**Previously played detailing the 2023 Boston Marathon Experience with an add on of inspiration for 2024!**
The Boston Marathon truly is one of the most special experiences across all of sports as it unites the world and shares deep history. As the world's oldest marathon and one of the toughest, it draws the best of the best in the world.
Six years ago, I embarked on a journey to qualify for The Boston Marathon and run it. Little did I know how many opportunities, or setbacks, that I would face to get there. I wouldn't trade a single one of them for the world.
Highlights:
Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!
**Previously played detailing the 2023 Boston Marathon Experience with an add on of inspiration for 2024!**
The Boston Marathon truly is one of the most special experiences across all of sports as it unites the world and shares deep history. As the world's oldest marathon and one of the toughest, it draws the best of the best in the world.
Six years ago, I embarked on a journey to qualify for The Boston Marathon and run it. Little did I know how many opportunities, or setbacks, that I would face to get there. I wouldn't trade a single one of them for the world.
Highlights:
Thank you for tuning in! If you feel led, please subscribe & share the show to others who you believe would benefit from it.
Keep in touch below!
Welcome to the Win Today podcast, a weekly tool intentionally crafted to help people enhance performance, feel inspired and conquer life. Our commitment is that you would learn from some of the most disciplined, heartwarming and inspiring people on the globe, in addition to receiving a piece of a winning playbook from myself or a renowned expert in their field. My name is Ryan Cass and I'm your host, and it is my purpose in this world to inspire people, to establish a foundation for sustained success by developing systems that will enable you to accomplish your goals, break systemic trends of adversity and chart a desirable course for life. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please help us achieve our vision of becoming one of the top podcasts in the world by subscribing to the show, sharing it with somebody who you believe will benefit from it and leaving a review. Let's connect with our guest. What's up, everyone Welcome.
Speaker 1:If you are tuning in on Monday, april 15th, ideally I'm out running the Boston Marathon at the moment the 2024 Boston Marathon. I'm bringing back my 2023 Boston Marathon recap because I want people to understand the journey that it took to get here, whether this is your first time tuning in or you've listened before. Maybe you started listening later, in 2023 and aren't familiar with some of the earlier stuff, but the Boston Marathon is something that is near and dear to my heart. It is something that I spent six years working towards and ideally out here again for the second time, god willing that nothing happened in between the time of this recording and being out there on Patriots Day. But this is a recap because I want people to understand that the journey is what is to be embraced when you're working towards a major goal. In this case, I remember writing down to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2017. I wrote that down for the first time. That's when I set the goal and took all the way until 2023 to make it happen, but wouldn't trade the journey for anything.
Speaker 1:And a thought, a recent thought that I was having about the journey in life is even if, let's say, it took you five years to accomplish something that you really wanted and maybe you thought you could get it done in one, but let's say it takes you five, now those five years may seem like and feel like an eternity and, zooming out, assuming that we all live 80 years, assuming you're going to live 80 years would pursuing something for less than 10% of your life, meaning a five-year pursuit. So it's less than 10%. It's roughly a little over 5% of your entire life, knowing that it's going to give you memories and perhaps alter the course of the remaining 60% of your life. Think through that for a minute. The Boston journey took six years and, and God willing, less than 10% of my life.
Speaker 1:Assuming that I get to live for a while took less than 10% of my life and it is going to serve me for the remaining, let's say, at least 70% of my life. And it has provided so many lessons and boosted my mental state, physical state, for the long haul. So, whatever journey you're on right now, embrace it, keep going and enjoy this episode and I wish that it inspires you to keep pushing and if you so happen to be a runner or want to get into running, then I wish that it inspires you to lace up and get out on the roads. Cheers, guys.
Speaker 2:Well, he's won the last five of the six marathons he has entered. Still a good battle there for the podium between Vincent Kiprudo and Gabriel Gueye, but across Exeter and into the final stretch, being embraced by this huge crowd on Boylston Street in Boston. He delivers an historic win and his second consecutive win in the Boston Marathon. Evans Chabat of Kenya takes the 127th Boston Marathon title.
Speaker 1:The reason people want to run the marathon is because the challenge, physically, is you. The distance, how you get there is all up to you and how hard you work. That's why people want to do it. Meb Kofleski, 2014 Boston Marathon champion. And hearing the finish on Boylston Street, which was the opener. Evans Chabette, 2023 and 2022 champion.
Speaker 1:The energy is so electric and that is why so many people want to run the Boston Marathon. Why Boston? There's a million reasons the history itself. It is the oldest marathon and people who don't even know about running know about the Boston Marathon, just like people know about the Masters, if they don't play golf, or the World Series if they're not a baseball fan. The Boston Marathon is arguably the World Series of running and has so much rich history behind it. It is also the only marathon major that you have to either qualify for or fundraise for. There is no lottery system, like you'll see at some of the other majors, such as New York and Chicago, london, where if you get picked in the lottery, it doesn't matter what your qualifying time is. Boston is the oldest race and it's old school in how you get in, which qualify, extremely difficult process and one that took me six years and we're going to dig into why I decided to embark on this journey and pull some lessons from it. Because I believe that, even if you have no interest in running, there's still a lot of lessons from this journey that will benefit you in your life, and I believe there are some takeaways that you can keep in your back pocket and use in various situations, various pursuits that you may be on. And that is my mission with this to help at least one person and share a little bit of my story. So I told you why Boston and why it's so special.
Speaker 1:But why did I embark on the journey is because how I live my life, I often look at what's the most challenging thing that I can do, and that's from a physical perspective, mental perspective, emotional. How can I challenge myself? Because I know that on the other side of challenge or the other side of pain, is the best version of you, and that's something that this whole goal setting journey, since I started on it 12 years ago, has done for me is. It has pushed me to challenge what is my max capability? Do I have a ceiling? And let's see how high the ceiling is. How hard can I push and think about. How hard can you push? Are you pushing your body, mind and spirit to the max, or are you coasting? When was the last time that you set out to do something that seemed really freaking scary? It's important to do hard things, and hard things is relative to how you define it. It doesn't need to be a marathon is relative to how you define it. It doesn't need to be a marathon. But the benefits are improved mental toughness, bolstered confidence, improved emotional resiliency and when life gets hard, you can stay hard because you practice hard. And when I look at the best of the best and what really defines them, they're constantly setting out to do difficult challenges, as it relates to physical nature, as it relates to business, as it relates to serving the community, as it relates to impacting the world. So that is why I decided to go on this journey for the Boston Marathon.
Speaker 1:The journey was not an easy one, and I wouldn't want it to be. I did not expect that it would take the amount of time that it did. The first time I wrote this goal down was in 2017, was to run a marathon with the intent to qualify for Boston, and at that time, I'd been running quite a bit, but I didn't really know what I was doing. I would just go out, throw my shoes on, run as hard and fast as I possibly could and notice that I wasn't getting any faster. And I thought that the best way to train was to put your shoes on, run as fast as you can, run at a suicide pace. And if you're not doing that, then you're not going hard enough and you're not training strong enough and you're weak. And was I wrong? What I've learned over the years now is that to run faster, you actually have to run slower. Not going to dive into that, but 2017, I did not qualify for the Boston marathon. Matter of fact, I was only able to run about 10 miles at at a comfortable pace. The best I could do was pumping out 10, right around a seven ish minute mile, which is nowhere close to where you need to be to qualify for Boston.
Speaker 1:So 2018, I figured let's go at this again because I haven't changed the destination, meaning that Boston is still the goal. Just because you didn't get it in 2017 doesn't mean that it gets removed from the list. So, 2018, start running hard again, start adding some variation, but still not that great and don't really know too much of what I'm doing, not switching shoes out and get injured. So now we've got two years under the belt. Now we've got two years under the belt, haven't qualified, but I'm thankful for both of those years because each year taught me something and gave me one little nugget to build upon.
Speaker 1:The number one motivator for anything and this is proven in a Harvard Business Review study proven in a Harvard Business Review study is making progress. And even though I hadn't qualified yet and could view it as a failure, I simply view these things as opportunities. Opportunities to get better, to improve, and I was able to get just a tidbit better in 2017 and 2018. So 2019 is definitely going to be my year. There's no way that I'm not going to qualify because now I'm training smart, I'm adding variation, I'm doing slow runs, doing strength training, studying people more, being more serious about the footwear, being more serious about every little aspect, and I'm feeling fast and strong at this point. And my normal I'm going out for a normal run. This was on January 23rd 2019. I'm going out for what I thought was a normal run.
Speaker 1:I talked to my dad right before and you know when you have something really routine you're about to do and then something out of nowhere occurs, something really surprising occurs. Well, I'm about five minutes into this run, crossing a crosswalk that I have crossed a thousand times and next thing I know I wake up and I'm in the trauma unit at Medical University of South Carolina in downtown Charleston because I had just been struck by a car as I was crossing the crosswalk. And I wake up and I see both of my parents in the hospital room and they tell me you know, ryan, you got hit by a car and I had really bad amnesia at this point. So I was like 10 second Tom in 50 First Dates, if you'd ever seen that movie and they say you got hit by a car, and I'd say I got hit by a car. Bring that person in here that hit me. I want to talk to him. And then, 10 seconds later, so, I got hit by a car.
Speaker 1:Yes, ryan, you got hit by a car. Well, I want to talk to the guy that freaking hit me with his car, and this repeated for a little while. I did not get to meet the individual that struck me with their motor vehicle. I actually never, have never heard from the person. I don't know who the person is. I couldn't spot them in a crowd. I've probably seen that person, since that person's definitely seen me, because as soon as I was able to run again, I kept running that same route and around the same time. Sarah, I'd be willing to bet that that person has seen me and I got back, got back up stronger.
Speaker 1:A car hitting me wasn't going to stop me from getting to the Boston Marathon. It's still showtime. We're going to do this thing. So I get healed up as 2019 goes on and 2020 is just definitely going to be the year. Like, I write down my goals and I always reflect upon the previous year and then you know why did I achieve what I achieved or why did I not achieve what I set out for, and clearly the reason in 2019 was running into a car, car running into me, and 2020, this is going to be my year man.
Speaker 1:Who would have predicted that the world was going to shut down and most marathons were canceled? The world was going to shut down and most marathons were canceled. So I viewed that as an opportunity to continue getting better at running. And actually, ultra marathons weren't canceled. There was some trail ultras in the area. So I decided you know what I'm going to go and do the next best thing and get involved in ultra marathons.
Speaker 1:So before I actually ran my first real marathon, I got into ultras and the first ultra that I had signed up for actually got canceled and I decided that you know what I'm going to do something hard. This is going to help me with Boston and I'm going to stick it to the man. Stick it to you, covid, and show you that you're not going to stop me. So I went on my normal eight mile route and close to the area that I was living at the time and I said to myself all right, I'm going to run this thing four times because that'll equal the 50 K distance that I would have ran today. And so I drove out to the end point, dropped off a few bottles of of Powerade Zero and some granola bars and I went out and ran back and forth all day 32 miles, and then I called my my best friend and Leonard, and told him to go and get the bike. I'm going for 40, going to do one more lap and ended up hitting 41 on that day, with him on the bike for the last nine miles, and that was such an awesome feeling.
Speaker 1:It's like you know what. I haven't ran a marathon yet. In an official marathon, I want to qualify for boston. The next best thing that I can do right now, even though this ultra marathon is canceled, is go out and do my own version of it. So that was actually my first time that I'd ever ran more than 20 miles, was just going out there and getting after it at this ultra marathon. And what that did for me is it gave me confidence that I can go the distance I can push past tough times. That inevitable wall came up. That was my first time really experiencing it at a long distance and it built that emotional resiliency. It built the mental toughness, the things I was talking about earlier. What does doing hard things do for you? And I knew that eventually, when the world would open back up again and marathons would come back that you've already gotten a taste of what it's going to be like and you've gone longer than the prescribed distance. So what's 26.2 if you can crank out 41? Now that we're into 2021, and we're still going for Boston, we're out of COVID kind of.
Speaker 1:I signed up for the Wilmington Marathon and all the confidence in the world again that training's gotten better, fastest and strongest that I've ever been, been working really hard with Leonard, lots of continued early mornings and study, and just every little thing was meticulous about every detail logging mileage on the shoes and understanding you know exactly how many shoes had how many miles on them and what were the best supplements that I should be taking. Just every little detail you could think of I was keeping into account because there was nothing that was going to stop me this year from qualifying for the Boston marathon. And in April went out to Wilmington the week leading up to the race just playing a casual softball game routine softball game. I strained my hamstring and could barely walk, just to make things more fun, you know, going back to remember that routine thing you're used to doing and then something that you would never imagine happens. Well, that's what happened Strain my hamstring on a normal base hit.
Speaker 1:So that week this is Monday the race is coming up on Saturday I'm hobbling around and it's difficult to to walk, but at this point I'm thinking in my head there is no freaking way that I'm not running this marathon on Saturday. I've been waiting patiently and training hard and staying focused and doing all of the right things, or moving towards doing all of the right things, for four years now. We're going and I decided to take a few days off of running and on Thursday I figured I would test. The leg out Hamstring still wasn't feeling all too great. Leg out hamstring still wasn't feeling all too great. And just doing two miles at like an 820 pace freaking hurt like all get out. So I'm going at a very slow pace and in my head those mental demons are coming in Like dude. If you can't even run two at 820, what makes you think that you're going to run 26 at a 6.45 pace? But I'm mentally tough, I'm emotionally resilient, nothing's stopping me.
Speaker 1:So I go out on Saturday feeling pretty good and the adrenaline is definitely subsiding the pain. And for the first 10 miles I didn't have the best pace discipline. That's another thing that I learned in 2021 pace discipline. So I'm all over the place. I I'm wanting to stay close to a six 50 and I'm looking at six 33, six 27, six 41, six 48, six 51, six 2222. You shouldn't be in the in the really fast paces that early on, especially for being an inexperienced marathoner at the time.
Speaker 1:So I feel it at mile 16 that something's wrong. I can start to feel the hamstring pain because the adrenaline is wearing away. And now I'm feeling the pain and I can't reach into my gel pack anymore because I've lost feeling in my right hand, for whatever reason. So in my mind I'm thinking 10 more miles, dude, suck it up. This has been a four-year journey. You run 10 milers all the time like it's nothing. Keep going. You're tough. And at mile 20, I go again to see if I can get into my gel pack and there's nothing. So I can't take in any more nutrition because I've lost feeling. But I'm still running on pace and my body is slowly telling me hey, dude, something else is wrong Besides your arm losing feeling. We're attempting to tell you that it's it's not your arm, it's your, it's your systems. But in my head, and with this mindset that has been formulated, I'm thinking six more miles. You can shut up and suck it up. You're qualifying for Boston.
Speaker 1:And in mile 22 and 23, that's where I've completely lost the pace and I'm starting to bonk and can't take in any more nutrition. I've gotten water, hit all the water stations and now I'm starting to feel like I'm falling asleep. But I can still pull this off, even if I was able to speed back up to just over a seven minute mile. I can pull this off because I'd built up some time in the bank from not being so disciplined on my paces earlier. And at mile 24, I literally start swaying back and forth. I'm like picture a, a baby giraffe being born and it can barely, you know, use its its long legs and it's tripping all over the place.
Speaker 1:That's me at mile 24 at this race, and I and I ran into a parked car and this medic thank goodness for them this medic grabs me and rips me off the course and says, ryan, you're done. Well, she didn't know my name yet, but she said you're done and and I'm thinking, let me fucking go, like I've got 2.2 more miles, I'll crawl to the damn finish line. I don't care, I'm finishing this thing and I still believe. I still believe in the back of my mind that I can miraculously get out of this funk and pump out to six, 30 miles. You just, you just need to give me the chance. Like, let me freaking go right now. And they start taking my readings and they say Mr Cash, you're at risk for cardiac arrest if we let you go, okay.
Speaker 1:So I call my friend Leonard, and he's waiting at the finish line wondering you know how the heck are you calling me? Did I, did I miss you? And I said, nope, I'm actually two miles away and I gave the phone to the medic at this point so they could help him locate me. And I tell him that we need to go to the hospital and I had a rhabdo, which is basically muscle failure. So that was not good. But you know what? He actually filmed me at the hospital, in the hospital bed, with the IV fluids going in me, and I just pounded my chest and I said we're still on the road to Boston. Man, good, like good, we're going to embrace this. Good that we're here right now, good that it didn't go our way, because you know what this does is it gives us another opportunity to get even better and come back.
Speaker 1:So I heal up from this. The early mornings continue, the workouts continue, the pushing through all sorts of adversity and balancing everything continues. That never stops because the destination remains unchanged. 10 months later, go back to Wilmington for the exact same race and have a chip on my shoulder because we've got unfinished business at this point and I'm much smarter, much more well-equipped, coming into it at 100% health, and got the job done. It was an incredible, incredible experience.
Speaker 1:And I hit the same wall at mile 22 and 23 as I did the year before, in that I started slowing down. But at mile 24, this go around is really where I channeled some inner David Goggins and started yelling some things that I don't even remember what all I said, but I know at one point um, imagine you see me hitting my chest like a gorilla, saying like you don't fucking know me, and I look at my watch and that was actually my fastest mile of the entire race. It was 24 there, but and my parents came to surprise me, they were in the middle of the road at mile 12. So I would notice them and I just knew that after this long, after five years now, there's no way that this doesn't happen. So I was able to sneak in there to two, 58, 47 and and punch the ticket to Boston and was it was incredible. So it took five years to to qualify and get the sub three hour time and I'll tell you that the five year and then plus one with now running the marathon.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't trade the journey for anything because along the way, when you're going after something really big and scary, you may not get it right when you want to, but the beauty is really in the process. And another thing the beauty of writing things down is it is the easiest way to create direction in your life. Goal setting gives you three big things it gives you focus, drive and direction. And Boston became my destination and it gave me a path. Because it was written down, I looked at it every single day and even though I got knocked off the path imagine if you're driving on a road and sometimes you may have to take a detour it doesn't change where you're going. You know where you're going because you've set out for that destination and never once did I not consider going for Boston anymore just because we had to take a few detours along the way.
Speaker 1:If you want something in this life. Write it down, go and get it. Failure doesn't exist, only opportunities. Opportunities to get better, opportunities to learn a new way to train. Opportunity to learn a different way, learn a better way to deal with people, learn a better way to deal with people. These concepts everything that is being mentioned here expands far beyond physical nature.
Speaker 1:The other thing with this is that every opportunity along this journey, there was progress, got better, learned how to train more effectively. There was progress, got better, learned how to train more effectively. And I was living in the gain versus the gap. And the gap and gain principle basically states that if you live in the gain, you're looking at yourself against yesterday. You're measuring yourself against yesterday or any other prior point in time versus living in the gap. You're measuring yourself today versus what does ideal look like? And while I wanted Boston the entire time, I never lost sight of the fact of how far I had come from 2017 to 2018, 2018 to 19. Those seven-minute miles became easier, and then those six forties became easier, six thirties, and then you're doing five forties on speed workouts and it feels like nothing versus years ago, where that almost felt like a full sprint living the gain rather than the gap.
Speaker 1:So now we're in Boston and I can't believe that, as of the time of this recording and when this episode is out, it's been one week since running this amazing race with such incredible people, and the two words that really come to mind for me when I think about the experience is electric and unifying. I got in on Friday and before Marathon Monday and all you see just imagine a city full of people running all day doing shakeout runs and people from all over the world, just thousands of people and all coming together as one to go after this historic race, to push themselves to the limit, to put an end to a long journey for themselves. One of the coolest things that I saw was, right before the race, someone on a microphone was shouting out orders runners go here, and it's pretty magnificent how they organize everything. But in that moment when she was shouting orders, there's about 5,000 runners or so I would estimate, that are going into this corral and this lady over the microphone asks how many people have spent more than five years attempting to get here, and the amount of hands that went up was crazy. It blew my mind that so many people were on such similar journeys to this one, and, if not even more, st jerking If I have to add a third word into this electric unifying and tear jerking but the days leading up, just there's shakeout runs, which shakeout is basically just a thing of it, just an easy run, two, three miles that you can go, talk and have a conversation.
Speaker 1:People are doing these all day long. Every brand is having a shakeout run, every influencer that's there is having a shakeout run. Lots of famous people are running this race and there's all these pop-up shops and there's speakers from all over the world and you get to hear from the elites, got to hear from elliott kipchoge and to see him up close, and got to see the boston athletic association 5k and one mile invitational, which basically is another opportunity to see some of the fastest people in the world up close, and just just incredible, just incredible. Everyone's smiling People are are walking around the finish line every night and I remember I taken, taken some photos by the finish line every night, but not stepping over it, and it was a little emotional every time that I would go by Boylston street and actually see the finish line in person and, you know, knowing that in just in a couple of days, I was going to, going to have that moment that I've been dreaming of now for for years to uh, to cross that finish line and and see the create the photo that that I've had in my head this entire time. And what a time, what a time.
Speaker 1:And the expo, getting the bib number and actually seeing that this is a real thing and we're doing this Once you get the bib, I think that's where it felt the most real that all right now we got to go and put this on the singlet and it's showtime. I had my mom there and I had my aunt and uncle from Miami in town and they all got to experience it as well, especially my mom, because she has been there through the thick and thin, between being in the hospital to getting the phone call that I was in another hospital to seeing me qualify and then actually being in Boston. But, my gosh, I'm already dreaming of getting back there, even for the shakeouts, and going to the pop-up shops and the coffee meetings and just seeing people smiling and running and asking people where they're from and what's their story, and the energy and the experience is so unmatched that even if I wasn't a runner, I would love to be up in Boston for the days leading up to the race, because it's you can just feel it. It's this force that wraps its arms around you and and tells you that special things are happening and very special things are about to happen here in a few days, when people finally do get to race because of what they've done to to get here and what they've overcome to get here right now, those hands going up of who did it take, who took more than five years to get here, there is nothing like it. And even if there comes a point in time where I can't run anymore, I would still take the opportunity to go to Boston and be there for the experience, because you talk about an entire city coming together and showing love and the entire world really coming together and showing love all in one area, and I'm still in awe and kind of on cloud nine even a week later. And you want it to be marathon Monday every Monday, after going through such an incredible experience, so much so to where you know we were running I went on a run with my friend Christina Tuesday after the marathon and you fall in love with the the days leading up, so much that then you're out running on Tuesday and you don't see thousands of people on shakeouts and all the pop-up shops and all of the people walking around Boylston Street. They had actually taken down a lot of the area by the finish line overnight and you're running through it like man. But it just makes you realize how special everything is when you miss it that much, almost immediately after the fact, and I believe that's definitely something that keeps people coming back.
Speaker 1:And, like I mentioned, even if I wasn't a runner, I would want to be there to experience this again and again, and again, and I would make it a bucket list item for whether or not you want to run the thing to go to the Boston Marathon Now the race, april 17th 2023. This has been in my dreams, on my goals for six years now and it's finally here. And how this works is you get on a bus in Boston Common or, most typically, you'd get on a bus in Boston Common and then you are taken 26 miles away to a small town called Hopkinton. And thinking through 26 miles driving a car, you're like, oh, it must not take that long, it's just a little 26-mile ride. I'll be there in maybe 30 minutes. That long, it's just a little 26 mile ride. I'll be there in maybe 30 minutes and this bus ride takes about 45 minutes and it feels like it. It takes a day just because of all of the you know, pent up emotion. And it's finally here and you just want to get to that start line and you're nervous, you're excited, you're in awe of the days leading up to it and everyone on the bus is kind of feeling the same way.
Speaker 1:I looked around to see what people were doing. There were some folks that were casual conversation. There were some folks that were deep in thought or closing their eyes, and I fell in the camp of closing my eyes and visualizing the course, what's going on and how I'm going to run this thing. And the closer that we got to Hopkinton, the more real that it felt. And there were multiple times on this bus ride where tears just start rolling down my eyes and and I can't really control it and at that point I didn't even care if I was going to bust out crying Like that was. That was it and I and I wouldn't have been alone. And the even the person I was sitting next to was from London and had run the London marathon. This was his first Boston and he was telling me the journey that it took for him to get here, and there's just so much, so much emotion and energy even on that, on that bus ride.
Speaker 1:So once you get to Hopkinton you're in this athlete's village and on that day to create some more context it was drizzling, raining at some points, slight wind, 45 degrees, but kind of cloudy, overcast day actually perfect temp for running. And in this village it's just huge tents, there's porta potties all over the place. Because everybody's been so well hydrated, I was nervous that I was actually going to pee my pants on the bus ride from Boston to Hopkinton and I'm making a beeline for Port-A-Potty first thing that I do when I get there. And the next thing you've got to do is you've got to find a seat somewhere, because you are waiting for about another hour or longer, depending on what corral you're going to be in. So got there with about an hour to spare before hopping into the first corral and then within the first corral you've got a few different waves. So, being a Boston marathon rookie, I knew that I was going to bring clothes to throw away, but I did not know about bringing blankets to lay on or anything like that and there were definitely a lot of veteran Boston runners there that had blow up mattresses and all sorts of things, this whole spread. So thank goodness that my friend Christina was able to hook me up with some hospital blankets and so I didn't get a spot under one of the big tents because it was already filled up and I figured, well, I'll just go sit outside and I had rain gear on and I laid out my blankets and just wrapped them around me and, kind, thousands of literally the best runners in the world that are all in one place.
Speaker 1:And you can see that at this point the nerves kind of started transitioning to excitement. There's a lot of people that are, that are smiling, gathered together, and this is it, man and it. And then they call you and you have to go from athletes village to the start line, which is about a three quarter of mile walk. And at this point what's running through your head is yeah, there's no way to get home except to run. Now. You can't go back because you're literally 26 miles away from Boston. Nobody's going to drive you back and, not having run Boston before, I'm thinking are there really thousands of people that are going to be outside to cheer us on the entire way, because it's still slightly overcast and I'm just not too convinced yet. And we're walking, walking, walking, walking. And the closer you get to the start line, the more people that are outside in their front yards cheering you on and they're wishing you well, they're popping mimosas and all sorts of things, and at that point that's where I'm convinced okay, if this is what the start line looks like, let's see what the rest of the course is going to look like. So we're about ready to roll and I tear up one more time as the national anthem is being sang so beautifully and we have two minutes and I'm absolutely juiced up, tearing up and here we go.
Speaker 1:And what's crazy about being in this corral is literally everybody there is a qualifier and has ran a sub three hour marathon in this first wave, first few waves, and they're just boom, zipping, zipping by you versus a local marathon. You know, if you come out at around a seven minute pace, six something pace, you're going to be up there pretty well in the pack and be able to separate yourself fairly quickly. But at a major marathon like this, fairly quickly. But at a major marathon like this you've got to be extremely fast to really get any sort of of good separation. So the first few miles I'm really embracing everything and in all that you just see this all like this huge congregation of people, but they're all moving extremely fast and I'm telling myself, don't get cute, go and enjoy it and keep a decent pace, but we don't need to be pumping anything crazy fast right now.
Speaker 1:And and that was how the first few miles went and as we're going through, just think about running down a road and on your left and your right there isn't a spot where someone isn't standing and cheering you on. And you've got your tens of thousands of best friends that are there yelling your name, whatever's on your shirt, they're yelling out Whatever's written on your arm. They're yelling out Whatever's written on your arm. They're yelling out Whatever's on your hat. Literally they're calling out anything that you have on. So I think next year when I go back, I'm going to put something funny on my pants or shirt or arm or something like that, just so they can say it and I can hear it. And the coolest part, where it really started to get loud, is at mile 13. This is the Wellesley scream tunnel.
Speaker 1:Wellesley college is, I believe predominantly women's school in the. They're known for coming out for the marathon and some runners stop and kiss the students and then there's signs that give me a kiss, give me a kiss. And I saw some runners in front of me stopping and actually kissing some of these students, which I thought was pretty funny. I couldn't imagine slowing down to do that. So as I'm running through, giving high fives and I would tap, I would kiss my hand and then tap their tap, their sign, if it said kiss me.
Speaker 1:And the energy here is just so freaking electric. You have to be careful. I look down at my watch when I'm passing through Wellesley and and I'm and I see a six minute mile pace. I'm like, oh, that's not good, we can't run that fast yet. But you want to talk about an energy boost Anytime you need an energy boost at this race. Just go give people high fives. Or if I saw a group of people that weren't really cheering, I'd go run right up to them and say, come, give me some, give me some, and shake my hand out and you'd get a whole line of high fives.
Speaker 1:So really anytime that I was struggling, I would go for for high fives and in my mind. I kept wondering you know, when am I going to hit the wall? In any marathon there's there's a wall or there's a tough point that's going to come up. And I figured maybe it was going to be early on, because I had a really tough time with this training cycle being injured two months leading up to the race, really not being able to run super hard or fast from February through April, and there wasn't any wall early on. So I figured, okay, it must be coming late, who knows. And for me, thinking back, I didn't really have a huge one.
Speaker 1:But at miles 15 and 16, my gel wasn't really sitting too well in my stomach and there were points where I did feel like I was maybe going to throw it up and my stomach just had that really unsettling feeling that you may know as I'm speaking it, like I'm not sure if this thing I ate is going to stay here for too long. That's kind of what I experienced at those miles 15 and 16, which are also extremely tempting miles because at this point the course is starting to go downhill pretty good where it could be very tempting to gain a lot of speed here. But I did know from studying the course, and talking to people that this is a trick, don't go too hard down these miles, because the Newton Hills are coming. Those are miles 17 through 21. So every town you run through, between Hopkinton to Wellesley, to Natick, to Framington, to to Newton, to eventually Boston, you have something to look out for or something that that area is known for, whether it's the hills or the people.
Speaker 1:And that's where I was really starting to struggle and I knew, hey, just keep going and we're going to go have some fun on these hills, and if you don't respect the hills then they're going to claim you. If you're a David Goggins fan, they're going to take your soul. So this part I probably had some of the most fun on the hills, actually, as crazy as that sounds, because I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I'd been in Boston in January and for a run show conference and I rented a car so I could go drive the course and I was going to run the course some of it, so I could really feel it. But that was a point in time where even walking hurt really bad. So that didn't happen, but at least got to see it.
Speaker 1:And these turns or these hills, man, imagine, especially for those folks in Charleston, south Carolina, that you've just gone on a long run and then you're going to run repeats up the Ravenel bridge with the downtown to Mount Pleasant side incline a few times. You're just going to. You're going to do that at mile 17 and then you're going to keep going and then you're going to do another one at mile 18, 19, and and eventually culminate with heartbreak Hill, which is about a 4% incline and I believe about a half mile long. But I actually felt really good on these hills because what I did do leading up to the race is I did all of my long runs on the Ravenel Bridge. So for a little bit of extra torture I would go and do laps, because the Ravenel Bridge here is five miles round trip and you can get a few hundred feet of gain on every go. So I would go back and forth, back and forth for a 10 mile or I did a 20 miler on it one day and that was absolutely brutal.
Speaker 1:But going back to the beginning, choose hard because that's what makes you prepared for hard. Practice hard so you can stay hard when it gets hard, and the hills is where you saw a lot of people just starting to really drop. So to keep my mind off of it, beyond just absorbing the energy from the crowd, I would pick one little thing at a time. When you're going through something extremely challenging, zoom out and look at the bite-sized victories that you can make in that moment. What's that progress? Again, going back to that progress principle. So I made this plan when I was in Boston in January.
Speaker 1:But coming back, I remember listening to my voice memos the night before the race and for every hill I told myself okay, you're going to pick this little target on your right, like this street sign, and then your next objective is going to be to hit this street sign on your left. So it was right, left, right, left, and all I would look at from the corner of my eye is if I'm at that spot, that's on the right, and then I would look out the left corner of my eye at that spot on the left. I never actually looked up the entire hill, any of the hills once, and when it came to Heartbreak hill, because I really didn't want to look at that one, I took my headphone off and the guy next to me, I asked him. I said hey, have you ran? Have you ran this before? He said yeah. And I said, is this heartbreak hill? He said yeah. I was like, okay, thanks, man, put my headphone back in so I know this is going to be the longest hill and left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, and boom, you're, you're over it. And in my mind I'm thinking, after these hills, it's going to be payday and I'm going to surge because I'm feeling pretty good at this point.
Speaker 1:The journey to get here has been second to none. This is, this is showtime, man. So we've got four more miles to go, five more miles to go, and and I let it rip and I looked down at my watch at mile 22, six 43 at that time that was my fastest mile of the race and I made a new game plan that you know what. I'm going to do it again and we're going to stay at this pace and get faster. For the rest, I at first was thinking that I would pull back again and and flirt with that seven-ish minute mile time that I was on and and I said this is it. We're gonna keep going and we're in the third period now.
Speaker 1:Being a wrestler, wrestling matches, three periods and the third period is is really where you know who's who, because at that point it's not about how strong you are or how technically great you are, it's who's got the biggest heart. And that's where a lot of matches are won. And this Dan Gable quote has stuck with me since high school and it goes like this the first period is won by the best technician, the second period is won by the kid in the best shape, the third period is won by the kid with the biggest heart. And I've applied that third period mentality to so many different things in my life, especially running. When it's getting tough and towards the end. That's where I'm typically able to be my strongest and really pull the best out of me, because that's what I make my training resemble. So after the 643 at mile 22, I'm absolutely jacked and fired up, and it keeps getting louder and louder and louder. The crowds are getting bigger. Imagine that, those crowds.
Speaker 1:I mentioned before in the beginning, how there's not a spot on the road that isn't lined with somebody at this point. There isn't a spot on the road that isn't lined with four or five, six, seven rows of people, and they're all shaking their cowbells and they're yelling. And we had just passed Boston college and that was just as loud as Wellesley, and the kids are out there just cheering you on and and I'm giving high fives like crazy at this point and really embracing this third period and it's go time, man. And my new plan was I'm going to go as fast as I can within this six, 40 ish pace until we finish, and I don't care that my quads are pounding right now. Everything that you've worked for, this is your time to shine and this is the big moment. So 6.43, do it again, and again, and again. And we're getting closer.
Speaker 1:And now we're at mile 25, right past the sit-go sign at Fenway Park, and I take my headphones out because I really, just at this point, want to hear every little thing, and it's so loud leading up to this point that even if you're listening to music, you really can't hear too much of what's going on, because that's how electric this environment is. And the two most famous turns in Boston are on Hereford and Boylston Street. If you hear the announcers, they'll say right on Hereford, left on Boylston, as the winners come in, boylston as the winners come in. And and having watched probably every Boston highlight reel on YouTube now over the past few years, you finally see it that right on Hereford and and I'm announcing it in my, in my head, almost as if I'm the Fox commentator, espn commentator, having fun with myself now, like here, comes Cass down Hereford, now about to take the left on boylston. And as we're on hereford, I'm literally crying at this point. There's tears just flowing out of my eyes. I'm running as fast as I possibly can. That left on boylston you can see the finish line and it looks very close, but it's about another four tenths of a mile and I'm just going freaking hard. I look at my watch and I'm down in the 605s and 555s and that final mile was actually my fastest mile of the entire race and crossing that finish line I just let out the biggest yell like yes, you know, and pounded my chest and went and found my mom and gave her a huge hug and she was so happy. And I still can't believe that this is a week ago and all I want to do now is get back to Boston as quickly as possible. Bring on Boston 2024, let's freaking go.
Speaker 1:I've got the itch now and really the lessons that I want to extract from this for you all to benefit from is that what I learned is the beauty is in the process. The race, the goal, the Boston marathon that was simply the gift. But the process, the early morning wake-ups, the stretching, the nutrition look at those things. Where are they taking you? What gains are made along this process? Sure, you accomplished the goal, but what did the process give you? Maybe it turned you into a morning person, maybe it. What did the process give you? Maybe it turned you into a morning person. Maybe it 10X'd your discipline. Maybe it made you a better human, a better spouse, a better boyfriend, a better girlfriend. That's really where the meat and potatoes are. It's everything leading up to it, because you don't wake up and get off the couch and say I'm going to go run Boston tomorrow. Don't wake up and get off the couch and say, oh, I'm going to go run Boston tomorrow. Like it takes so much time when you're going after something great.
Speaker 1:Embrace the process. I believe we live in a world now where everyone wants to go zero to 100. A lot of people want to skip one through 99, and one through 99 is where you grow the most. It's where you discover the most about yourself. It's really what can help set the trajectory for so many other things in your life. Even going through this process numerous times now, it made me embrace the process more and more every single time and it reinforced that, even for this next big thing, these next big sets of things that I'm going for these goals to really soak in more of the journey and what it's giving me. Soak in more of the journey and what it's giving me, even if it's hardship, even if it's struggle, even if it's unforeseen opportunities, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:I mentioned that, leading up to this, the last two and a half months of the training cycles, leading up to this, the last two and a half months of the training cycles, I was injured to where in late January through most of February, running was excruciatingly painful. Especially February, I barely logged any mileage. But what I didn't stop doing is showing up mileage. But what I didn't stop doing is showing up. So, even though running an eight minute mile really felt like a chore and that's far off from what I wanted my ideal pace to be, I kept showing up, even if it was for a workout. I couldn't run, but I could still get a leg workout in. Every time my leg would make contact as if I was making a running movement. You know it would. It would shoot. Pain would come shooting up my leg. But you know when I go and squat that doesn't hurt, so I can do that.
Speaker 1:I find the next best thing. You can't run much, but you can beat your quads to hell and get ready for the hills, so let's do that. You can't run much, but you can beat your quads to hell and get ready for the hills, so let's do that. You can't run much, but you can make sure your shoulders are strong as hell and get ready for the distance, so let's do that. You can't run much, but you can focus on championship nutrition and ensure that the body is ready. I actually didn't drink or have any sweets for four and a half months leading up to it and now that I've been able to have a drink, I really don't care for it all too much. But even with the thoughts going in your head which in my head it was things like I'm going to be slow there's no way you can make it through 26.2, because you could barely run an eight minute mile right now. Why don't you take some extra time off? Keep showing up If you spend time or if you've been spending years on something, scaling back a little bit won't make you lose it all.
Speaker 1:The only thing that that applies to is establishing trust. It takes a long time to establish trust and you can lose that in an instant. But when you've spent years working on your fitness or your discipline, or your emotional journey or spiritual journey or relationship, you aren't going to lose your fitness in an instant. You're't going to lose your fitness in an instant. You're not going to lose your mental toughness in an instant. You're not going to lose your resiliency in an instant. So it's okay if you can only find the next best thing, knowing that eventually you'll be able to run again or you'll be able to practice again, you'll be able to serve people again. Show up. If you can't show up the way you want to find the next best thing, the demons are always going to find you.
Speaker 1:And where I struggled a little bit with this is, you know, another thing that didn't go so well for me is that when I was injured, you know, I would see other people posting their running stats, running 50, 60, 70 miles a week, and and I'm struggling with 30. And those were those, those voices, you know they. They came back like look at this person you know they're running 50 and 60 and check out these paces. You'd be able to do that if you weren't injured and I would get down on myself. But even the strongest willed people have these demons, and what I want you to take away is to really practice your self-talk. The demons are always going to find you, but you can always respond. You get to respond. What do you tell them? I want you to have a response to the demons on your shoulder.
Speaker 1:For me, I was telling myself things in the weeks leading up that payday is on April 17th. My last miles are going to be my best miles. People are tracking and they're going to get excited. I'm going to give them something to be excited about. It's like, damn, ryan's picking it up and he's picking it up, and he's picking it up, and he's picking it up.
Speaker 1:I would tell myself that when things were getting tough or when those voices come up, that's how I'd cancel it out. You've overcome so much to get here. You're a positive example to the world. You're tough as hell. You see, when you do these things, you're going to give these demons something that they can't handle. I knew that they weren't going to hang around after the hills, because that's where they want you to fall, that's where they want you to blunder, that's where they want you to bonk and that's where those voices can be the loudest. So cancel out those voices, practice your self-talk. And the next thing is don't be defined by a result or a title.
Speaker 1:This was something that also had me a little worried mentally that, all right, I broke three hours to get here and I want to do it again. I haven't been able to train the way I usually would. I've been able to do the next best thing, and if I don't break three here, you know what? Who cares? Because I ran a damn good race and pulled off many mental and physical victories. And 20 years from now, who freaking cares what time you ran? What you're going to remember is everything you did to accomplish that goal and to arrive at that destination that you wanted to reach, and you're going to tell someone yeah, I ran Boston and it was a hell of an experience best people in the world, best pre-race experience of all time. And what time did you run Probably isn't going to come up as a question. It's. You ran Boston and people know what it took to get there, and you knew what it took to get there.
Speaker 1:And that's what really matters and this last one should go without saying, but to reinforce never, ever, ever give up, never give up on your dreams, never give up on your wishes, never give up on your goals and arriving at the destination that you ultimately envision yourself being at some point in the future.
Speaker 1:Never stop thinking about achieving what it is that you have in your head right now, right this second, what you have in your heart right now, right this second, what you have in your heart right now, right this second, what you believe you're capable of. No human is limited, and that is what Elliot Kipchoge said leading up to breaking the sub two hour marathon record, and I truly believe that that no human is limited. When you never give up and you embrace the journey, there is nothing that you can't do in this life. Behind every success story is a river of tears, a mountain of obstacles, an ocean of impossible odds and an unbreakable warrior spirit, and I'm wishing that this message, and I'm wishing that this message wakes up the warrior inside of you and enables you to win today. Thanks so much for tuning in.