Category: Uncategorized

I’ve had April 23rd circled on my calendar for a while. Of course, I’ve had January 14, November 11, April 24 and a few other dates marked on my calendar as well in past years. Six marathons in, and I’m still chasing a sub-4:00 marathon finish. I’ve run 4:06 twice, so, the prospects look good, but at this point, it’s still an unhatched egg, not a chicken.

Now, Boston qualifiers might smirk at this as they chase their sub-3:00 dreams, but for most people who have succeeded in completing a marathon and want to get better, sub-4:00 is the next goal. Fewer than 25% of participants worldwide achieve that, which makes it pretty rarified air. I’d like to post a BQ time in my life, but, for now, I’ve got to get a sub-4 under my belt to appease my goal-oriented motivation monster.

For others on the journey, 9:09 or 5:41 should be familiar numbers. Beat those times for 26-straight miles or 42.195-straight kilometers and you’re home. During my miCoach training sessions, I’m routinely around the 8:00-8:15 range (and 8:30 for long runs), so this should be easy, right? So why haven’t I gotten there yet? Seems like there are four things holding me back:

1. Not enough training focus: I’ve run two marathons (Chicago in 2015 and London in 2016) without enough training. Leading up to both, work was in the way and I wasn’t prioritizing my fitness goals enough. Chicago was warm, and I ran out of gas around mile 18. I felt great at London (posting one of my two 4:06 finishes, and having enough energy to attend the FA Cup Semi-Final that afternoon), but was left kicking myself for not training harder.
2. Going out too fast: This has bitten me at three marathons—Marine Corps. In 2010, Rapa Nui (Easter Island, 2014) and Baltimore (2014). The Marine Corps. Marathon was my first, so that can be excused. My Easter Island experience was the victim of overconfidence—a comfortable, blistering first half, followed by agony back up the steep slope of this formerly volcanic island. Baltimore was due to a late arrival (traffic) and needing to catch the back of the pack (I posted a Boston-Qualifying time for the first 8 miles!).   While I look back fondly at all three, my performance was miserable.
3. Poor clock/mileage awareness: I have no excuse for this and hang my head in shame. Armed with my Smart Run, I should know where I am on the clock, where I need to be on the course, and should have been aware of how close I was (Berlin, 2014 and London, 2016—my two 4:06 finishes). Had I realized it, I’m sure that I’d have found those 6 minutes somewhere near the end while my pace and mental stamina were both getting away from me.
4. GI distress: I’ve had to visit the port-a-loo during 4 out of 6 marathons. Not to get too graphic, but there’s a good amount of ‘free’ time available there if I can solve that.

Having talked to lots of other runners, I’ve come to realize that my goal and experiences are not unique. There’s countless “How to run a sub-4 marathon” articles on the Web. I’ve drawn lessons from those that I hope to apply this year, but we all know there’s no formula. My training is going well right now, I’m injury-free (knock, knock), I’ve learned more about my individual pacing and nutritional needs, and I’ve experienced enough marathons over the past seven years to be able to visualize each phase of the race.

The idea here is not to create another “how to beat sub-4” article—heck, I’ve never run one, so who am I to advise others. What I’d like to do is build an energized community among others with this same goal. Why is this so important to us? Have you tried before and not made it? What are you doing differently this time around? I’ll do the same and we can cheer each other along and come back and compare notes. At the end, I’d like to host a virtual celebration for all of us as we slay this dragon.

Join the journey to sub-4 land. Participate in the discussion, and, if you’d like, feel free to follow my experiences @spencerhollis on Twitter or @SHoTime on miCoach.   You can even race the clock with me in person at the Delaware Coastal Running Festival on April 23, when (I hope!) my 4:00 barrier will fall. #energyrunseverything #sub4dreams

I read a Twitter-linked article from the Virgin London Marathon suggesting ways to stay motivated.  Here are some additional tried and true tips that have worked for me:

1. Get out early:  The longer I go in the morning between waking up and getting out the door, the more excuses I can come up with.  I’m tired, I can’t find my headlamp, I have work to do, I need a cup of coffee…  Key here is to get everything ready to go before I go to sleep, get dressed in my running gear right away and get outside before my body and brain have a chance to process what’s going on.  It seems silly, but it works.  If I sit in front of the computer with a cup of tea or coffee, I’m toast.
2. Only commit to a mile:  On days I don’t feel like running, I just commit to running one mile.  If, after a mile, I feel like packing it up and heading home, I have given myself the leeway to do that.  I’ve only actually stopped once.  The other times, I either start to feel better as I get closer to that milestone or I’ve convinced myself that “I’ve already come this far, might as well finish up.”
3. Rock the playlist:  I’m a solitary runner, but I need the playlist.  Even with hundreds of songs on my wrist, it does get old after a while.  I mix up the list every few weeks and find that key start-up song that gets me going.  That song starts before my first step. Works nearly every time.
4. Be public:  Post your goals.  Post your workout schedule for the week.  Post your race target.  Public shaming works.  Use it to your advantage.
5. Set two or three different goals:  While goal-setting is on the VLM list, I always have two (or three) goals running at any one time.  One is always the target marathon time; that’s the long-term one.  I also aim for a certain mileage per month–currently 100-110 miles on the road and 200 miles on the bike.  Finally, I have a streak going of 42 straight days of working out.  My goal is 100–pretty much taking me to my next Marathon in April.  I DO NOT WANT TO BREAK THIS STREAK.  It keeps me going.

Where will I be on March 14, 2020?  I have no idea.  Yet I need to know in the next few weeks.  Not only that, I need to know that I’ll have $2000 available to travel, that I’ll have the time off of work, and that I’ll be in the physical shape to run a marathon.

Booking a spot in the Antarctica Marathon is an extreme example, but planning a race schedule is both a thrill and a challenge for the active runner.  There are so many factors to consider–including qualifying times and lottery probabilities–that it can make your head spin.

For first-time runners, I recommend simplifying the process:  Pick one race, 6-months or more out, that you want to target, figure out when the registration opens and start a training plan.  Find a local half-marathon that’s scheduled for a month or so before the marathon to get the race experience under your belt and be done.  Three other considerations:

1. Pick a race that offers deferment or transfers.  Particularly for your first race, you never know how you’ll feel and first-time runners often get injured.  Deferment allows you to push your registration to next year and transferring will allow you to recover some of the cost of the race.  You’ll still be out some money, but it’s like insurance, saving you from some of the loss.
2. If the race has a lottery-based entry system (London, Marine Corps, NYC, etc.), either find a backup race (something without a lottery and a registration that stays open until a few weeks before the race) or decide to run for one of the official charities that offer entry with some minimum fundraising amount.
3. Pick something close to home.  It’s a great feeling to finish your first marathon, so it’s best to do it with your friends and family cheering you on and celebrating your accomplishment.  Also, the thought of getting on a plane the day after a first marathon seems like absolute torture.

For more experienced runners, the challenge gets harder.  Most of the active runners I know try to book races that complete a set.  For example, I have a few friends who are gunning to run a marathon in all 50 States.  I’m trying to run one on every continent.  Others try to complete all of the “majors.”  It’s helpful to gain focus during the planning, but for most runners, it doesn’t dictate the entire calendar.

I start with an 18-month plan.  I once built one-year plans, but I ended up missing the registration for early-year races.  The plan includes what I expect from my fitness and what races might match that ambition.  For example, I’m coming out of an 18-month period where ‘speed’ was my focus.  I didn’t want to lose the endurance I’ve built up over the years, but wanted to focus more on my pace than my distance.  My race program included only one marathon per year (Chicago in 2015 and London in 2016), accompanied by about 12 half-marathons, and my first 10k trail series.

For the next 18 months, the goal is to apply that speed training to a longer distance.  I’m targeting 2-3 Marathons per year (including, maybe, an ultra) with more casual halfs thrown in as I feel like it.  The Marathons require the most planning (and require genuine recovery), so I keep a three-year log of the races I’m interested in (with registration dates as well as race dates) and work around that.  I also like to do one foreign travel marathon per year, so those are the anchors that the rest of my race calendar gets wrapped around.

The biggest challenge for me is the lottery entries.  If I do another charity run, I’m saving it for Boston, for which qualifying looks like a pipe-dream.   Most of the lotteries make you wait months to find out if you’re in or not.  By that time, most of the other entries for the premier races have closed.  Two years ago, I signed up for both NYC and Chicago (both lotteries) and hoped I’d get into one of them (both have deferral programs).  I didn’t get lucky for New York, but Chicago came through, so the plan worked.  This year, I’m trying again for NYC (third time the charm?), but also trying to find some smaller races with later registration dates as a back-up.

Let’s get this out right away:  I am not a runner.

Truth is, I never have been.  Sure, I used to run the cross country course in junior high school phys ed class–always finishing second to Nathan–but I was probably the only one other than Nathan who was really trying.  By the time I got to high school, I spent more time in the pool than on land.  Running for ‘fun?’, never.

I never caught the running bug.  I never wake up at 4:45 looking forward to my daily run.  I’ve never said, ‘Yay!  I get to run intervals today!’

So how did I get here?  How, not having really started this craziness until my late-30s, have I completed 6 marathons (with 7, 8, and 9 coming up this year), 15 half-marathons and 10-milers, and numerous 10Ks on road and trail? Why, lord why, do I have 7 different pairs of adidas trainers in rotation on my shoe rack?

My first steps came after the confluence of two events: the birth of my twins and the death of my father after a lengthy bout with cancer.  My dad was always fairly athletic–a super tennis player who played rec soccer/football when I was a kid.  One of my lasting memories though, long before the cancer, was of him lying in a hospital bed at 41, recovering from his triple-bypass heart surgery.  The beeping machines, the plastic hoses, the weakness in his voice…the whole experience was terrifying for an 8 year old.

In 2010, three years after his death and being responsible for a 12-year-old and two 2-year-olds, I was 37, horribly out of shape, 210+lbs and probably couldn’t run a mile.  I wanted to spare my kids and my wife the suffering and fear I went through with my own father.  I had to make a change.

The simplicity of running drew me to it.  Lace up a pair of shoes, plug in my headphones, and go.  The simplicity is what drew me to it.  Didn’t need to round up the mates for a football match.  Didn’t need to fuss with the mechanics of a bike.  Every step felt like progress–toward weight loss, general health, and spiritual renewal.  Later that year, I ran my first half-marathon, and a month after that, my first marathon (Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC).

7 years later, I’m down to 170 pounds, I’ve shaved 30 minutes off my half-marathon time (chuffed about my 1:37!), I made the podium in a trail 10K series, and a Boston qualifying time isn’t out of the question in the next year.  The challenge of completing the marathon distance and the desire to get faster and faster continues to motivate me through my training programs.  I workout pretty much every day (up to 100 days in a row) and feel physically great!

I’m also proud of the impact I’ve had on others.  Indirectly, I’ve raised $1000s for charity through my running (and ice hockey, a sport I recently took up as part of a cross-training effort).  Closer to home, my friends and co-workers have seen the change in me and have started their own running journeys.

This all started from nothing seven years ago.  I didn’t even own a pair of quality running shoes.  Now, I’m probably considered by some to be a bit of a maniac. Or maybe even a runner?  Nah.