April 28, 2025 • 61 mins
Breaking three hours at the Boston Marathon took eight years, countless setbacks, and a total mindset shift—but the lessons I learned can help you level up, too.
In this episode, I share the three key mental strategies that turned pain into progress and pressure into performance. Whether you're chasing a race goal or a personal milestone, you'll learn how to stay confident, trust your process, and turn adversity into fuel. Apply these tools to your own journey—and get one step closer to your version of Boston.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What makes Boston so special, in my view, is that
it's the pinnacle of running.
Even if you don't run, youprobably know what the Boston
Marathon is Just like.
If you don't play golf, you knowwhat the Masters Tournament is.
If you don't watch football,you know what the Super Bowl is.
The Boston Marathon is theMasters.
(00:23):
It's the Super Bowl.
It's the World Series ofRunning that brings the best of
the best in the world to face achallenging course that is lined
with tens of thousands ofpassionate fans and supporters
(00:43):
people that love the runningcommunity, appreciate the
endurance community and want tosee you do your absolute best.
It is absolutely electric.
Welcome to the Wednesday podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully
(01:04):
crafted to help people buildand refine discipline,
accomplish their goals, fortifytheir mindsets and be of service
to somebody in this world.
My name is Ryan Cass and I amyour host, and it is my mission
and commitment to deliveramazing episodes to you every
week where you will learn frommyself or renowned expert in
their field.
We love helping people win inevery aspect of their lives, and
(01:29):
you can help us win by sharingthe show with somebody that you
believe will benefit from it,subscribing and leaving a rating
and review.
We believe that everybody inthis world is meant to do
something great with their livesand we're here to help play a
role in that.
Thank you for tuning in andlet's win today.
(01:49):
If you don't hate running alittle bit, then you might not
love it enough.
That was one of my favoritesigns that I saw in Boston this
past week and it made me thinkthat the things that we're going
after, the things that we lovethe most, rather the things that
are most meaningful to us andhate might be a strong word, but
(02:12):
if we don't have a little bitof annoyance or grievances with
those things, are they reallythat meaningful to us?
Do we really love it as much aswe think, or say that we do?
Think about how that applieswith relationships.
(02:33):
Now I don't want you to thinkokay, if you don't hate your
partner a little bit, that'sprobably not a good thing.
But if you don't get annoyed byyour partner every now and then
might not love them enough.
Or if you don't get annoyed bythe pursuit of growing your
business and your dreams andchasing your goals, then maybe
(02:54):
you don't have the right goalsor the right vision in the
forefront.
In the forefront, that's mysegue into the Boston Marathon
recap, and I am intentionalabout anytime I talk about
running, knowing that noteverybody on this podcast is a
(03:15):
runner, nor has the desire to beone, which is completely fine.
It's to share life lessons andprinciples that can be extracted
from various experiences, andin this case, running happens to
be one that I've had a lot ofamazing and frightful life
(03:37):
experiences from the BostonMarathon.
We're going to dig into whatmakes it special, and we're
going to dig into what makes itspecial A few of the lessons
that led to this year being thebest race that I've ran in
Boston, that can apply to lifeand things that I'm being more
intentional about myself now aswell, and, as always, some
(04:00):
inspiration for you to go afterthe big thing or keep going
after the big thing, don't stop.
So with that, we're going tojump right in what makes the
Boston Marathon so special.
I've talked about this for manyyears on the podcast and I
(04:22):
won't go as in-depth as I havein the past, but what makes
Boston so special, in my view,is that it's the pinnacle of
running.
Even if you don't run, youprobably know what the Boston
Marathon is Just like.
If you don't play golf, youknow what the Masters Tournament
is.
If you don't watch football,you know what the Super Bowl is.
(04:43):
The Boston Marathon is theMasters.
It's the Super Bowl.
It's the World Series ofrunning that brings the best of
the best in the world to face achallenging course that is lined
with tens of thousands ofpassionate fans and supporters,
(05:08):
people that love the runningcommunity, appreciate the
endurance community and want tosee you do your absolute best.
It is absolutely electric.
And another thing that makesBoston special is that, unlike
the other world major marathons,boston has the toughest
(05:30):
criteria, meaning that you haveto qualify to get in or you can
be a charity fundraiser, whichhas its challenges as well, but
there is no other option.
There are no lotteries, thereare no second chance drawings.
It's the oldest marathon in theUnited States and it's pretty
(05:51):
much qualify or raise a lot ofmoney, and those are your only
two options, but the charityslots are limited.
So a lot of people will choosethe qualification route, which,
depending on your age groupbeing an 18 to 34-year-old male
the qualification standards areto run a sub three-hour marathon
(06:11):
, which are changing in 2026 toa sub 255 marathon, and then,
depending on how many peopleregister or qualify.
That cut line moves to the left.
So this past year you had to besix and a half minutes fast.
In 2026, who knows what you'regoing to have to be but the
(06:32):
running world is getting faster,which excites me that we get to
.
We get to keyword work evenharder to continue getting in
work even harder to continuegetting in.
This has been my third year in arow running the marathon and it
has a deep place in my heartbecause of what it takes to get
(06:53):
there, but then also what ittook me to get there when I
first set out on this quest in2017.
In 2017.
And fast forward, this arrivalin Boston, the destination, the
goal, getting there didn't comewithout many shortcomings being
(07:14):
hit by a car, hospitalizedmultiple times and my first
Boston coming fresh off aninjury.
Second one, one blowing up andfeeling like I let myself down
and others down, and this onebeing the third one.
That all right.
Third, third time's a charm.
We're finally gonna seal thedeal with unfinished business.
(07:38):
That in 2017, when I had letout on this journey, my goal was
not just to go run the BostonMarathon, it was to go break
three hours.
What makes a sub-three-hourmarathon special.
Why is that a big deal?
That's another thing.
It's almost like a badge ofhonor, if you will, in the
endurance community.
But with the exception of oneperson in the entire world,
(08:01):
elliot Kipchoge, nobody has runa sub two hour marathon.
So sub three is the commonbenchmark that you'll hear in
the marathon world.
If you can run sub three, thatis pretty special.
And then within that there'ssub 255, 240, 230, 235.
So, but sub three is the bigone.
(08:23):
So special for many reasons inthat there's been unfinished
business and as long as I liveand continue running, it's my
wish to continue qualifying andgetting back to the Boston
Marathon, inspiring people tostay on their journey.
This one has been eight yearsand counting now and I just
(08:47):
absolutely love it.
It's an honor and a blessing toshare the stage with the best
of the best in the world Chip onthe shoulder.
Chip on the shoulder.
I mentioned that again.
The journey is the best part.
Running Boston is simply thecherry on top.
(09:09):
But everything that you get todo when you're going after
something big, that's reallywhere I believe what you should
embrace the most, because to getthere and this applies outside
(09:30):
of running as well you're doingthings that you don't want to do
, that you know are good to do,but many times you don't want to
do it.
Many times the alarm goes offearly.
Lacing up the shoes is theabsolute last thing that you
want to do.
It's raining, it's cold, you'resore.
Long day at work, you'rementally fatigued, you don't
(09:51):
want to go run, but you get upand you go and do it.
There are days where you maynot want to do the outreaches to
grow your business or to focuson business development
activities because peoplehaven't been responding.
People have been turning youdown.
People have been saying, no,I'm not going to go on your
podcast.
(10:11):
People have been chose anotherprovider or a coach or a trainer
over you.
Yet you know that to get whereyou want to be, you've got to
focus on those things that youdon't want to do in the moment.
That's what makes the journeyso special, and remember that
(10:35):
when you're going through thosethings, every time you don't
want to do something, and eventhe mornings that you do want to
go, do it and you're naturallyfeeling motivated.
Remember that on the other sideof that is the best version of
you, a better version of you,one thing that keeps me going
(10:56):
and this thing that I'mabsolutely obsessed with this
concept, this concept oftouching your dreams.
And this comes from Ed Milet,who is one of my favorite
podcasters, authors,motivational speakers.
We have a lot of parallels andwhy we do what we do and our
(11:18):
upbringing.
He's someone that I feel I veryclosely resonate to.
I very closely resonate to.
But Ed, who has now amassed asolid financial fortune, talked
about when he was growing up asa young sales agent and he was
(11:38):
driving a car around that he wasactually driving a knockoff
Mercedes, meaning that he had Ican't remember it was a Chrysler
that had a Mercedes bodyliterally taped and glued onto
it.
So imagine driving yourChrysler or your Honda.
I'm looking out at my HondaCivic right now, thinking about
what if I put a fake BMW body onit.
(12:01):
So it looks like I'm reallydriving a BMW.
But the reason why he wasdriving that around is because
that was literally all he couldafford was a $5,000, not even
that $3,000 Chrysler LeBaronthat had Mercedes parts taped
onto it.
And when he would be atstoplights he had to be really
(12:21):
careful of how quickly he hitthe brakes, because the front
headlights would literally goflying out if he wasn't careful
about his braking andaccelerating.
So a man that is now inspiring,or has inspired millions of
people around the world, used todrive a car that he would have
(12:42):
to go and fetch the headlightsin multiple intersections
because of how quickly he wouldbreak or accelerate.
When he was doing that, though,he talked about his vision that
he had and that someday he wouldbe able to provide for his
family to where they would neverhave to worry about money and
(13:07):
they would be able to live onthe beach that they often would
go and visit and just seethemselves staying at all the
time, and he would book wheneverhe could make enough money.
He would book a one night stayat the Ritz Carlton in Malibu,
(13:30):
which is a gorgeous hotel, andhe would stay there for a night,
and just by staying there for anight, he would see the type of
people that would come in andout the door, see how they
carried themselves, see how talkto them, see what got them to
where they are, and he wouldstay in a lavish room, and this
(13:52):
was something that he dreamed of.
That one day, this one nightstay is going to be my everyday
stay, because I'm going to be onthis beach.
He calls it touching yourdreams.
Every time he was able to hithis sales targets and then
afford a one night stay at theRitz Carlton Malibu, he would go
(14:12):
there and call it touching thedream.
Every time he touched the dream, he felt more and more like he
belonged, like this is what he'smeant for, this is what he's
cut out for.
Whenever I come downstairsespecially getting ready for
Boston I have my shoes all in acloset.
(14:32):
I call it my locker roombecause it kind of smells like
one with a bunch of sweaty shoesin there, as you can imagine.
But I have a little whiteboardup where I go and grab my hat
and my headphones and it justsays up where I go and grab my
hat and my headphones and itjust says touch your dreams on
there.
Every time that I'm going outfor one of these runs or workout
sessions, I'm touching thedream in that I'm doing
(14:59):
something that's going to get meon that big stage Boston.
I don't want to be out there,but every time I do and hit a
tough workout that I don't wantto, or even when I do want to,
I'm one step closer to hey.
I deserve this future realityand I'm touching it right now,
going through these tough grindsessions, because it's not going
to be easy out there on theBoston course.
(15:20):
Another thing that I do, andthis is to the importance of
visual indicators.
The Boston Marathon, the worldmajors they all have a
celebration jacket, so you'llsee people that often wear a
Boston Mar soon as they releasethem and I leave it hanging in
(15:49):
the closet right next to my hatsand everything.
I don't wear it until after therace because I believe you got
to earn it still.
But I see that and that's myreminder that, all right.
If you really want to put thaton and feel like you earned it,
not just put it on because youbought it and you wear it now,
which again, if that's you, hey,peace, but that's not me but if
(16:15):
you really want to put this onand earn it, then you've got to
and you get to go out and earnthis workout and go touch your
dream and go put in the milesand be a good example for others
that want to push their bodiesand minds further and harder
(16:35):
than they believe possible.
That's part of what keeps megoing when I don't want to have
a visual indicator of whatsuccess looks like and what it
means to you.
What does it mean for you totouch your dream?
What are the activities thatalign with touching your dream?
(16:58):
Maybe it's not a 4.
Workout, but I would be willingto bet there are things, or at
least one thing, that you can dothat will get you closer to
where you want to be.
And maybe that thing isn't whatyou want to do, or it's not the
most glamorous or gloriousthing, most fun thing at the
(17:19):
time, but when you get toexperience that moment, when you
get to turn right on Herefordand left on Boylston, which are
the last two turns of the BostonMarathon, it makes it all worth
it and there's nothing like it.
So that's what really.
That's what one of the manythings that fuels me fuels me,
(17:50):
and I knew that this year wasgoing to be the year that I
would finally hit the sub threehour mark on the Boston course.
What makes the Boston course sochallenging is that there's not
one bit of it that is completelyflat, and especially coming
from an area where that's reallyall we have to train on here in
Charleston, south Carolina,with the exception of a bridge,
(18:11):
makes it a little bit morechallenging.
But again, why wouldn't we wantthe greatest challenges in the
world?
The Boston course starts outwith about 5K downhill, pretty
much downhill.
There's some rollers in therebut it's pretty easy to cruise.
And then you're on rollinghills for another few miles,
(18:35):
flattens out slightly and thenafter the half marathon point,
that's where it starts to getfun and we'll talk more about
kind of what the exact race daylooked like.
But mile 17 through 21, throughthe town of Newton, are what
you'll usually hear a lot ofpeople talk about the Newton
Hills and Heartbreak Hill, whichis the crest of mile 20 going
(18:59):
into mile 21.
So I knew that if this race wasgoing to be the one that this
was going to take, being veryconservative, overly
conservative early on andpatient, more patient than I've
ever been before, because I damnsure wasn't allowed about to
(19:20):
allow 2024 to repeat itself 2024, I came out the gate hot it was
a warm day, about 70-ish,mid-70s degrees at the start,
which is uncommon for Boston andI figured, hey, I'm going to
still go out and run a PR raceand break 250 on the Boston
(19:43):
course, and I believe that mytraining did align to that and
up to the time my training wasencouraging in that hey, I know
I can hit these paces, butprimarily on flat ground, and I
know adrenaline is going to help.
I know the Boston energy isgoing to help and ended up at
(20:06):
mile 14 completely bonking havenever walked in a race other
than in a marathon before, butput my body completely on
overdrive and the last 12 milesof that race were absolutely
devastating and I felt as if Icompletely let myself down and
(20:29):
let others down in 2024.
And that was not going to bethe case this year.
So I love declaring what we'regoing to do as a means to get
that thing done, and I wasn'tgoing to change my target this
year, meaning that I'm not goingto say, oh, maybe I'll break
(20:52):
three because of fear from 2024recreating itself.
The plan was to go in there,break three hours, and that's
what I told people I was goingto do.
And we made some smartadjustments, came out the gate
at about a manageable 6.30 paceand held on really tight, and
(21:13):
patience was the name of thegame.
What I did differently and hereare the lessons that might as
well jump into the race plan nowwhat I did differently in 2025
versus 2024, I actually wentback to my first Boston in 2023,
(21:36):
where I went in there and thatwas while I still had an IT band
injury.
So I went in there purely withthe expectation or the
assignment to do my best and ifI could break three then awesome
.
But I knew that that was likelygoing to be a huge stretch,
(21:57):
given that going into that racethe weeks leading up I was
having trouble walking and hadto really reduce my mileage a
lot.
2024, again came in therethinking, okay, this is going to
set my all-time personal best,not make any adjustments for the
weather and completelydestroyed myself this year sub
(22:17):
three, no matter what, we'regetting it done.
So we're going to stayconservative and patient and
really enjoy the course and theenvironment and appreciate
everything that it has to offer.
Last year I was not looking tothe left and the right to enjoy
(22:41):
the crowd and everybody that wasout there.
There was many times as I wasrunning that I didn't even
realize all the cool things thatwe had passed, all of the cool
signs, all of the monuments,monuments, and I kind of
(23:06):
regretted it a little bit thatman, I was so focused on an
outcome, no matter what, andbeing stubborn that I'm going to
hit this target because, well,that's what I said I was going
to do and it doesn't matter ifit's warm out.
I chose to kind of put my headdown and grind and not take in
the environment.
(23:26):
And one thing with Boston is, ifyou really want or need some
energy, you get to rely on thecrowd.
That's what makes it so muchdifferent than your local
marathons is that you can lookto your left and right.
You have thousands of peopleyou can go and give a high five
to, and every time you do, youfeel this jolt of adrenaline and
(23:50):
boost that the crowd reallydoes carry you.
And I'm thinking back, man, in2023, this is exactly what you
said Every time you need a boost, go and smile, give people high
fives.
So that was a huge aid thisyear in that, from mile one all
(24:12):
the way to the end.
And I had to remind myself a fewtimes when I was getting a
little in my thoughts and in myhead hey, enjoy, look to the
left and right, give the kid ahigh five, give the kid a little
smile something.
And every time I did that, Ifelt myself just all right,
almost like this sense of calmthat, hey, we're good to go, man
(24:33):
, everything is to plan, we'restaying patient, collected,
running a smart race, and we'reenjoying this.
It's something that when Ithink back on my career.
So my first lesson here is toenjoy the process and enjoy.
Allow yourself to enjoywhatever it is that you're going
(24:56):
through.
When I think back to when Istarted my corporate career, I
didn't take a vacation for thefirst three years and that's not
something I'm proud of.
But once I did, I came back andrealized, wow, I can actually
enjoy life a little bit and notrisk my career Meaning.
(25:17):
No one's going to be upset thatyou took some time off.
Who's going to be upset thatyou're taking care of yourself?
Who's going to be upset thatyou're living a little bit,
knowing that it's going to allowyou to show up more in a
genuine way for others.
It's going to allow you toreset, recalibrate, rejuvenate
(25:40):
your mind.
So my reminder to myselfprofessionally about this is to
smell the roses, smell the roses, in that you can still move
fast and go hard and enjoy whatlife's given you and enjoy what
the process has given you.
So enjoy the moments.
(26:03):
Slow down for a second, maybe,if you're not running a race,
but slow down, meaning like soakin the environment.
Look at the signs.
Give people the high fives.
It's not going to completelydiminish your plan.
You can't get me to go morethan two to three months now
(26:25):
without at least taking a day ortwo off to go and enjoy life or
touch the dream, do something,enjoy the process.
I believe that's one of the bigthings that really helped me
this year is that I would oftensometimes I'd again caught
myself at various miles aroundmile 10, getting a little in my
(26:47):
head especially, and I would, uhthen just remind myself, hey,
enjoy it, look, look, you'reokay and boom, we'd still be on
pace, still be on plan, so youcan enjoy what you're going
through and still achieve whatyou want and still arrive at the
(27:10):
destination.
I mentioned that mile 10 wasreally the first mile that I
really started getting in myhead.
One thing that you never knowabout the marathon is you never
know when it's going to test youmentally and physically.
You know at some point it'sgoing to happen.
It's going to happen at leastonce, if not multiple times.
(27:30):
And when you're out there fortwo to three hours and even more
, there are plenty ofopportunity for the mental
demons to come and pay you alittle visit and get you to
question what you're doing.
Should you really still be outhere and is this worth it?
Usually it comes a little later, but there are surprises and
(27:54):
that's the beauty of it.
That's part of the beauty ofthe process and the journey and
why training and why touchingthe dream is so important, so
that when those moments arrive,you've already been there, you
know what to do, you've got thisunshakable sense of belief that
you're meant to belong and pushthrough this thing.
(28:16):
So mile 10 was really whereit's starting to warm up a
little bit, but generallybeautiful conditions and I'm
feeling my stomach starting toturn over For the first time
ever.
In the Myrtle Beach Marathon inMarch, I threw up my entire
breakfast at mile three, so thatwas a 23 mile suck fest after
(28:39):
that.
So mile 10 at the BostonMarathon, I'm getting that
similar feeling and I'm sittingthere like please, no, please,
not right now, and had a littleconversation with myself and
that, hey, there's no way thatwe're not achieving our goal
here and there's no way thatwe're not making this sub three
(29:02):
hour happen.
We're good to go.
Just we're going to get throughthis little, this little patch,
this little, this little demonthat's visiting us.
We're going to, we're going toshoo him off and we're going to
keep going these 16 miles.
Cause at that point I did havesome of those thoughts like how
the heck are we going to go 16more miles and maintain this
(29:22):
pace?
So at this point I'd sped up alittle bit and I'm going low to
mid 630s, but really holdingmyself off because I know I've
got those low 620s and evenfaster in the tank.
And I caught myself on a fewoccasions looking at my watch
that I was there and reallypulled the reins back.
Another time that the demonsreally came to visit me again is
(29:50):
the last two miles where I knowat this point I could run a
eight-minute mile, even slower,and still break three hours,
even slower and still breakthree hours.
And that option becomes quiteappealing when you are quite
fatigued.
At that point I'm a big sweaterand at this point I'm sweating
(30:12):
like crazy because it's prettywarm and I am ready to be done
and ready to be done.
When you're running a marathon,one of the worst things that you
can do is runner's math Meaning.
Okay now, if I, my brain ismush.
(30:32):
But if I run a 621 here andthen a 619, and then a 618, I
can run approximately this time.
So when you start doing thecalculations, that's where you
know okay, hey, we need to bedone here.
So, at 24 through 26, I'm atthe point now where, okay, sub
(30:52):
three is a lock and I can feelmyself, my body, wanting to go
into these slow paces, theseeight minute paces, because
that's appealing and we can doit, and then my mind is saying
absolutely not, we're not doingthat right now.
And it's this beautifulargument that you get to be
(31:16):
witness to and ultimately incontrol of.
Like no, we're going at 640sright now.
We just gave up a coupleseconds on 23, slowed down a
little bit, but we're going.
There is no option and this isonly temporary.
This is a minor blip on ourlife timeline, this little
(31:38):
moment of pain right now, whichis an absolute blessing to have.
I talked about the return oninconvenience a few months ago
when I was talking about whatgot me through this 150-mile
race that I did in October.
When we look at a marathon orsome challenging event on your
(31:59):
life timeline, zoomed out, it'sa fraction of a fraction of a
fraction of a fraction of yourlife, meaning that those tough
moments, this little, tinyfraction of your life, can then
give you lessons, wisdom,insight, ability, confidence,
(32:20):
belief to push through eventsfor the next five years, 10
years, 20 years, 30 years.
So just by pushing throughthese additional two miles that
I really don't want to I'mproving to my body and my mind
hey, we are resilient, we canget through anything.
(32:44):
We're not slowing down here,we're going to pick up the pace,
we're going to turn on the gaseven more for these final two
turns on Hereford and Boylston,and we're going and just by
doing that, that's serving mewell right now that I get to
share this message, I get toshare some tips, I get to
(33:12):
provide some wisdom and insightthat can be used not just right
now, but someone can go back andlisten to this a year from now,
five years from now, I can goback and listen to it.
We've got this repository thathas compound dividends for
yourself and others.
I love this return oninconvenience concept.
So those were the two times thatthe demons came to visit and
(33:34):
what allowed me to get throughthat, as I just mentioned some
of it there, but really where Iwas telling myself.
There is just trust in yourtraining and ability.
You've been through this.
You've pushed past a 23 milesuffer fest a month prior to
this, when you threw up yourentire breakfast at the Myrtle
(33:55):
Beach Marathon at mile three andthen still qualified for Boston
2026.
After that and ran 26 hardmiles.
You can do this.
You've been running up and downthe bridge at 5 o'clock in the
morning at a lot faster pacesthan this when you've been tired
(34:16):
, you can do this.
You've been out with the boyson Tuesday mornings in Hampton
Park running pretty fast clipseven when you haven't been
feeling that great.
You can do this.
Trust in your training how doyou trust in your training?
You show up even when you don'twant to Prove yourself right.
(34:39):
There was no way that thedemons were going to win.
And at mile 10 and at mile 24and through 26, really thinking
about going back to the training, going back to the moments,
completely trusted that I wasprepared and we were going to
(35:02):
get it done, the last thing thatreally helped me.
So when I think about what I'veshared so far, enjoy the
process, trust in your trainingand your ability and reframe the
situation that you are goingthrough.
As I was traveling up to Boston,I've been reading this book
(35:24):
Extreme Balance ParadoxicalPrinciples that Make you a
Champion, by Joe DeSena, who'sthe founder and CEO of Spartan,
and I'm getting ready to go tothe death race in June on Joe's
farm.
It out to me in the book andI'll read an excerpt here is
(35:49):
focusing on the process andfocusing on the outcome, and, as
I was reading this chapter, ittalks about how you should hate
losing more than you rather nothate losing, but play to win and
not to lose, meaning thatlosing is not an option In these
scenarios.
This is from the book.
(36:10):
There are a few strategies forimproving.
Double down on your drive to winRather than let thoughts of
losing creep in.
Stay focused not only onwinning the bout, but on winning
every minute.
In every exchange.
The goal is to win and move on,and this ought to stay the same
(36:30):
, whether other people expectyou to win or not.
Work on your relationship tolosing so that it is something
you hate rather than somethingyou fear.
If you're favored to win,either based on your ranking,
going into the match or being inthe lead halfway through, and
you find your mind drifting tothoughts of losing.
(36:51):
You want your self-talk aroundit to be something like no way
on earth am I letting them getback into this match.
Keep pouring it on.
That's very different from ohno, what if I blow this lead?
That would be so embarrassing.
The latter is fear-based andharmful, while the former is
(37:13):
helpful.
Don't think about winning orlosing, but stay focused on the
process, which is where thechapter begins.
Just as you change tacticsthroughout a competition
depending on what is and whatisn't working, you'll benefit
from developing multipleattitudes and ways to focus.
We don't judge something asgood or bad on principle, but
(37:34):
rather on its impact.
If it helps you, then it's theright thing to do.
What really helped me is thosefirst two bullets double down on
your drive to win and reframing.
There's no way that I'm notrunning this sub three hour
marathon.
There were a few miles a fewtimes where again, oh crap, I'm
(37:58):
really not feeling good.
Oh smokes, we gave up a fewseconds back to the course,
meaning these miles weren't onpace.
Don't know if we're going to beable to hold on.
Sure, those thoughts did visit,but then it was immediately met
with what I just mentioned there.
There's no way that this isn'thappening today.
There's no way that I'm lettingmyself down or my buddies down.
(38:22):
There's a lot of people thatare tracking me that know that
this is what I want.
There's a lot of people thatare tracking me that know that
this is what I want.
There's no way it's happening.
And even that it didn't allowfear or that mental demon to
creep in and have an extendedvisit.
And I really do believe thatthat's part of being unshakable
(38:43):
is that every time we're metwith a mental demon because no
matter who you are, you're goingto be met with them, but no
matter when you're met with themyou've always got a response
that's going to make it go awayand not allow it to win, or it's
going to have to fight reallyfreaking hard to hold on to you,
(39:04):
really freaking hard to hold onto you.
So enjoy trust and reframe.
Those are the three things thatreally helped.
That also can be appliedoutside of running and endurance
.
So some cool things from raceday and an actual recap.
(39:25):
I realized that as we'reflowing through this, it became
more of a here's lessons andthings to extract and not so
much of here's how everythingactually went.
So with that, I get reallyexcited when doing recap
episodes, since there's not manyof those.
But with that, how did itactually go?
(39:46):
Start to finish?
So really cool.
From the start, and I was inAthletes Village, which is where
you basically your staging area, before you go to the actual
starting corrals, and on the wayover to Hopkinton, which is
(40:06):
where the race starts, I had twopairs of headphones my
headphones that I was going towear during the race, my
wireless ones, and then anotherset of wired headphones, the old
school ones with the donglethat connect into the iPhones
that I was listening to on thebus ride just to conserve energy
, and the wireless ones and isalso a plan B should the
(40:29):
wireless ones not work.
So they called us to get upfrom the athlete's village to go
walk over to the start line andI was in group four, wave
number one.
So first starting wave, behindthe pros, and I was literally
about to throw away myheadphones, like I don't need
these anymore, I'll keep thedongle, since I use this from my
(40:49):
work phone and no big deal.
So I decided to.
Maybe I'll need it forsomething.
The headphones too, like I'lljust, I'll hold onto them.
So I walk over and the firstperson I see in the starting
corral is Truett Haynes.
Now, that name may be familiarto some of you, but if you don't
know who Truett is, he is theson of Cameron Haynes, who is a
(41:15):
legendary figure in theendurance world, known for being
one of the best bow hunters inthe world.
But also this guy is just anabsolute animal out of Oregon
and one that many in the runningand endurance world look up to,
as he not only goes on theselegendary bow hunts, but for the
(41:36):
longest time he was balancingbeing one of the best bow
hunters in the world, inaddition to running a half
marathon a day at his nine tofive work break.
So while he was still sponsoredby Under Armour and making God
knows how much, he stillmaintained his day-to-day hourly
(41:58):
nine to five, which was reallycool.
So he's just an absolute savageruns marathons, ultra marathons
, really fast.
Even at his age today stillpumps out very quick times in
the low twos.
His son, coming from thatfamily line, is also an absolute
(42:18):
savage and works out with DavidGoggins and originally broke
David Goggins' world record formost amount of pushups in 24
hours.
Truett recently rebroke his ownworld record and he's the
current Guinness World Recordholder for most pull-ups done in
(42:39):
24 hours 10,001.
And he's absolutely ripped andruns marathons while wearing
jeans, so he's made quite a namefor himself.
So there's this big Jack dudethat's wearing jeans and no
shirt.
I'm standing right next to him.
So that's Truett Haynes.
So give him a little fist bump.
(42:59):
Hey, truett, what's up?
Man, love your stuff.
And then I see that he'sstruggling with his AirPods and
he's taking them out of the case, putting them in, and he keeps
doing that.
And I know what that's likewhen your AirPods aren't
connecting or maybe one of themis not working.
You play this game where youput it in the case, take it out
(43:21):
the case, put it in the case,you start praying.
I know that Truett's ranmarathons in his jeans, with
wired headphones as well, justbeing a little more diabolical.
So I'm sitting there like, allright, I do want this thing for
my work phone, but there canalways be another one.
And this guy's struggling rightnow and you need some music for
(43:45):
the Boston Marathon or at leastto do what he's doing.
He was going for a PR, which heaccomplished.
He ran a 2.38.
I will say that the headphoneswere easily responsible for at
least 30 seconds of that.
So he could have been a 2.39without those headphones in the
beginning.
But anyway, I tapped him again.
(44:07):
I said hey, man, you want someold school headphones?
And he graciously accepted andwas really thankful for it.
He said what's your name?
And I told him.
I talked to him for a couple ofminutes there and he said my
name is Ryan Cass and, by theway, I do host a podcast and
you're somebody that I wouldlove to have a conversation with
.
I've been thinking about youfor a while and I'll shoot you a
(44:29):
note.
And he said yeah, shoot me anote.
So still haven't heard fromTruett, who knows.
But nonetheless I know that thatwas just an opportunity to do
something for somebody.
Even if it was Truett or not,someone struggling with their
headphones, I would have giventhem away.
But pretty cool that it's theGuinness World Record holder of
the most amount of pull-ups donein 24 hours.
(44:50):
And I gave him another littlefist bump at the end and said PR
or ER, right?
And he said yep, and we bothwent on our way.
Obviously, he went andabsolutely smoked it, but that
was really cool from the start.
And then going back thinkingabout, hey, there's no way this
isn't going to happen.
I'm asking the running gods now.
I said, hey, man, I did a gooddeed, give me that sub three
(45:14):
Kind of, but not really.
I didn't expect that to be thereason why we accomplished the
goal, but it was really cool.
So, starting down again, Imentioned that the first 5K is
downhill.
I'm loving my Saucony EndorphinElite 2s that are probably the
springiest shoe I've ever ran inand it just feels like I'm
(45:37):
cruising, like easy, easy goingrunning Came out a little hot.
It's hard not to when you'vegot literally thousands of
people that are also runningquick right next to you.
So I'm looking at my watch,thinking this 620 literally
feels like a 750.
And then this 635 literallyfeels like a 745, eight minute
(45:59):
mile pace.
So I just sat there and justenjoyed it and really soaked in
every little bit.
I'm smiling and really lovingevery bit of it as the race goes
on, really catching it,catching a good groove and we've
already mentioned the demonsthat came to visit at mile 10,
(46:21):
but overall, just continuing toremind myself, just to enjoy it.
It was a beautiful day.
At the start it was about 52,no clouds, which good and bad
for Boston.
Boston has no shade on it.
So a sunny day you're going tobe cooking, even if it's in the
50s, which eventually got up toabout 60.
(46:41):
So a little warm towards theend.
But one thing I did was atevery water station, which I
found were a lot more packedthis year, so it was a little
more difficult to get in and outof there.
But I would grab two cups, oneto slowly sip on and then one
just to dump on my head becauseI am a very heavy sweater and
(47:02):
just get nasty out there.
So extra, extra water for thewin.
But going along the, the sights,the sounds are just
unforgettable.
And at mile 13, that's whereWellesley college is, that's the
scream tunnel and that's whereall the women are out and
(47:26):
they're asking for kisses fromthe runners.
I did not kiss any collegewomen.
I just would kiss my hand andtouch their signs and just show
some appreciation, but none ofthat.
But there were a few peoplethat literally stopped right in
front of me and we're going atabout a 6.15 pace because it's
(47:46):
tough not to let adrenalinecatch you, literally coming to a
full stop just to kiss somerandom college woman.
So didn't really like that part.
But you know what it's theBoston Marathon.
You're supposed to have fun.
So going through, I knew thatstaying patient was going to pay
off for the hills and theNewton Hills.
(48:08):
So at mile one thing I forgotis that there's really only
three turns on the Boston course.
So you go straight for about 15miles and then about 16 miles
and then you take a right-handturn onto Commonwealth Ave and
that takes you through the townof Newton.
So the turn, the right-handturn, at the fire station,
(48:32):
that's the first big hill, justbefore you're technically in
Newton.
But I believe that's actuallythe hardest climb in the race of
the four hills.
I forgot that before that oneon mile 16, race of the four
hills.
I forgot that before that oneon mile 16, that there's another
big hill and then you comedownhill for a while and then
(48:55):
you turn right.
So I thought for a minute, didI really just zone out so much
that I missed the fire stationhill, because this climb
literally feels just like it?
And sure enough it was not.
So another thing that againjust makes Boston so challenging
is that there are a lot ofrollers, even on the downhill
sections.
There are a lot of rollinghills early on.
(49:15):
So that's something to preparefor.
But took the right and one thingthat I did this time going up
the hills.
Again, I love to pick a targeton the left and on the right,
just to view through myperipherals and not really look
straight up at what's to come onthe climb.
And so I would pick somethingon the left, just to as soon as
(49:36):
I hit that in my peripheralvision I became parallel with it
.
Then I would find something onthe right.
So it's just these little gamesthat you can play and make up
and was having fun going upthese climbs.
That's also where I rememberlast year that I was really
falling apart and made itthrough 14 miles at a quick pace
(50:01):
and then that's where thewheels fell off and I remember
telling myself, as I saw someonewalking up the hill, so I said,
hey, good luck man.
But I remember thinking likethat is my shadow from last year
and I'm going to beat him andwe're not going to recreate this
.
So now I'm racing against me,racing against my shadow, and
(50:23):
everybody that we get to pass uphere that's walking.
Remember that that was you atsome points last year.
And we've worked harder, we'vebeen patient throughout this
process, throughout this race,been more diligent about the
prep and we're trusting in ourability.
So, first couple of climbs aregood to go.
(50:44):
You come down a big hill goinginto mile 19, and then you've
got heartbreak hill, theillustrious heartbreak hill,
which my soundtrack, my mix onSoundCloud, which, if anyone
wants a killer killer playlist,which, if anyone wants a killer
(51:07):
killer playlist.
My buddy Ed got me hooked onSoundCloud but I made this
awesome mix.
And at mile 21, we're going upHeartbreak Hill and I'm having
fun.
But then there's this song andsome of y'all may laugh, but I
had this song in it on theplaylist that came up right
there at 21.
It's Letter Cook by Glorilla,and I don't really care for the
(51:27):
lyrics too much, but just thebeat, just the beat.
That song came up right as Istarted climbing Heartbreak Hill
and I'm just jamming, I'msmiling, running up Heartbreak
Hill and I'm bopping my fingers,I'm playing the drums and at
(51:49):
that point I knew, at that pointthere's no way again.
Just solidified it, there is noway that I'm not making this
happen, because after that,after you get over a heartbreak,
it's five miles downhill intoBoston Again.
As always, there's still thehills, but it's five miles and
you're steady cruising.
You just got through the hardpart.
(52:11):
So I remember getting to the topof Heartbreak Hill or
afterwards and just yelling likethe stage is set.
And I'm yelling out loud stageis set, the stage is set, let's
dance.
I also said that right at thehalf marathon point.
I came across the half at about127.
So I knew at that point okay,we have some buffer time, but
(52:35):
the stage is set, we're makingthis happen.
Get off heartbreak, the stageis set.
We get back into another mix onthe playlist and then just
jamming.
And at mile 21, that's alsowhere Boston College is now.
So along the route you've gotWellesley College, which is a
predominantly women's school,and then Boston College, which
is a predominantly rowdy school,and the Boston Marathon is a
(52:59):
party for them.
So they're out there.
But this is also again whereyou can get energy from the
course.
They're out there about aquarter mile long just all
having a blast.
They've been out there for awhile.
They're screaming, they're loud, and this is really where you
can get some energy.
I remember even last year, whenI was dying, I still found a way
(53:22):
to, at least for the BostonCollege part, pull some of that
energy in and pick up a quickpace, until I was then quickly
dying again on the inside.
But this year I'm going at themgiving them high fives.
You know, let's go, I'm hypingthem up, or at least I'm telling
myself that.
(53:43):
And then I got myself introuble because, as I looked at
my watch, I'm like uh-oh, I'mtired, and I had ran that
quarter mile of literally justgiving high fives at like a 530
pace or something like that.
You don't feel it in the moment, but then, as soon as you come
off it a little bit, youcertainly feel it.
So that was one of thehighlights, though, and one of
(54:06):
my favorite signs secondfavorite sign, besides the one
from the very beginning was ifyou throw up, at least you're
wearing a bib, because you'rerunning bib.
So I was really just againenjoying the sights and everyone
and appreciating everything,and every time you need a little
boost, you can lift your handsup and encourage people to get
(54:28):
louder and cheer you on.
So there was that, and then wehad a wicked headwind, actually
from about Heartbreak Hill untilso the final 10K was it's warm,
there's a good headwind comingat us, which I will say it did
help cool me down because myheart rate was up there and
again I get really hot when I'mout there but it certainly
(54:52):
wasn't favorable when you'rewanting to really really pick it
up on those last few.
So, doing my absolute best tomanage about a 640-ish effort at
this point in time and had acouple that dropped in the 650s.
I'm battling through thosethoughts, doing the runner's
math, like all right, yeah, wecan run an eight-minute mile and
(55:14):
did not choose that option,although very, very appealing.
But it's tough not to gothrough those final two turns.
So at this point, got pacewhere it needs to be.
So at this point, got pacewhere it needs to be.
(55:37):
I remember I kept visualizingthat by the time I would be
making that final left ontoBoylston.
So right on Hereford, left onBoylston, theford, when I was
downtown and just sit there andvisualize what that clock is
going to say.
And it's going to say somewherearound 253 to 255-ish, maybe
(55:59):
257 if I'm really slowing down,but it's going to be somewhere
in that range and I'm going tobe making this final turn,
knowing that I've accomplishedthe goal, got plenty of time and
I'm going to give it myabsolute best, going down making
this final turn.
There's tens of thousands ofpeople at this point that are
literally 10, 12, probably 12rows deep on both sides of the
(56:24):
street that are just screaming,hooting and hollering.
If you've got your name on yourbib, they're calling out your
name.
They're doing everything theycan to pump you up and I don't
have my headphones on at thispoint just because I really
wanted to soak in everything andit's tough not to make those
(56:46):
two turns.
Knowing everything it took toget there, and even going back
to 2017, I think about that timewhen I first set this goal.
I still keep going back tothose days.
It's tough not to have a streamof tears just rolling down your
eyes and knowing what everybodyelse has been through to get
there as well.
(57:06):
One of the cool things aboutBoston and these bus rides where
you're talking to people is youhear about their journeys and
it's not uncommon that peopleare taking five years, 10 years
of overcome unthinkable oddsjust to qualify, just to get
there.
All of that is coming to liferight there, in those final
(57:33):
moments.
As you make that left turn,you've got three-tenths of a
mile.
You can see the finish line,which it seems like it's a mile
away but you somehow find andmuster the effort and energy and
pace that you didn't think youhad to really experience and
feel some magic.
Crossing that finish line.
(57:58):
I cried a bit and I called mymom and she was the first person
I called and I know she wasgoing to be tracking me and it
was special to her as well,special to the family that you
know.
They know what I've beenthrough, they know they've been
in the hospital rooms with me,the ERs, during some of these
scares, and I remember talkingto my mom and she's like I did
(58:21):
it.
I finally did it.
I can't even put togethersentences and you know, she, I'm
tearing up a little bit too.
It's tough not to think aboutit or talk about it without
tearing up.
When something means somethingto you, why wouldn't you tear up
a little bit?
(58:42):
You know, like what's wrongwith that?
There's nothing wrong with that.
It's my wish that everybody getsto experience Boston, ideally
as a runner, but even as aspectator.
There's so much energy, it'struly electric, even the days
leading up to it.
There's nothing like it, andI'm so grateful to have the
(59:06):
opportunity to do this, theopportunity to inspire at least
one person along their journeyto go and do big things.
Go, chase after the biggestthing, the scariest thing that
you want, because you'll learn aton about yourself, you'll
discover a version of yourselfyou didn't know existed and
(59:32):
you'll inspire at least oneperson in your life or around
you to do the same and pushthemselves.
It's such a beautiful thingthat we get to do and this life
is such a beautiful thing thatwe can make whatever we want.
So it's my wish that thisserves as some inspiration for
(59:54):
you and remember that whenyou're going through something,
when you're in the pursuit toenjoy the process smell the
roses, hear the birds chirping,literally and figuratively
meaning take time for yourself.
You can go hard and you canenjoy, you can suffer and you
(01:00:18):
can appreciate.
Remember to trust in yourtraining.
How do you trust in yourtraining and your ability?
Put yourself into the arenafrequently there's no other way
around it and reframe thedialogue in your mind.
There's no way that you're notgoing to lose.
Rather, there's no way you'regoing to lose.
There's no way that you'regoing to let the other person
(01:00:41):
win.
Imagine that response, which isconfidence-based, versus oh man
, what if?
What if this doesn't happen?
What if this person that'sfear-based?
So think about that energy,enjoying, trusting, reframing.
There's nothing that you can'tdo.
(01:01:03):
Really appreciate all thesupport along the journey.
A lot more big things to comein the endurance world and
always, always, always, pushyourself, push your body, push
your mind, and you will alwaysdiscover new limits and you will
win.
Today, thank you so much.
What makes Boston so special, in my view, is that
it's the pinnacle of running.
Even if you don't run, youprobably know what the Boston
Marathon is Just like.
If you don't play golf, you knowwhat the Masters Tournament is.
If you don't watch football,you know what the Super Bowl is.
The Boston Marathon is theMasters.
(00:23):
It's the Super Bowl.
It's the World Series ofRunning that brings the best of
the best in the world to face achallenging course that is lined
with tens of thousands ofpassionate fans and supporters
(00:43):
people that love the runningcommunity, appreciate the
endurance community and want tosee you do your absolute best.
It is absolutely electric.
Welcome to the Wednesday podcast, a weekly resource thoughtfully
(01:04):
crafted to help people buildand refine discipline,
accomplish their goals, fortifytheir mindsets and be of service
to somebody in this world.
My name is Ryan Cass and I amyour host, and it is my mission
and commitment to deliveramazing episodes to you every
week where you will learn frommyself or renowned expert in
their field.
We love helping people win inevery aspect of their lives, and
(01:29):
you can help us win by sharingthe show with somebody that you
believe will benefit from it,subscribing and leaving a rating
and review.
We believe that everybody inthis world is meant to do
something great with their livesand we're here to help play a
role in that.
Thank you for tuning in andlet's win today.
(01:49):
If you don't hate running alittle bit, then you might not
love it enough.
That was one of my favoritesigns that I saw in Boston this
past week and it made me thinkthat the things that we're going
after, the things that we lovethe most, rather the things that
are most meaningful to us andhate might be a strong word, but
(02:12):
if we don't have a little bitof annoyance or grievances with
those things, are they reallythat meaningful to us?
Do we really love it as much aswe think, or say that we do?
Think about how that applieswith relationships.
(02:33):
Now I don't want you to thinkokay, if you don't hate your
partner a little bit, that'sprobably not a good thing.
But if you don't get annoyed byyour partner every now and then
might not love them enough.
Or if you don't get annoyed bythe pursuit of growing your
business and your dreams andchasing your goals, then maybe
(02:54):
you don't have the right goalsor the right vision in the
forefront.
In the forefront, that's mysegue into the Boston Marathon
recap, and I am intentionalabout anytime I talk about
running, knowing that noteverybody on this podcast is a
(03:15):
runner, nor has the desire to beone, which is completely fine.
It's to share life lessons andprinciples that can be extracted
from various experiences, andin this case, running happens to
be one that I've had a lot ofamazing and frightful life
(03:37):
experiences from the BostonMarathon.
We're going to dig into whatmakes it special, and we're
going to dig into what makes itspecial A few of the lessons
that led to this year being thebest race that I've ran in
Boston, that can apply to lifeand things that I'm being more
intentional about myself now aswell, and, as always, some
(04:00):
inspiration for you to go afterthe big thing or keep going
after the big thing, don't stop.
So with that, we're going tojump right in what makes the
Boston Marathon so special.
I've talked about this for manyyears on the podcast and I
(04:22):
won't go as in-depth as I havein the past, but what makes
Boston so special, in my view,is that it's the pinnacle of
running.
Even if you don't run, youprobably know what the Boston
Marathon is Just like.
If you don't play golf, youknow what the Masters Tournament
is.
If you don't watch football,you know what the Super Bowl is.
(04:43):
The Boston Marathon is theMasters.
It's the Super Bowl.
It's the World Series ofrunning that brings the best of
the best in the world to face achallenging course that is lined
with tens of thousands ofpassionate fans and supporters,
(05:08):
people that love the runningcommunity, appreciate the
endurance community and want tosee you do your absolute best.
It is absolutely electric.
And another thing that makesBoston special is that, unlike
the other world major marathons,boston has the toughest
(05:30):
criteria, meaning that you haveto qualify to get in or you can
be a charity fundraiser, whichhas its challenges as well, but
there is no other option.
There are no lotteries, thereare no second chance drawings.
It's the oldest marathon in theUnited States and it's pretty
(05:51):
much qualify or raise a lot ofmoney, and those are your only
two options, but the charityslots are limited.
So a lot of people will choosethe qualification route, which,
depending on your age groupbeing an 18 to 34-year-old male
the qualification standards areto run a sub three-hour marathon
(06:11):
, which are changing in 2026 toa sub 255 marathon, and then,
depending on how many peopleregister or qualify.
That cut line moves to the left.
So this past year you had to besix and a half minutes fast.
In 2026, who knows what you'regoing to have to be but the
(06:32):
running world is getting faster,which excites me that we get to
.
We get to keyword work evenharder to continue getting in
work even harder to continuegetting in.
This has been my third year in arow running the marathon and it
has a deep place in my heartbecause of what it takes to get
(06:53):
there, but then also what ittook me to get there when I
first set out on this quest in2017.
In 2017.
And fast forward, this arrivalin Boston, the destination, the
goal, getting there didn't comewithout many shortcomings being
(07:14):
hit by a car, hospitalizedmultiple times and my first
Boston coming fresh off aninjury.
Second one, one blowing up andfeeling like I let myself down
and others down, and this onebeing the third one.
That all right.
Third, third time's a charm.
We're finally gonna seal thedeal with unfinished business.
(07:38):
That in 2017, when I had letout on this journey, my goal was
not just to go run the BostonMarathon, it was to go break
three hours.
What makes a sub-three-hourmarathon special.
Why is that a big deal?
That's another thing.
It's almost like a badge ofhonor, if you will, in the
endurance community.
But with the exception of oneperson in the entire world,
(08:01):
elliot Kipchoge, nobody has runa sub two hour marathon.
So sub three is the commonbenchmark that you'll hear in
the marathon world.
If you can run sub three, thatis pretty special.
And then within that there'ssub 255, 240, 230, 235.
So, but sub three is the bigone.
(08:23):
So special for many reasons inthat there's been unfinished
business and as long as I liveand continue running, it's my
wish to continue qualifying andgetting back to the Boston
Marathon, inspiring people tostay on their journey.
This one has been eight yearsand counting now and I just
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absolutely love it.
It's an honor and a blessing toshare the stage with the best
of the best in the world Chip onthe shoulder.
Chip on the shoulder.
I mentioned that again.
The journey is the best part.
Running Boston is simply thecherry on top.
(09:09):
But everything that you get todo when you're going after
something big, that's reallywhere I believe what you should
embrace the most, because to getthere and this applies outside
(09:30):
of running as well you're doingthings that you don't want to do
, that you know are good to do,but many times you don't want to
do it.
Many times the alarm goes offearly.
Lacing up the shoes is theabsolute last thing that you
want to do.
It's raining, it's cold, you'resore.
Long day at work, you'rementally fatigued, you don't
(09:51):
want to go run, but you get upand you go and do it.
There are days where you maynot want to do the outreaches to
grow your business or to focuson business development
activities because peoplehaven't been responding.
People have been turning youdown.
People have been saying, no,I'm not going to go on your
podcast.
(10:11):
People have been chose anotherprovider or a coach or a trainer
over you.
Yet you know that to get whereyou want to be, you've got to
focus on those things that youdon't want to do in the moment.
That's what makes the journeyso special, and remember that
(10:35):
when you're going through thosethings, every time you don't
want to do something, and eventhe mornings that you do want to
go, do it and you're naturallyfeeling motivated.
Remember that on the other sideof that is the best version of
you, a better version of you,one thing that keeps me going
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and this thing that I'mabsolutely obsessed with this
concept, this concept oftouching your dreams.
And this comes from Ed Milet,who is one of my favorite
podcasters, authors,motivational speakers.
We have a lot of parallels andwhy we do what we do and our
(11:18):
upbringing.
He's someone that I feel I veryclosely resonate to.
I very closely resonate to.
But Ed, who has now amassed asolid financial fortune, talked
about when he was growing up asa young sales agent and he was
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driving a car around that he wasactually driving a knockoff
Mercedes, meaning that he had Ican't remember it was a Chrysler
that had a Mercedes bodyliterally taped and glued onto
it.
So imagine driving yourChrysler or your Honda.
I'm looking out at my HondaCivic right now, thinking about
what if I put a fake BMW body onit.
(12:01):
So it looks like I'm reallydriving a BMW.
But the reason why he wasdriving that around is because
that was literally all he couldafford was a $5,000, not even
that $3,000 Chrysler LeBaronthat had Mercedes parts taped
onto it.
And when he would be atstoplights he had to be really
(12:21):
careful of how quickly he hitthe brakes, because the front
headlights would literally goflying out if he wasn't careful
about his braking andaccelerating.
So a man that is now inspiring,or has inspired millions of
people around the world, used todrive a car that he would have
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to go and fetch the headlightsin multiple intersections
because of how quickly he wouldbreak or accelerate.
When he was doing that, though,he talked about his vision that
he had and that someday he wouldbe able to provide for his
family to where they would neverhave to worry about money and
(13:07):
they would be able to live onthe beach that they often would
go and visit and just seethemselves staying at all the
time, and he would book wheneverhe could make enough money.
He would book a one night stayat the Ritz Carlton in Malibu,
(13:30):
which is a gorgeous hotel, andhe would stay there for a night,
and just by staying there for anight, he would see the type of
people that would come in andout the door, see how they
carried themselves, see how talkto them, see what got them to
where they are, and he wouldstay in a lavish room, and this
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was something that he dreamed of.
That one day, this one nightstay is going to be my everyday
stay, because I'm going to be onthis beach.
He calls it touching yourdreams.
Every time he was able to hithis sales targets and then
afford a one night stay at theRitz Carlton Malibu, he would go
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there and call it touching thedream.
Every time he touched the dream, he felt more and more like he
belonged, like this is what he'smeant for, this is what he's
cut out for.
Whenever I come downstairsespecially getting ready for
Boston I have my shoes all in acloset.
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I call it my locker roombecause it kind of smells like
one with a bunch of sweaty shoesin there, as you can imagine.
But I have a little whiteboardup where I go and grab my hat
and my headphones and it justsays up where I go and grab my
hat and my headphones and itjust says touch your dreams on
there.
Every time that I'm going outfor one of these runs or workout
sessions, I'm touching thedream in that I'm doing
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something that's going to get meon that big stage Boston.
I don't want to be out there,but every time I do and hit a
tough workout that I don't wantto, or even when I do want to,
I'm one step closer to hey.
I deserve this future realityand I'm touching it right now,
going through these tough grindsessions, because it's not going
to be easy out there on theBoston course.
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Another thing that I do, andthis is to the importance of
visual indicators.
The Boston Marathon, the worldmajors they all have a
celebration jacket, so you'llsee people that often wear a
Boston Mar soon as they releasethem and I leave it hanging in
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the closet right next to my hatsand everything.
I don't wear it until after therace because I believe you got
to earn it still.
But I see that and that's myreminder that, all right.
If you really want to put thaton and feel like you earned it,
not just put it on because youbought it and you wear it now,
which again, if that's you, hey,peace, but that's not me but if
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you really want to put this onand earn it, then you've got to
and you get to go out and earnthis workout and go touch your
dream and go put in the milesand be a good example for others
that want to push their bodiesand minds further and harder
(16:35):
than they believe possible.
That's part of what keeps megoing when I don't want to have
a visual indicator of whatsuccess looks like and what it
means to you.
What does it mean for you totouch your dream?
What are the activities thatalign with touching your dream?
(16:58):
Maybe it's not a 4.
Workout, but I would be willingto bet there are things, or at
least one thing, that you can dothat will get you closer to
where you want to be.
And maybe that thing isn't whatyou want to do, or it's not the
most glamorous or gloriousthing, most fun thing at the
(17:19):
time, but when you get toexperience that moment, when you
get to turn right on Herefordand left on Boylston, which are
the last two turns of the BostonMarathon, it makes it all worth
it and there's nothing like it.
So that's what really.
That's what one of the manythings that fuels me fuels me,
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and I knew that this year wasgoing to be the year that I
would finally hit the sub threehour mark on the Boston course.
What makes the Boston course sochallenging is that there's not
one bit of it that is completelyflat, and especially coming
from an area where that's reallyall we have to train on here in
Charleston, south Carolina,with the exception of a bridge,
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makes it a little bit morechallenging.
But again, why wouldn't we wantthe greatest challenges in the
world?
The Boston course starts outwith about 5K downhill, pretty
much downhill.
There's some rollers in therebut it's pretty easy to cruise.
And then you're on rollinghills for another few miles,
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flattens out slightly and thenafter the half marathon point,
that's where it starts to getfun and we'll talk more about
kind of what the exact race daylooked like.
But mile 17 through 21, throughthe town of Newton, are what
you'll usually hear a lot ofpeople talk about the Newton
Hills and Heartbreak Hill, whichis the crest of mile 20 going
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into mile 21.
So I knew that if this race wasgoing to be the one that this
was going to take, being veryconservative, overly
conservative early on andpatient, more patient than I've
ever been before, because I damnsure wasn't allowed about to
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allow 2024 to repeat itself 2024, I came out the gate hot it was
a warm day, about 70-ish,mid-70s degrees at the start,
which is uncommon for Boston andI figured, hey, I'm going to
still go out and run a PR raceand break 250 on the Boston
(19:43):
course, and I believe that mytraining did align to that and
up to the time my training wasencouraging in that hey, I know
I can hit these paces, butprimarily on flat ground, and I
know adrenaline is going to help.
I know the Boston energy isgoing to help and ended up at
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mile 14 completely bonking havenever walked in a race other
than in a marathon before, butput my body completely on
overdrive and the last 12 milesof that race were absolutely
devastating and I felt as if Icompletely let myself down and
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let others down in 2024.
And that was not going to bethe case this year.
So I love declaring what we'regoing to do as a means to get
that thing done, and I wasn'tgoing to change my target this
year, meaning that I'm not goingto say, oh, maybe I'll break
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three because of fear from 2024recreating itself.
The plan was to go in there,break three hours, and that's
what I told people I was goingto do.
And we made some smartadjustments, came out the gate
at about a manageable 6.30 paceand held on really tight, and
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patience was the name of thegame.
What I did differently and hereare the lessons that might as
well jump into the race plan nowwhat I did differently in 2025
versus 2024, I actually wentback to my first Boston in 2023,
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where I went in there and thatwas while I still had an IT band
injury.
So I went in there purely withthe expectation or the
assignment to do my best and ifI could break three then awesome
.
But I knew that that was likelygoing to be a huge stretch,
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given that going into that racethe weeks leading up I was
having trouble walking and hadto really reduce my mileage a
lot.
2024, again came in therethinking, okay, this is going to
set my all-time personal best,not make any adjustments for the
weather and completelydestroyed myself this year sub
(22:17):
three, no matter what, we'regetting it done.
So we're going to stayconservative and patient and
really enjoy the course and theenvironment and appreciate
everything that it has to offer.
Last year I was not looking tothe left and the right to enjoy
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the crowd and everybody that wasout there.
There was many times as I wasrunning that I didn't even
realize all the cool things thatwe had passed, all of the cool
signs, all of the monuments,monuments, and I kind of
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regretted it a little bit thatman, I was so focused on an
outcome, no matter what, andbeing stubborn that I'm going to
hit this target because, well,that's what I said I was going
to do and it doesn't matter ifit's warm out.
I chose to kind of put my headdown and grind and not take in
the environment.
(23:26):
And one thing with Boston is, ifyou really want or need some
energy, you get to rely on thecrowd.
That's what makes it so muchdifferent than your local
marathons is that you can lookto your left and right.
You have thousands of peopleyou can go and give a high five
to, and every time you do, youfeel this jolt of adrenaline and
(23:50):
boost that the crowd reallydoes carry you.
And I'm thinking back, man, in2023, this is exactly what you
said Every time you need a boost, go and smile, give people high
fives.
So that was a huge aid thisyear in that, from mile one all
(24:12):
the way to the end.
And I had to remind myself a fewtimes when I was getting a
little in my thoughts and in myhead hey, enjoy, look to the
left and right, give the kid ahigh five, give the kid a little
smile something.
And every time I did that, Ifelt myself just all right,
almost like this sense of calmthat, hey, we're good to go, man
(24:33):
, everything is to plan, we'restaying patient, collected,
running a smart race, and we'reenjoying this.
It's something that when Ithink back on my career.
So my first lesson here is toenjoy the process and enjoy.
Allow yourself to enjoywhatever it is that you're going
(24:56):
through.
When I think back to when Istarted my corporate career, I
didn't take a vacation for thefirst three years and that's not
something I'm proud of.
But once I did, I came back andrealized, wow, I can actually
enjoy life a little bit and notrisk my career Meaning.
(25:17):
No one's going to be upset thatyou took some time off.
Who's going to be upset thatyou're taking care of yourself?
Who's going to be upset thatyou're living a little bit,
knowing that it's going to allowyou to show up more in a
genuine way for others.
It's going to allow you toreset, recalibrate, rejuvenate
(25:40):
your mind.
So my reminder to myselfprofessionally about this is to
smell the roses, smell the roses, in that you can still move
fast and go hard and enjoy whatlife's given you and enjoy what
the process has given you.
So enjoy the moments.
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Slow down for a second, maybe,if you're not running a race,
but slow down, meaning like soakin the environment.
Look at the signs.
Give people the high fives.
It's not going to completelydiminish your plan.
You can't get me to go morethan two to three months now
(26:25):
without at least taking a day ortwo off to go and enjoy life or
touch the dream, do something,enjoy the process.
I believe that's one of the bigthings that really helped me
this year is that I would oftensometimes I'd again caught
myself at various miles aroundmile 10, getting a little in my
(26:47):
head especially, and I would, uhthen just remind myself, hey,
enjoy it, look, look, you'reokay and boom, we'd still be on
pace, still be on plan, so youcan enjoy what you're going
through and still achieve whatyou want and still arrive at the
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destination.
I mentioned that mile 10 wasreally the first mile that I
really started getting in myhead.
One thing that you never knowabout the marathon is you never
know when it's going to test youmentally and physically.
You know at some point it'sgoing to happen.
It's going to happen at leastonce, if not multiple times.
(27:30):
And when you're out there fortwo to three hours and even more
, there are plenty ofopportunity for the mental
demons to come and pay you alittle visit and get you to
question what you're doing.
Should you really still be outhere and is this worth it?
Usually it comes a little later, but there are surprises and
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that's the beauty of it.
That's part of the beauty ofthe process and the journey and
why training and why touchingthe dream is so important, so
that when those moments arrive,you've already been there, you
know what to do, you've got thisunshakable sense of belief that
you're meant to belong and pushthrough this thing.
(28:16):
So mile 10 was really whereit's starting to warm up a
little bit, but generallybeautiful conditions and I'm
feeling my stomach starting toturn over For the first time
ever.
In the Myrtle Beach Marathon inMarch, I threw up my entire
breakfast at mile three, so thatwas a 23 mile suck fest after
(28:39):
that.
So mile 10 at the BostonMarathon, I'm getting that
similar feeling and I'm sittingthere like please, no, please,
not right now, and had a littleconversation with myself and
that, hey, there's no way thatwe're not achieving our goal
here and there's no way thatwe're not making this sub three
(29:02):
hour happen.
We're good to go.
Just we're going to get throughthis little, this little patch,
this little, this little demonthat's visiting us.
We're going to, we're going toshoo him off and we're going to
keep going these 16 miles.
Cause at that point I did havesome of those thoughts like how
the heck are we going to go 16more miles and maintain this
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pace?
So at this point I'd sped up alittle bit and I'm going low to
mid 630s, but really holdingmyself off because I know I've
got those low 620s and evenfaster in the tank.
And I caught myself on a fewoccasions looking at my watch
that I was there and reallypulled the reins back.
Another time that the demonsreally came to visit me again is
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the last two miles where I knowat this point I could run a
eight-minute mile, even slower,and still break three hours,
even slower and still breakthree hours.
And that option becomes quiteappealing when you are quite
fatigued.
At that point I'm a big sweaterand at this point I'm sweating
(30:12):
like crazy because it's prettywarm and I am ready to be done
and ready to be done.
When you're running a marathon,one of the worst things that you
can do is runner's math Meaning.
Okay now, if I, my brain ismush.
(30:32):
But if I run a 621 here andthen a 619, and then a 618, I
can run approximately this time.
So when you start doing thecalculations, that's where you
know okay, hey, we need to bedone here.
So, at 24 through 26, I'm atthe point now where, okay, sub
(30:52):
three is a lock and I can feelmyself, my body, wanting to go
into these slow paces, theseeight minute paces, because
that's appealing and we can doit, and then my mind is saying
absolutely not, we're not doingthat right now.
And it's this beautifulargument that you get to be
(31:16):
witness to and ultimately incontrol of.
Like no, we're going at 640sright now.
We just gave up a coupleseconds on 23, slowed down a
little bit, but we're going.
There is no option and this isonly temporary.
This is a minor blip on ourlife timeline, this little
(31:38):
moment of pain right now, whichis an absolute blessing to have.
I talked about the return oninconvenience a few months ago
when I was talking about whatgot me through this 150-mile
race that I did in October.
When we look at a marathon orsome challenging event on your
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life timeline, zoomed out, it'sa fraction of a fraction of a
fraction of a fraction of yourlife, meaning that those tough
moments, this little, tinyfraction of your life, can then
give you lessons, wisdom,insight, ability, confidence,
(32:20):
belief to push through eventsfor the next five years, 10
years, 20 years, 30 years.
So just by pushing throughthese additional two miles that
I really don't want to I'mproving to my body and my mind
hey, we are resilient, we canget through anything.
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We're not slowing down here,we're going to pick up the pace,
we're going to turn on the gaseven more for these final two
turns on Hereford and Boylston,and we're going and just by
doing that, that's serving mewell right now that I get to
share this message, I get toshare some tips, I get to
(33:12):
provide some wisdom and insightthat can be used not just right
now, but someone can go back andlisten to this a year from now,
five years from now, I can goback and listen to it.
We've got this repository thathas compound dividends for
yourself and others.
I love this return oninconvenience concept.
So those were the two times thatthe demons came to visit and
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what allowed me to get throughthat, as I just mentioned some
of it there, but really where Iwas telling myself.
There is just trust in yourtraining and ability.
You've been through this.
You've pushed past a 23 milesuffer fest a month prior to
this, when you threw up yourentire breakfast at the Myrtle
(33:55):
Beach Marathon at mile three andthen still qualified for Boston
2026.
After that and ran 26 hardmiles.
You can do this.
You've been running up and downthe bridge at 5 o'clock in the
morning at a lot faster pacesthan this when you've been tired
(34:16):
, you can do this.
You've been out with the boyson Tuesday mornings in Hampton
Park running pretty fast clipseven when you haven't been
feeling that great.
You can do this.
Trust in your training how doyou trust in your training?
You show up even when you don'twant to Prove yourself right.
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There was no way that thedemons were going to win.
And at mile 10 and at mile 24and through 26, really thinking
about going back to the training, going back to the moments,
completely trusted that I wasprepared and we were going to
(35:02):
get it done, the last thing thatreally helped me.
So when I think about what I'veshared so far, enjoy the
process, trust in your trainingand your ability and reframe the
situation that you are goingthrough.
As I was traveling up to Boston,I've been reading this book
(35:24):
Extreme Balance ParadoxicalPrinciples that Make you a
Champion, by Joe DeSena, who'sthe founder and CEO of Spartan,
and I'm getting ready to go tothe death race in June on Joe's
farm.
It out to me in the book andI'll read an excerpt here is
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focusing on the process andfocusing on the outcome, and, as
I was reading this chapter, ittalks about how you should hate
losing more than you rather nothate losing, but play to win and
not to lose, meaning thatlosing is not an option In these
scenarios.
This is from the book.
(36:10):
There are a few strategies forimproving.
Double down on your drive to winRather than let thoughts of
losing creep in.
Stay focused not only onwinning the bout, but on winning
every minute.
In every exchange.
The goal is to win and move on,and this ought to stay the same
(36:30):
, whether other people expectyou to win or not.
Work on your relationship tolosing so that it is something
you hate rather than somethingyou fear.
If you're favored to win,either based on your ranking,
going into the match or being inthe lead halfway through, and
you find your mind drifting tothoughts of losing.
(36:51):
You want your self-talk aroundit to be something like no way
on earth am I letting them getback into this match.
Keep pouring it on.
That's very different from ohno, what if I blow this lead?
That would be so embarrassing.
The latter is fear-based andharmful, while the former is
(37:13):
helpful.
Don't think about winning orlosing, but stay focused on the
process, which is where thechapter begins.
Just as you change tacticsthroughout a competition
depending on what is and whatisn't working, you'll benefit
from developing multipleattitudes and ways to focus.
We don't judge something asgood or bad on principle, but
(37:34):
rather on its impact.
If it helps you, then it's theright thing to do.
What really helped me is thosefirst two bullets double down on
your drive to win and reframing.
There's no way that I'm notrunning this sub three hour
marathon.
There were a few miles a fewtimes where again, oh crap, I'm
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really not feeling good.
Oh smokes, we gave up a fewseconds back to the course,
meaning these miles weren't onpace.
Don't know if we're going to beable to hold on.
Sure, those thoughts did visit,but then it was immediately met
with what I just mentioned there.
There's no way that this isn'thappening today.
There's no way that I'm lettingmyself down or my buddies down.
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There's a lot of people thatare tracking me that know that
this is what I want.
There's a lot of people thatare tracking me that know that
this is what I want.
There's no way it's happening.
And even that it didn't allowfear or that mental demon to
creep in and have an extendedvisit.
And I really do believe thatthat's part of being unshakable
(38:43):
is that every time we're metwith a mental demon because no
matter who you are, you're goingto be met with them, but no
matter when you're met with themyou've always got a response
that's going to make it go awayand not allow it to win, or it's
going to have to fight reallyfreaking hard to hold on to you,
(39:04):
really freaking hard to hold onto you.
So enjoy trust and reframe.
Those are the three things thatreally helped.
That also can be appliedoutside of running and endurance
.
So some cool things from raceday and an actual recap.
(39:25):
I realized that as we'reflowing through this, it became
more of a here's lessons andthings to extract and not so
much of here's how everythingactually went.
So with that, I get reallyexcited when doing recap
episodes, since there's not manyof those.
But with that, how did itactually go?
(39:46):
Start to finish?
So really cool.
From the start, and I was inAthletes Village, which is where
you basically your staging area, before you go to the actual
starting corrals, and on the wayover to Hopkinton, which is
(40:06):
where the race starts, I had twopairs of headphones my
headphones that I was going towear during the race, my
wireless ones, and then anotherset of wired headphones, the old
school ones with the donglethat connect into the iPhones
that I was listening to on thebus ride just to conserve energy
, and the wireless ones and isalso a plan B should the
(40:29):
wireless ones not work.
So they called us to get upfrom the athlete's village to go
walk over to the start line andI was in group four, wave
number one.
So first starting wave, behindthe pros, and I was literally
about to throw away myheadphones, like I don't need
these anymore, I'll keep thedongle, since I use this from my
(40:49):
work phone and no big deal.
So I decided to.
Maybe I'll need it forsomething.
The headphones too, like I'lljust, I'll hold onto them.
So I walk over and the firstperson I see in the starting
corral is Truett Haynes.
Now, that name may be familiarto some of you, but if you don't
know who Truett is, he is theson of Cameron Haynes, who is a
(41:15):
legendary figure in theendurance world, known for being
one of the best bow hunters inthe world.
But also this guy is just anabsolute animal out of Oregon
and one that many in the runningand endurance world look up to,
as he not only goes on theselegendary bow hunts, but for the
(41:36):
longest time he was balancingbeing one of the best bow
hunters in the world, inaddition to running a half
marathon a day at his nine tofive work break.
So while he was still sponsoredby Under Armour and making God
knows how much, he stillmaintained his day-to-day hourly
(41:58):
nine to five, which was reallycool.
So he's just an absolute savageruns marathons, ultra marathons
, really fast.
Even at his age today stillpumps out very quick times in
the low twos.
His son, coming from thatfamily line, is also an absolute
(42:18):
savage and works out with DavidGoggins and originally broke
David Goggins' world record formost amount of pushups in 24
hours.
Truett recently rebroke his ownworld record and he's the
current Guinness World Recordholder for most pull-ups done in
(42:39):
24 hours 10,001.
And he's absolutely ripped andruns marathons while wearing
jeans, so he's made quite a namefor himself.
So there's this big Jack dudethat's wearing jeans and no
shirt.
I'm standing right next to him.
So that's Truett Haynes.
So give him a little fist bump.
(42:59):
Hey, truett, what's up?
Man, love your stuff.
And then I see that he'sstruggling with his AirPods and
he's taking them out of the case, putting them in, and he keeps
doing that.
And I know what that's likewhen your AirPods aren't
connecting or maybe one of themis not working.
You play this game where youput it in the case, take it out
(43:21):
the case, put it in the case,you start praying.
I know that Truett's ranmarathons in his jeans, with
wired headphones as well, justbeing a little more diabolical.
So I'm sitting there like, allright, I do want this thing for
my work phone, but there canalways be another one.
And this guy's struggling rightnow and you need some music for
(43:45):
the Boston Marathon or at leastto do what he's doing.
He was going for a PR, which heaccomplished.
He ran a 2.38.
I will say that the headphoneswere easily responsible for at
least 30 seconds of that.
So he could have been a 2.39without those headphones in the
beginning.
But anyway, I tapped him again.
(44:07):
I said hey, man, you want someold school headphones?
And he graciously accepted andwas really thankful for it.
He said what's your name?
And I told him.
I talked to him for a couple ofminutes there and he said my
name is Ryan Cass and, by theway, I do host a podcast and
you're somebody that I wouldlove to have a conversation with
.
I've been thinking about youfor a while and I'll shoot you a
(44:29):
note.
And he said yeah, shoot me anote.
So still haven't heard fromTruett, who knows.
But nonetheless I know that thatwas just an opportunity to do
something for somebody.
Even if it was Truett or not,someone struggling with their
headphones, I would have giventhem away.
But pretty cool that it's theGuinness World Record holder of
the most amount of pull-ups donein 24 hours.
(44:50):
And I gave him another littlefist bump at the end and said PR
or ER, right?
And he said yep, and we bothwent on our way.
Obviously, he went andabsolutely smoked it, but that
was really cool from the start.
And then going back thinkingabout, hey, there's no way this
isn't going to happen.
I'm asking the running gods now.
I said, hey, man, I did a gooddeed, give me that sub three
(45:14):
Kind of, but not really.
I didn't expect that to be thereason why we accomplished the
goal, but it was really cool.
So, starting down again, Imentioned that the first 5K is
downhill.
I'm loving my Saucony EndorphinElite 2s that are probably the
springiest shoe I've ever ran inand it just feels like I'm
(45:37):
cruising, like easy, easy goingrunning Came out a little hot.
It's hard not to when you'vegot literally thousands of
people that are also runningquick right next to you.
So I'm looking at my watch,thinking this 620 literally
feels like a 750.
And then this 635 literallyfeels like a 745, eight minute
(45:59):
mile pace.
So I just sat there and justenjoyed it and really soaked in
every little bit.
I'm smiling and really lovingevery bit of it as the race goes
on, really catching it,catching a good groove and we've
already mentioned the demonsthat came to visit at mile 10,
(46:21):
but overall, just continuing toremind myself, just to enjoy it.
It was a beautiful day.
At the start it was about 52,no clouds, which good and bad
for Boston.
Boston has no shade on it.
So a sunny day you're going tobe cooking, even if it's in the
50s, which eventually got up toabout 60.
(46:41):
So a little warm towards theend.
But one thing I did was atevery water station, which I
found were a lot more packedthis year, so it was a little
more difficult to get in and outof there.
But I would grab two cups, oneto slowly sip on and then one
just to dump on my head becauseI am a very heavy sweater and
(47:02):
just get nasty out there.
So extra, extra water for thewin.
But going along the, the sights,the sounds are just
unforgettable.
And at mile 13, that's whereWellesley college is, that's the
scream tunnel and that's whereall the women are out and
(47:26):
they're asking for kisses fromthe runners.
I did not kiss any collegewomen.
I just would kiss my hand andtouch their signs and just show
some appreciation, but none ofthat.
But there were a few peoplethat literally stopped right in
front of me and we're going atabout a 6.15 pace because it's
(47:46):
tough not to let adrenalinecatch you, literally coming to a
full stop just to kiss somerandom college woman.
So didn't really like that part.
But you know what it's theBoston Marathon.
You're supposed to have fun.
So going through, I knew thatstaying patient was going to pay
off for the hills and theNewton Hills.
(48:08):
So at mile one thing I forgotis that there's really only
three turns on the Boston course.
So you go straight for about 15miles and then about 16 miles
and then you take a right-handturn onto Commonwealth Ave and
that takes you through the townof Newton.
So the turn, the right-handturn, at the fire station,
(48:32):
that's the first big hill, justbefore you're technically in
Newton.
But I believe that's actuallythe hardest climb in the race of
the four hills.
I forgot that before that oneon mile 16, race of the four
hills.
I forgot that before that oneon mile 16, that there's another
big hill and then you comedownhill for a while and then
(48:55):
you turn right.
So I thought for a minute, didI really just zone out so much
that I missed the fire stationhill, because this climb
literally feels just like it?
And sure enough it was not.
So another thing that againjust makes Boston so challenging
is that there are a lot ofrollers, even on the downhill
sections.
There are a lot of rollinghills early on.
(49:15):
So that's something to preparefor.
But took the right and one thingthat I did this time going up
the hills.
Again, I love to pick a targeton the left and on the right,
just to view through myperipherals and not really look
straight up at what's to come onthe climb.
And so I would pick somethingon the left, just to as soon as
(49:36):
I hit that in my peripheralvision I became parallel with it
.
Then I would find something onthe right.
So it's just these little gamesthat you can play and make up
and was having fun going upthese climbs.
That's also where I rememberlast year that I was really
falling apart and made itthrough 14 miles at a quick pace
(50:01):
and then that's where thewheels fell off and I remember
telling myself, as I saw someonewalking up the hill, so I said,
hey, good luck man.
But I remember thinking likethat is my shadow from last year
and I'm going to beat him andwe're not going to recreate this
.
So now I'm racing against me,racing against my shadow, and
(50:23):
everybody that we get to pass uphere that's walking.
Remember that that was you atsome points last year.
And we've worked harder, we'vebeen patient throughout this
process, throughout this race,been more diligent about the
prep and we're trusting in ourability.
So, first couple of climbs aregood to go.
(50:44):
You come down a big hill goinginto mile 19, and then you've
got heartbreak hill, theillustrious heartbreak hill,
which my soundtrack, my mix onSoundCloud, which, if anyone
wants a killer killer playlist,which, if anyone wants a killer
(51:07):
killer playlist.
My buddy Ed got me hooked onSoundCloud but I made this
awesome mix.
And at mile 21, we're going upHeartbreak Hill and I'm having
fun.
But then there's this song andsome of y'all may laugh, but I
had this song in it on theplaylist that came up right
there at 21.
It's Letter Cook by Glorilla,and I don't really care for the
(51:27):
lyrics too much, but just thebeat, just the beat.
That song came up right as Istarted climbing Heartbreak Hill
and I'm just jamming, I'msmiling, running up Heartbreak
Hill and I'm bopping my fingers,I'm playing the drums and at
(51:49):
that point I knew, at that pointthere's no way again.
Just solidified it, there is noway that I'm not making this
happen, because after that,after you get over a heartbreak,
it's five miles downhill intoBoston Again.
As always, there's still thehills, but it's five miles and
you're steady cruising.
You just got through the hardpart.
(52:11):
So I remember getting to the topof Heartbreak Hill or
afterwards and just yelling likethe stage is set.
And I'm yelling out loud stageis set, the stage is set, let's
dance.
I also said that right at thehalf marathon point.
I came across the half at about127.
So I knew at that point okay,we have some buffer time, but
(52:35):
the stage is set, we're makingthis happen.
Get off heartbreak, the stageis set.
We get back into another mix onthe playlist and then just
jamming.
And at mile 21, that's alsowhere Boston College is now.
So along the route you've gotWellesley College, which is a
predominantly women's school,and then Boston College, which
is a predominantly rowdy school,and the Boston Marathon is a
(52:59):
party for them.
So they're out there.
But this is also again whereyou can get energy from the
course.
They're out there about aquarter mile long just all
having a blast.
They've been out there for awhile.
They're screaming, they're loud, and this is really where you
can get some energy.
I remember even last year, whenI was dying, I still found a way
(53:22):
to, at least for the BostonCollege part, pull some of that
energy in and pick up a quickpace, until I was then quickly
dying again on the inside.
But this year I'm going at themgiving them high fives.
You know, let's go, I'm hypingthem up, or at least I'm telling
myself that.
(53:43):
And then I got myself introuble because, as I looked at
my watch, I'm like uh-oh, I'mtired, and I had ran that
quarter mile of literally justgiving high fives at like a 530
pace or something like that.
You don't feel it in the moment, but then, as soon as you come
off it a little bit, youcertainly feel it.
So that was one of thehighlights, though, and one of
(54:06):
my favorite signs secondfavorite sign, besides the one
from the very beginning was ifyou throw up, at least you're
wearing a bib, because you'rerunning bib.
So I was really just againenjoying the sights and everyone
and appreciating everything,and every time you need a little
boost, you can lift your handsup and encourage people to get
(54:28):
louder and cheer you on.
So there was that, and then wehad a wicked headwind, actually
from about Heartbreak Hill untilso the final 10K was it's warm,
there's a good headwind comingat us, which I will say it did
help cool me down because myheart rate was up there and
again I get really hot when I'mout there but it certainly
(54:52):
wasn't favorable when you'rewanting to really really pick it
up on those last few.
So, doing my absolute best tomanage about a 640-ish effort at
this point in time and had acouple that dropped in the 650s.
I'm battling through thosethoughts, doing the runner's
math, like all right, yeah, wecan run an eight-minute mile and
(55:14):
did not choose that option,although very, very appealing.
But it's tough not to gothrough those final two turns.
So at this point, got pacewhere it needs to be.
So at this point, got pacewhere it needs to be.
(55:37):
I remember I kept visualizingthat by the time I would be
making that final left ontoBoylston.
So right on Hereford, left onBoylston, theford, when I was
downtown and just sit there andvisualize what that clock is
going to say.
And it's going to say somewherearound 253 to 255-ish, maybe
(55:59):
257 if I'm really slowing down,but it's going to be somewhere
in that range and I'm going tobe making this final turn,
knowing that I've accomplishedthe goal, got plenty of time and
I'm going to give it myabsolute best, going down making
this final turn.
There's tens of thousands ofpeople at this point that are
literally 10, 12, probably 12rows deep on both sides of the
(56:24):
street that are just screaming,hooting and hollering.
If you've got your name on yourbib, they're calling out your
name.
They're doing everything theycan to pump you up and I don't
have my headphones on at thispoint just because I really
wanted to soak in everything andit's tough not to make those
(56:46):
two turns.
Knowing everything it took toget there, and even going back
to 2017, I think about that timewhen I first set this goal.
I still keep going back tothose days.
It's tough not to have a streamof tears just rolling down your
eyes and knowing what everybodyelse has been through to get
there as well.
(57:06):
One of the cool things aboutBoston and these bus rides where
you're talking to people is youhear about their journeys and
it's not uncommon that peopleare taking five years, 10 years
of overcome unthinkable oddsjust to qualify, just to get
there.
All of that is coming to liferight there, in those final
(57:33):
moments.
As you make that left turn,you've got three-tenths of a
mile.
You can see the finish line,which it seems like it's a mile
away but you somehow find andmuster the effort and energy and
pace that you didn't think youhad to really experience and
feel some magic.
Crossing that finish line.
(57:58):
I cried a bit and I called mymom and she was the first person
I called and I know she wasgoing to be tracking me and it
was special to her as well,special to the family that you
know.
They know what I've beenthrough, they know they've been
in the hospital rooms with me,the ERs, during some of these
scares, and I remember talkingto my mom and she's like I did
(58:21):
it.
I finally did it.
I can't even put togethersentences and you know, she, I'm
tearing up a little bit too.
It's tough not to think aboutit or talk about it without
tearing up.
When something means somethingto you, why wouldn't you tear up
a little bit?
(58:42):
You know, like what's wrongwith that?
There's nothing wrong with that.
It's my wish that everybody getsto experience Boston, ideally
as a runner, but even as aspectator.
There's so much energy, it'struly electric, even the days
leading up to it.
There's nothing like it, andI'm so grateful to have the
(59:06):
opportunity to do this, theopportunity to inspire at least
one person along their journeyto go and do big things.
Go, chase after the biggestthing, the scariest thing that
you want, because you'll learn aton about yourself, you'll
discover a version of yourselfyou didn't know existed and
(59:32):
you'll inspire at least oneperson in your life or around
you to do the same and pushthemselves.
It's such a beautiful thingthat we get to do and this life
is such a beautiful thing thatwe can make whatever we want.
So it's my wish that thisserves as some inspiration for
(59:54):
you and remember that whenyou're going through something,
when you're in the pursuit toenjoy the process smell the
roses, hear the birds chirping,literally and figuratively
meaning take time for yourself.
You can go hard and you canenjoy, you can suffer and you
(01:00:18):
can appreciate.
Remember to trust in yourtraining.
How do you trust in yourtraining and your ability?
Put yourself into the arenafrequently there's no other way
around it and reframe thedialogue in your mind.
There's no way that you're notgoing to lose.
Rather, there's no way you'regoing to lose.
There's no way that you'regoing to let the other person
(01:00:41):
win.
Imagine that response, which isconfidence-based, versus oh man
, what if?
What if this doesn't happen?
What if this person that'sfear-based?
So think about that energy,enjoying, trusting, reframing.
There's nothing that you can'tdo.
(01:01:03):
Really appreciate all thesupport along the journey.
A lot more big things to comein the endurance world and
always, always, always, pushyourself, push your body, push
your mind, and you will alwaysdiscover new limits and you will
win.
Today, thank you so much.
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