? What's the biggest difference for
you other than no one trying to take you out
when you're running the marathon?

Right, you're not getting knocked out and blindsided. I would
say the biggest difference is the length of focus that
you have to have. As a football player. People always think, "
Oh, you guys played perfect." I'm like, " No, we didn't.
We messed up a lot." You just can't tell, right?
Because you don't know. You see a successful play, but

(30:35):
10 things might've went wrong, but the play could still
somehow be successful. But it happens like that, right? There's
an immediacy to it. And after every play, after every
quarter, after every game, whether or not you are successful
or not, but in running, you have to have a
plan. So that's the similarity. Same thing, game plan. You
have to have it. You have to follow it. And

(30:56):
if you don't have a plan, you're going to be
all over the place. Kind of like my first marathon
where I'm running 14 miles in the first two 14
minutes in the first two miles. And so you have
to have a plan, you have to be consciously sticking
to it, but always aware. Right? There's no bench time,
there's no defense taking the field while you no special

(31:17):
teams. It's a constant awareness that you have to be
dialed into. And that took some getting used to. I
think the first couple I ran, I didn't have a
plan. I was just like, " All right, just run as
you feel," right? Because you know you have those training
runs, run as you feel. I said, " I'll just run as I
feel." And that's why I started getting in trouble around the
59th Street Bridge.

As a lot of people do.

Don't worry.

That is one of those sneaky bridges that people are like, " There's another one.
Really? Really Rob and Ted?"

Another mile uphill?

Another one. All right, so let's talk about the other ways
that running has changed or added value and love to
your life.

Yeah.

And you've mentioned before that you've used running as a way
to travel. And when Rob interviewed you, there are some
really cool places that you've run marathons. So talk us
through your favorite destinations, reasons why.

Yeah. I did a lot of national ones, meaning United
States first, so Chicago and Boston and Big Sur. And
Big Sur was just gorgeous out on the Pacific, right
on the water, it was amazing. But I also realized
that, man, this is an opportunity for me to go do something

(32:30):
that I never would've thought of. And because of a
relationship with a buddy of mine, Ron Berkowitz, who was
working with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, they invited me
over to run the Jerusalem Marathon and I'd been to
Israel before back in 2005 and I had seen it in a
different context. And so when I went over for this
marathon, I had no idea what to expect. I know

(32:52):
that it's somewhat hilly, but I didn't expect it to
be this hilly. And in fact, when people ask me
about it, I say it's punitive because it's that much
of an incline over the course of the marathon. But
it was my favorite because at mile 10, almost exactly
at mile 10, you're on top of the mountain and
you're looking down at the Wailing Wall and the Dome

(33:14):
of the Rock. It's just this gorgeous view of the bed
of Biblical and religious history for so many cultures and
it just moves you. It was emotional. I stopped and
took a picture and it was crying a little bit
because of what it meant, and then you're running through

(33:34):
the old city and the cobblestone roads. I love that
marathon for what it brought to me emotionally. It's Jerusalem.
How many people can say that they've run that marathon?
It was an odd start because the half and the full
start at the same spot, and if you take the wrong

(33:54):
turn, you're running the half as opposed to the full,
so you really have to be aware.

Bonus or not, it depends on your mood that day.

Yeah, your day could end a little early and you're like, "
Oh sweet, okay, I'm going."

Right, Rob, it's not like in New York where everything
is so corralled and perfect and you can't mess it
up in New York, you get directed to where you're
supposed to go. In Jerusalem, it's like you're just wandering
around, all right, we're going to start now.

Do whatever.

But it was an awesome experience.

I just saw that, I just looked up and it
says it's just over 3000 feet of elevation gain.

Oh my goodness. Wow.

Just under 1, 000 meters. That is unreal. So it's just rolling
hill after hill after hill.

Becs, I felt like I was constantly going up. I was like, "
All right, I just went up. I know I have
to go down and here comes another hill." And I'm like, "
God, here's another hill?"

Was that when you were hoping someone would come and
take you out?

Exactly.

You're like, where's that big guy coming to tackle me, please?

You know what was crazy? We live on such a small
world. So Amar'e Stoudemire has became friends of ours just
because he was in New York. He lived in former-

Former great Knicks and Phoenix Suns forward, yep.

Right, so he lived in Israel at the time and
we knew his wife, obviously Alexis. I'm running through this
neighborhood now. We're off the mountain and we're going through
these neighborhoods. I come right on this corner and I see
Alexis right in front of me, out of all of
places in Israel, we're running right by their home. And

(35:35):
I stopped. I was like, " Alexis, what's happening?" She's like, "
What the hell are you doing here?" And so the
world is just tiny and you have these experiences when
you live experiences. It's one of the reasons I love
marathoning. Paris was another one that I thought was amazing.
It was unfortunate that day because I stayed with a

(35:56):
buddy of mine who was out in (inaudible) , which
is a little bit about an hour away outside of
Paris. And I drove in that morning, my plan was
to just find some place to park the car, go
run a marathon, and then literally get on a plane and
come home. I parked the car in the garage, I had
five bottles of water so after I was done running,
I could just drench myself with water, put my clothes

(36:18):
on and get on a plane and come home. And as
I'm getting on the plane, I hear the news that
Notre Dame is on fire. And so that happened the
day of the marathon in Paris and I was there
and my brother was texting me on the plane. He
was like, " Dude, what'd you do?" I'm like, "I didn't do anything."

I actually did not know that that fire started on
the day of the marathon, I never put those two and two together. That's crazy.

It was insane. And I happened to be there.

It started small, I think.

Right. So there's been a lot of experiences from running
and I'll never forget any of them.

So you are-

And still, you didn't get out of them.

Yeah. So you're halfway to the Abbott Six Star Medal right
now. Which are the three that you still need?

Well now I'm three- sevenths of the way. Because of-

You still get a medal for six though, Tiki. So
you can still focus on the six, and then worry
about seven afterwards if you choose.

I was on a grind. I had done 15 in
seven years and then COVID happened. I was booked for
Tokyo and 2020 shut down the world, and I was
going to go, even though they weren't going to run
the Amateur, I had never been to Japan. And a
buddy of mine was like, " You're not going to be
able to come home if you go, you're going to

(37:31):
get stuck in Japan because of this COVID thing." And
so we ended up canceling that trip and I haven't
done that one yet. I still need to do London
and obviously Berlin, and so I can now I think
try to make time for them. The hardest one is
Berlin because it's in the fall during football season, but

(37:52):
I think Tokyo and London are around the corner in
the next couple of years. And then now obviously I have
to go do Sydney.

Which is not a shame to go all that way.

No.

That will be amazing. All right, Tiki, let's talk recovery
because I have no idea how a football player would
recover other than I'm guessing massages and I don't know,
ice bars to get the bruises away. I just think
it's a violent sport. That's why I'm saying that, compared
to running.

It is. It's much more violent than you can even imagine.

Yeah. So how did your training and your pre- hab,
rehab routine change from being a football player to being
a runner, and especially now at 50?

Yeah, so it's interesting. As a football player, you get
beat up so much and you're ridiculously high after a
game, meaning emotionally it's like, man, that moment, just whatever,
and so it was always hard to come down and
honestly, and this isn't a good thing, it's just the

(38:54):
reality of athletes. Sometimes guys would turn to alcohol, and
now as the case is, it's mostly legal and not
punitive to cannabis to bring themselves to a homeostasis or
at least what they think it is. But as I've
gotten older, I realize how bad that is for your
body and how much alcohol breaks down your muscles. And

(39:16):
so if you're beat up, it only doubles the damage,
so to speak. And so now as more of a
runner than a football player, I take so much care
to first of all, hydrate, but then also stretch because
we used to just finish a game and go take
a shower, do the interviews and go home, and we'll

(39:36):
worry about how we feel the next day. You do
this inventory check when you get out of bed. All
right, does my foot hurt? Nope, that's good. Does my
ankle? It's all right. All right, my back feels all
right. You had to check yourself and then you'd go
get worked on. I think as an older now runner,
it's more about preemptive maintenance, and so I still get

(39:57):
worked on a lot. You talk about massage, I try to
go at least once every two weeks. Sometimes I'll go
every week if I'm training heavily. Stretching, sometimes I'll go
acupuncture in just different ways to get myself feeling emotionally
and physically with myself. And it's definitely harder now that

(40:20):
I'm 50 because I can't run five days a week
anymore. And so it's three a week schedule. If I'm
going to train for something, maybe I'll kick it up
to four, but I have to supplement it with other
types of workouts now and high intensity training, complex movements,
things of that nature to get my heart beating and

(40:41):
sustaining this 30 or 40 minutes of pump without actually pounding on
my legs.

It is so important to mix it up as you
get older. Just, we all need to keep looking after
our bones, our joints and running is a fantastic gentle
cardiovascular exercise for sure. But to stay healthy as we
get into our later decades, yeah, we need that strength
training. We need that multi- plane movement exercise. So our

(41:10):
brains are also getting that like, " Oh, which way am
I going to go now?" Instead of just la, la, la, la la.

It's funny because I tell my wife all the time,
and she's younger than I am, but I was like, "
I'm 50, you'll be there in a decade or so."
But the most important thing, and I've heard this often
is protecting yourself against false as you get older, because
that's what kills you. You break a hip, you do
something that keeps you, makes you sedentary for an extended

(41:40):
amount of time, your body doesn't respond well. So building
muscle is so critical, one, to protect yourself and keep
you from having weaknesses and muscles, but also if you
should fall, at least you have some girth there. I
know for especially women who are focused on their body
image, they think they're going to build muscle by lifting

(42:03):
and doing squats and things of that nature. But in
order to put significant muscle on your body, you'd have
to squat at least double your body weight. And most
people, they're not going to do that.

Yeah.

And so it's all about cardio, physical strengthening of your
bones and your muscles and your tendons, and the only
way you can do that is by lifting weights. I
know people are so scared of it sometimes they're like, "Oh,
I'm going to get bulky."

Yeah.

It's hard to get bulky. It really is hard to
get bulky. You can do it.

You really must take my classes because I do it
often when we're running up hills and I'm like, " Anyone
out there who's worried about the aesthetics of running up
hills, your calves are not going to bulk up unless
you eat a cow and directly put it into your calf."

That's right. That's exactly right.

Tiki, I'm wondering about the best reaction you've had in a
corral when someone is lined up, ready to run and
they just turn to their left or their right. And
there's Tiki Barber because you're still a pretty recognizable guy
around New York from your playing career and then also
from all the work you do on TV, so have
you had some pretty funny reactions from folks who realize

(43:15):
they're running next to Tiki Barber?

Yes, but Rob, it's not even in the corral, it's
on the course. And it's funny because I wear my
name just like everybody, and sometimes people will be like, "
Tiki, Tiki, Tiki." They can't say it. I'm like, "It's all good. I know you're talking about me,"
just smile. So they don't know who I am, but

(43:37):
they're still screaming my name. But then every now and
then I'll get the guy I'll either pass or I'll
be running next to, and then they'll speed up and be like, "
Hey man, can I get a selfie?" And so I
can't tell you how many running selfies I've taken over
the last 10 years or so, and so it's kind
of awesome, but it just goes back to that community thing.

(44:00):
We're not winning, we're out for a nice little stroll.

Yeah, and you make somebody's day with that selfie out
there at mile 13, whatever it is, it's a beautiful thing.

But there's something about people yelling your name, and this
is why everybody should wear a name when they're running
because you just hear it and it just lifts you up.
And you talked about when I was ambassador for Team
for Kids, I love the Go Team for Kids, you
see it all the time. Now I'm doing some work
with Achilles International and they're amazing. I forgot I was

(44:35):
at a run down in Spring Lake, New Jersey, they
had a five- mile run and I ran with my 11- year-
old daughter and she did it in 55 minutes, which I
was impressed by.

Wow.

Five miles. I know, I was shocked, but I saw an Achilles
athlete running, being guided, a blind runner being guided, and
I was shocked because I usually only see them in
the New York Road Runners events, but the Achilles athletes
are everywhere. And so I ran by and I was like, "
Let's go Achilles." And so that encouragement is so meaningful,
especially when you get to latter parts of marathons and

(45:09):
you read the signs and you know they're lying to you. "
It's not that much farther. You only got a couple miles left."

The worst couple of miles of my life.

I love it. Can you talk, Tiki, about your time with
Team for Kids and what drove you to do that and
what's your memories are? I mean, I know it meant a ton
to the people at Road Runners to have someone like
you involved with these kids. I mean, I can only
imagine what it meant to the kids who you were
with, but talk about that and what did you most

(45:38):
get from that experience?

I first got introduced to it because of the 5th
Avenue Mile, and so I went and ran the mile.
Christopher Susan, who was in the PR a couple years ago,
invited me. And so I see they had the kids
race before and I see these kids that are running and
it got explained to me what Team for Kids does.
And because running is so simple, all you need is

(46:04):
a pair of shoes and a place to go get
out and run around, and it's a great activity for kids
who are becoming, unfortunately, a lot more sedentary and at
home and they want to be on their games and
not outside and playing. It was a way for me
as a former athlete to talk about how important it

(46:25):
is to just be athletic, and that's anything. Jim Harbaugh,
who's a football coach now for the Chargers, the Los
Angeles Chargers, when he was a coach at Michigan, we
had him on one of my radio shows and we
were talking about these odd ways that he recruits athletes.

(46:46):
And so one thing he started talking about climbing trees.
We're like, " Why are you climbing trees?" And he's like, "
It's an athletic rep. It's just something that gets you
active and moving." And it's really the philosophy that I
have for kids is just be active. Go play, go
run. And running is so simple. And the fact that

(47:07):
Team for Kids had those programs for young kids and
young adults to get them out and effectively competing was
something that I really galvanized and felt really strongly about.

Absolutely. You have six kids?

I have six kids, yes. I have a 23 year old who just graduated from Princeton.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you. A 21 year old who's at Brown, 15- year-
old twins who were getting ready to go into their
sophomore year in high school, and then a 11 year
old, and a soon to be 9 year old.

Wow.

Oh my gosh. You are spread in all of the moods.

Yeah, 23 to nine, right? It's kind of crazy, but it's
awesome. It keeps me young and I'm lucky. I have
great kids.

And they're all, I'm getting active. I mean, you already
said your one daughter crushed the five miler there with you.

Right. My oldest played football, so both my boys played
football. AJ at Princeton. Chason is going into his senior
year at Brown. My twins are running track in high
school at Greenwich High School, they're both sprinters. And then
my two youngest daughters, Brooklyn and Teagan, are competitive cheerleaders.

Oh, no way.

Now I know some people don't know cheer, but cheer
is as intense as anything any of my kids have
done because it's serious. They're there to win. It's not
participation. They travel, they've been to Oklahoma, this is yearly,
Dallas. They go to Nashville, Maryland. The Summit Championship is

(48:47):
down in Orlando, and so it's a massive commitment, but
it teaches them about teamwork and focus and dedication to
a team, and they're good at it and we love it.
And I've become a cheer dad.

Aw, that's really cute. Also kind of brutal as well.

Oh, yeah.

Because those falls are like you getting slammed by that big guy.

No, that's exactly right. I'm knocking on wood, luckily my girls
have not fallen yet. They've gotten very close. Back last
year, Brooklyn, one of the bases just was just a
little bit too far apart from each other, and her
head got that close to hitting the ground.

Ooh.

Oh God.

They caught her and pulled her back up and she
got right back into the stunt and everything was fine.
But I get nervous watching her as a flyer because
she gets tossed up in the air, all this other
stuff. But she's a great athlete and she, like me
I think as a football player, doesn't have fear. So
when you have fear, it gets hard to perform and

(49:53):
she doesn't think about what negative could happen. It's all
positive and trust. It's really what comes from team sports.

Yeah, and I'm sure they've seen that from you, living your life as a football player and
now being not afraid to change to an endurance athlete.

Right, exactly. Even though that's harder.

All right, Tiki, so we got to get you on the
record now for when we're getting you back out there
running another marathon.

I knew this was coming.

This is when we put the pressure on. So what's your plan?
It sounds like London maybe is the next thing you
have circled. It's in the spring. It's outside NFL season,
so are you going to try to go for that in 2026?

Yes, 2026. London is going to be on the docket.
I'll probably run.

You've got a coach right here.

Right, there you go.

I'm in.

I'll probably run with Achilles, but in the very short term, not
very because it's actually in the fall, I'm going to
be running the Staten Island Half with Francesco, who is a
blind runner. Francesco is a great runner, and so when
I guide him, he's actually guiding me because he pulls

(51:00):
me along, and so I'm going to do the Staten Island
Half in October, whenever that is, and then shoot for
London in 2026.

What a great race to do. I love that you're
guiding him, but he's pacing you.

Yes, that's exactly right, Becs. That's the perfect way to
put it.

He's a very good runner, Francesco from Achilles International. Yes,
that sounds like a killer combination right there. Tiki and
Francesco, he's got the speed. You'll get anybody out of
the way, right?

Right.

Anybody's in the way, you will clear a running lane
for Francesco.

I just got to get myself back in shape, Rob. I'm in sprint
shape right now, I'm not in half- marathon shape yet.

It's a great race, Staten Island Half, so I ran
it a couple of years ago. You'll have a really good
time out there. All right, well, we can't wait to
see you back in a New York Road Runners Corral.
It's been a minute. Can't wait to see you back
out there with Francesco out in Staten Island. And yeah,
you've just been, you've done so much for the organization.
You're such a great ambassador for running as well of

(52:06):
course, as for football. Have you gotten any of your former
teammates to try running any Giants that you've tried to
convert into marathoners?

I did. I got Jason Sehorn to come run. God,
this was before COVID, so I can't remember how long, so it
was six or so years ago, and he absolutely crushed
it. I think he ran 3

Wow. He was a defensive back, as I recall. Is that right?

Defensive back. It was his first marathon. And I saw afterwards,
he's like, " Yeah, I'm done. Not doing that ever again."

Made it.

He's like, " I killed it and I'm not doing it again. Bucket
list checked. I'm good."

Hey, we love the bucket listers in the New York City
Marathon. They are a big part of our community and
we love that because let's face it, if you're a New
Yorker and at this point, Tiki, you are very much a
New Yorker, it's just one of those New York City
passport stamps you have to have to be a true
New Yorker, and you've had it stamped many times.

You're right, and New York Road Runners, I commend you
guys because your races have become iconic. They're part of
the fabric of this city. And whenever there's a big
marathon, especially the New York City Marathon, the 60 plus
thousand people that run this thing and all the supporters
that are out there, it takes over New York for

(53:28):
a day and it's awesome. And I commend you guys
because I can't imagine that's easy to do and coordinate
yet. You give so many people from all across the
world this amazing memory that will last their entire lives.
So I thank you guys for what you all do.

Thank you. Tiki, you took over New York a few
times yourself on a lot of Sundays wearing the blue
and the red out in New Jersey technically, but it
was for New York.

Right.

And we certainly, we love you, New Yorkers love you,
and it's great to still have you as part of
this community through running as well as through the broadcasting
so great to have you, Tiki. Thanks for being on.

Good to see you. And Becs, one of these days, I want
to meet you in person.

Oh my gosh. Anytime. You're welcome in the studio, anytime.
And we'll go for a run when you're in the city. I'd love it.

I would love that.

New York Road Runners is a nonprofit organization with a
vision to build healthier lives and stronger communities through the
transformative power of running. The support of members and donors
like you helps us achieve our mission to transform the
health and wellbeing of our communities through inclusive and accessible
running experiences, empowering all to achieve their potential. Learn more

(54:54):
and contribute at nyrr. org/ donate. And now it's time
for today's Meb Minute with Meb Keflezighi.

Meb Keflezighi (55:03):
Smart summer training. Summer is a fun way to train
to be able to just do gradual mileage. Sometimes we
want to run as many miles as we can, but
this is a good time to be able to do
drills, to be able to just be smart, when to
run, and also be wise to be able to do
the... Sometimes let the body, it's not about the mileage,

(55:24):
but going out and doing a little bit of stretching.
Run five minutes, stretch a little bit in the shade, and continue with your
run. It is good time to be able to just
visualize your workouts or what is going to look like
because you have to be able to just see yourself
run those miles, do the cool down, do the stretch.
Sometimes in the winter, you can't wait to get fast

(55:46):
enough to the house to be in a warmer place,
but in the summer you can go in the shade
and be able to just stretch the muscles, and the mileage
is important, but the speed is more important on this day.

That does it for another episode of Set the Pace.
Thanks again to our listeners on WOR 710 in New
York, and to all of our regular listeners on all
the podcast places. We want to thank our guest today,
Tiki Barber. And hey, if you like this show, make
sure you go on to wherever you get your podcasts,
follow the show, subscribe to it, leave it a rating

(56:20):
as well, we like five stars, so that folks can
find it as well. And we'd love to hear from
you so you can leave a comment because I love
reading the comments of how people enjoy listening to this
show. Thanks for joining us. We will see you next
week. Enjoy the miles.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tiki Barber Talks Marathons, Motivation, and What’s Next

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Tiki Barber Talks Marathons, Motivation, and What’s Next

On Purpose with Jay Shetty