Marathon Mindset

Marathons are hard. Yes, that’s an understatement. The amount of training and wear and tear on your body is not for the faint of heart.

You have to be focused and disciplined with your training.

There are days your training runs are fast and strong. You have a flow and ease.

Other training runs are straight up awful. Your legs feel heavy and you feel slow. Looking down at your watch to see your pace only makes it worse because you feel slow and now, your pace confirms you are actually going slower than usual.

So what do you do?

You continue to run.

Maybe you’re on a really long run - 14 miles. You think every single negative thought. You think you may need to stop. You’re only 3 miles in so you think you could turn around and try for the long run later.

But you don’t stop. You know better.

You keep putting one foot in front of the other.

You feel like the world is sleeping when you’re getting ready to run early in the morning when it’s still dark outside.

You’re lacing up your sneakers and you could hear a pin drop.

For months you do this.

Even when it’s freezing outside in the Massachusetts winter.

Even when your nose is running nonstop and your fingers are ice cold with gloves on.

Even when you’re running through slush and your feet are wet.

Even when you’re doing those hill sprints in the Boston Commons to practice for heartbreak hill (it’s called heartbreak hill for a reason - you hit that part of the race after mile 17).

You know every run isn’t going to feel great.

You remember all of the bad runs you’ve had before, and you remember you kept running then too.

So you tell yourself you can do this, that you WILL do it.

And next thing you know your run is done.

Every single bad run is in preparation for the marathon.

It’s to teach you that when it gets so incredibly challenging especially on heartbreak hill, you 👏🏽will👏🏽keep👏🏽going.

And you do.

You keep going.

You pass Boston College (go eagles!)

You hit Cleveland Circle, go through Brookline, pass Fenway, and you can feel the emotions rising up because you’ve made it this far.

You see the massive words BOSTON STRONG painted in blue and yellow on the bottom of an overpass as you head into Back Bay.

It gives you a burst of energy.

You remember.

And then you’re almost there.

You make a right on Hereford and a left on Boylston.

And you did it.

You finished.

You meet up with your family and friends, and you think about the months of training, their support and everyone who cheered you on in spirit and in person.

And you’re so grateful.

So grateful for all of it🙏🏽

Today is the Boston Marathon.

For all the runners who’ve trained to get to this moment, for their families and friends and everyone who supported them, for every person cheering along the route (it means so much when you hear those yells during the race) and for those protecting everyone’s safety today, let’s go Boston.

Boston strong always.