A heartbreaking update about my marathon journey
It is with great sadness that I must share that I won’t be running the NYC Marathon on Sunday. While on a short, easy pace run this morning, I took a slight misstep as I felt an enormous pain go through my hamstring. I knew right away this was not good.
As I waited today to see my doctor at 4 PM, I held a slight hope that maybe I was misinterpreting what my body was saying and that the doctor would simply say that the swelling would go down in the next 24-48 hours. But in reality, I knew better. I cried often today as I already knew inside that the dream of running this year is over. My doctor confirmed that this afternoon.
My final thoughts before the NYC Marathon . . .
So, whether I was born to be a marathon runner or not, I made myself one!
As I sit here just days before the race with my training complete, I truly appreciate what it means to have made myself a marathon runner. It means following a plan for the past 19+ weeks that took me far out of my comfort zone. It means giving up some of my favorite summer activities like climbing and skydiving to prioritize training. It means going to bed early whenever possible. It means leaving parties early – and sober. It means taking care of my body – both when healthy and injured. It means not letting my injury become an excuse but having the patience to give it the time it needed to heal. It means having this race consume my every thought at times. It means having this ambition dictate what I eat, when I sleep, how I work out, and what I am willing to do outside of that and work.
It means, I’m ready to run Sunday’s marathon!
My goals for the NY Marathon
The number one question I’ve gotten over the past four months of training for the marathon is, “do you have a time goal?” For someone who only ever dreamed of running this race, the question first seemed audacious to me. Certainly, if you asked me at the time I first ever thought about running this race, all I would have said is that I want to finish while they are still giving out medals. Still, training for this race has changed me. It has prepared me to get that medal and dared me to reach for more.
But it turns out, “more,” is not a time goal – it’s a feeling. What I’ve come to find in my own running journey – which has been one that’s tested all of my limits and pushed me beyond anything I’ve done before – is that, in the end, it’s no different than any other part of my longer journey. It’s all about winning the day! And for my New York City Marathon, here’s what that means . . .
The power of visualization
. . . . It sounds so simple. If you believe it, you can make it come true. Yet visualization has so many more layers than simply wishing something into existence. It is a path that, with preparation and dedication, can evolve from a blurry vision to a moment of pristine clarity that becomes an out of body experience. Look no further than my marathon journey to see how this plays out . . .
The emotional roller coaster of fitness
As I sat down to write the update on my marathon journey, the space I was in as I reflected on these past few weeks was filled with highs and lows. Confidence became insecurity. Optimism turned into doubt. It felt as if my dreams were better described as fantasy. I’m not here to be overly dramatic about this. In fact, I find this emotional roller coaster to be a positive thing – and one that comes with my dedication to a life of fitness.
The plot twist in my marathon journey
Before my career as a lawyer, I was an aspiring screenwriter. The rest of that story is for another day, except to say that, if I was scripting a story of someone running a marathon, it would probably go something like this. The protagonist of the story is someone who overcame significant obstacles to be able to try to achieve a long-held dream of running a marathon. Upon seemingly overcoming every hurdle in his way, he trained hard for race day and continued to improve day after day as the race approached. It appeared that not only would his dream of running a marathon happen, but he would run it faster than he ever imagined. But, naturally, a plot-twist occurs, and the protagonist faces a big setback – one that puts the marathon in jeopardy. Then, the ending can go several different ways . . .
Pain: A moment of physical and mental struggle
This is not my typical marathon post. I’m not going to provide an overall update of my training since the last post. And I’m not going to include the journal of my training below this – that will wait for the next post. I wasn’t even going to blog this week, but I want to share this moment I’m going through in real time as I struggle – both physically and mentally – to deal with pain.
I do me! (an update on marathon training)
In the end, these two weeks can be summed up in three words . . . I do me! I’ve reached a point where I’ve learned how to get more out of a marathon training program by making it my marathon training program. At times, that means taking the days I need to stay fresh. Other times it means learning how to push through it when I’m not. It means working in areas of life that define who I am while understanding that this goal of 26.2 is just one of those areas. For each one of us, the calculus is different. Only you know what it is for you. And only I can know what it is for me.
The most important lesson I’ve learned on this journey
“It is being here now that is important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now.” - George Harrison
Sharing lessons from my journey over the course of Legally Fit has allowed me to reflect in ways I might not otherwise have done. I’ve reached a deeper level of soul searching. That’s not to say that it takes writing a blog to discover what’s within one’s own self, but for me, it’s been the vehicle. Still, there are times when I find that I never even asked myself the obvious. That happened recently when I was asked a question that I had never been asked before – and somewhat surprisingly not asked myself. . . “What’s the most important thing you’ve learned on this journey?” For a minute, I froze. I was so accustomed to far more specific questions such as “What’s your workout routine?” or “What’s your diet?” So, I was dumbfounded at this simple question. After a brief pause, I knew the answer, but before I share it, I’ll go deeper into where it comes from.
Know when to say when – a little about marathon training and a bit more about life
A year ago, I turned 50 and celebrated by, among other things, jumping out of a plane. At the time, I said it seemed like a good way to celebrate every decade and that I was good until 60. That feeling lasted about a week before I realized that once a year was a much better idea. So, the plan as I turned 51 this past week was to jump again. It was an ambitious plan, as I scheduled it for Saturday afternoon following my 12-mile marathon training run. It was made more ambitious by the fact that this past week was my most tiring work week in over a year with about five hours of sleep a night for five straight nights. My thought was simply that, if I was going to burn the candle at both ends to get this all in, I couldn’t wait until it was much later into my training when rest would be even more essential. And of course, it was my birthday! (In case you forgot.) Well, as I’ve written before . . . man plans, God laughs.
Marathon training at four weeks – Sacrifices and results!
One of the mental tactics I’ve used during workouts for some time is to break them down into percentages in the middle of the grind. For example, if I’m in a 45-minute Peloton class, then 15 minutes in, I tell myself that I’m one-third through it. I continue that at various intervals throughout the workout to make it feel shorter. One of the most important ways to use that is with running. A 10-mile run is easier when I think of it in segments. After five miles, all I have to do is do that same thing once more. When I have two miles left, having only 20 percent remaining makes it feel like I am already near the finish line. But this percentage thing can apply not only to a single workout, but also to a long-term training plan such as what I’m in the middle of right now in working towards the NYC Marathon.
Dare to Dream
Much of my fitness focus this past week has been shaped by one event . . . Rory McIlroy won the Masters! Congrats, Rory! It’s been a long time coming, and of course, it couldn’t come any other way than the most stressful golf I’ve ever watched. An appropriate ending for your dream of winning the career Grand Slam and achieving golf immortality. Reaching your dream – especially in the way you did it over these years, and over the Masters weekend – taught me, and so many of us to dare to dream!
My 2024 Running Journey - A shattered dream turned into a brewing reality
Dreams may feel shattered in the moment, but belief can make them happen in the long run.
Countdown to running the 2025 New York City Marathon
As of today, there are 361 days until the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon, and I have every intention of running in it next year. As I write those words, I can’t help but think about the fact that I’ve said that before – about nine years ago – but I failed to do it. So naturally, as I start the countdown to 2025, I say with some level of caution, “next year will be different.”