In this video Floris Gierman reflects on how the COVID‑19 pandemic has upended the marathon calendar, focusing on the Boston Marathon’s shift to a virtual event and the broader uncertainty facing major races like New York and London. He empathizes with qualified runners whose dreams were postponed, and with race directors forced to redesign events due to legal and safety constraints. Gierman cites a Road Runner Club of America survey showing runners’ discomfort with large‑crowd races, predicting a near‑future landscape dominated by smaller, staggered starts and virtual formats. He encourages runners to create their own “adventure runs”—self‑supported, goal‑oriented outings ranging from short spurts to ultra‑distances—to maintain motivation. The video then pivots to practical training guidance: maintain a solid base, incorporate speed work, prioritize nutrition, manage stress, get adequate sleep, and cultivate a resilient mindset. He closes by inviting viewers to share their current race goals and how they’re adapting their training.
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So we just found out that the September Boston Marathon has become a virtual race. In this video, let's talk about races and running in 2020, 2021, and beyond, and how to actually adjust your training accordingly with all this uncertainty going on there. First of all, I want to say I feel really bad for everyone who has worked so hard to qualify for the Boston Marathons. Like, I literally have heard stories from people who have trained year after year after year to accomplish their dream race goal now to be pulled the rug away from them. And I feel heartbroken for everyone who has gone through that experience. Personally, I've ran the Boston Marathon a few years ago and I trained really hard for it myself as well. And so I know how challenging it can feel right now. At the other hand, I'm also friends with many different race directors out there that are being put in really tough spots. Of having to adjust many of their race plans as well, either because of legal reasons that the regulations purely don't allow them to put on a race, or they're deciding that having many people run at the same time is not the best call right now. And so yes, it is very challenging for both sides over here. I think in the coming months it will be interesting to see what's going to happen because obviously Boston was first initially postponed from April to September. And now there's a lot of eyes on all these other races as well. What's going to happen with the New York Marathon? What's going to happen with the London Marathon? Um, the one thing that I will say is we will be back to running marathons again. It might not be in the same capacity, and we don't know when these races are going to happen, um, like full distance on the actual courses. There is definitely a transition phase happening at this point. Obviously, there's many more virtual races happening in many different capacities. Will be interesting interesting to see in what sort of way the Boston Marathon is going to set that up. There's going to be more shorter, smaller races happening, and I think this is where you'll see corrals happening spread out further and smaller groups of runners going around the same time. Last week I was part of a Road Runner Club of America event, and in some of the pre-read materials, it was interesting, they shared a survey with about 2,500 people about how comfortable do you feel running in this landscape. If you would run a race now and it would have 100 to 500 people, how comfortable do you feel? And then all the way up to like 10,000+. And obviously, to no surprise, people were not feeling very comfortable running a race right now with 10,000+ participants. And like the smaller races definitely had a higher likelihood of people wanting to participate in that. That's what I think you're going to be seeing over here in the coming months and even like into 2021 as well, that these races that are actually going to be happening are obviously going to be of much smaller size. Then I do think there's good opportunities now too to start setting up some of your own adventure runs. Like if your race is not going to happen and you want some motivation, towards training for a specific date than actually setting that in the future, whether that is 6 weeks out, 8 weeks out, 18 weeks out, whatever it might be. But actually training towards something, and whether you do that on your own or whether you do it with some friends or a running group or running crew, club, whatever it might be, that could really help with the motivation there as well. Recently I helped Duke get towards his Boston Marathon that he was training for. I recently posted a podcast with him and actually helped support him for a bit on his adventure there. And I think we're going to be seeing many more of those kind of adventure runs happening as well. Personally, I am a big fan of self-supported adventure runs where you just set a certain date or time and you decide, I'm going to be running from here to there, whatever the time or distance might be. For example, I've done it with shorter distances, but I've also done it running Like going out on the first of the year, just grabbing a bag of water and just go run for a few hours. See where you end up. I've also done it where it's for New Year's. I decide let's go run a marathon and I actually work myself up to that date. Or I've done it where it's been longer distances. Go out and run like a 100-miler. I think we're gonna start seeing many more of these different smaller adventure runs happening, and those are actually really fun to do. Maybe find what motivates you, what excites you in running, and do some of that. I do think you're going to start seeing more group runs happening again, and yes, some of the races are not happening in the short term, but still finding ways of what brings you joy in running is so important over there. So it's 6 in the morning, I'm on a remote trail, I thought And in the distance, I'm hearing a really loud speaker coming by. Someone is blaring, I believe, some Korean music. Hello, hello! Right now, no one knows when there's going to be a normal race again, and so I think it is important that we at least keep our fitness level to a certain degree, that we don't all of a sudden lose all motivation and stop running altogether and the fitness level drops all the way down. Even going out 3, 4, 5 times a week, even shorter distances, will just keep your fitness level to some degree. And I think that's why base building is such a good time right now as well. When you have a solid base, start integrating some speed work to really get that to the next level. And then I think other things to focus on right now. Truly good nutrition, trying to find ways to actually keep the stress levels under control. I've heard it left and right that many more people are experiencing stress in whatever way, shape, or form, even if that happens in your unconscious. I'm hearing people say that they're experiencing slower meth times right now as well, just from, from some added stress. Then one of the other things I think to focus on, sleep, obviously a very important one. And then mindset. Yes, many races have been canceled. Yes, there's a lot of different obstacles in the way, but we are runners. We are dealing with obstacles. And if you truly want to run that Boston Marathon and you've qualified for it, you will find a way to run it one day. And I think that's an important one to remember. We are dealing with different challenges. It's just more up to us to decide how we're going to deal with that. And so, um, yeah, that's what I wanted to close this video with. I would love to actually hear from you. What was the race that you have been training for, and how is this situation affecting you? How are you looking towards future races, and how are you adjusting your training? Please let me know in the comments. Be well out there, guys. Later.
