The Tunnel Vision Marathon Sub 3 & Boston Qualifier

I rode my bike up here yesterday going uphill, and the trail is in beautiful shape. I'll tell you, it's in great shape. You guys are going to have a great run today. Good morning. Getting ready to start the Tunnel Marathon over here. Snoqualmie, outside of Seattle. Gonna try to qualify for Boston. It's the last possibility for me to qualify for Boston. And my first race in more than 2 years since April 2015, the Boston Marathon. Definitely trained less miles than ideal. Had a little foot injury last week, got a skateboard in my foot. My toes were numb for a few days, but not gonna let it get to me. Feeling good going into this race, like positive thoughts that it's gonna be a fun race. Only about 400 people in total are racing this, so it should be quite mellow. It's a downhill race, so that's, that's nice. And, uh, yeah, my first trail marathon ever. I've definitely done other trail races, other longer distances, but actually to run a fast marathon, it's gonna be, uh, gonna be a new experience going through a tunnel. So that's why I'm actually wearing a headlamp as well. 2 miles of a tunnel, so see how that's gonna go. But, um, don't think I'm gonna be filming much because I gotta use all my energy to, uh to get to the finish line.

Keep your eyes focused. This is the tunnel vision. Find your vision. Get those headlights sharp. 4, 3, 2, 1, go!

Holy smack! This is dark. The mile markers after the tunnel are about 0.6 miles off, so my watch says 4.6, but the course says 4, so got some calculating to do. All right, halfway point. Roughly. I think it's 1:29:30, so we're at the sub-3 goal still. Distances are a bit off between aid stations. So how's it going, guys? Good work! Got a solid little group going over here. Everyone running strong. Aid station coming up. Water? You got water? Thank you, thank you very much. 18 miles in. Feeling good, trying to keep that heart rate between 156 and 158. Typically that's pretty doable. Sometimes when it jumps up to 160, slow down a little bit. How you doing? Water? Thank you so much, have a good one. 20 miles in, 2 hours 15 minutes 30 seconds, so Still looking on schedule to some extent. This is where the race really starts. 20 miles in, the rest was just a warm-up. Feeling good, let's do this! Starting to see some people in front of me. Hopefully I can catch them in the next few miles. Mile 24, we're still on pace. And look, I'm running next to— what's your name? Nick. Hi, Nicky! Nicky is Absolute beast! She's going to smash sub-3 hours here today. 2 more miles to go. Let's do this! Good, it was so good.

You took off, man.

Yeah, you were on a mission. Done and done. 2:55 34. That was definitely epic. So 10th overall, and, um, yeah, a little bit faster than my goal actually. The goal was 2:57. That was a fun race. Definitely never experienced anything like this, going through the tunnels. It was a 2-mile tunnel in total. It was definitely long, it was very dark, it was, uh, rather cold, which is actually good. The temperatures today were very cool, so that helped. When I got to mile 22, I started to, uh, definitely have a bit of a tough time, and I almost got passed by Nikki, and she was running very strong. She said her PR was 2:57, and she was trying to break a PR, so that worked out really well. So we got to push each other, and we ran the last 4 miles together. She ran so strong. It was really awesome to, to run those last 4 miles together. I don't think I would have been able to push myself that hard. But first of all, she was like running strong. Second of all, for some reason I also didn't want to get passed by a girl. I don't know why that was, but at the end of the day she ended up going right by me at the last— like, she was stronger at the end. So the last 0.2 miles she ended up running and she finished right before me over there. So I was super stoked for her. She PR'd by more than a minute and a half. I'm going to bring her on to the podcast in the next few weeks over here. I'm definitely excited to have a chat with her. I think one of the biggest takeaways once again for marathon racing is you can have your plan, but already know in advance that no race is going to go according to plan. So when things go wrong, it's more about keeping your mind calm and what are you going to do about it to fix the problem. For me on this race, the hardest part was not having consistent pacing on my watch. The GPS was completely off and the mile markers were quite off as well. When I came through the tunnel, the mile marker on my watch said 3.7 miles, but the course markers said 3 miles, so it was quite a bit different. And then the distance in between every mile marker of a mile seemed off as well. I timed it and the one time I was a 6-minute mile and the other time I was a 7:10-minute mile. So overall I ended up focusing on heart rate, purely running about 155 to 158. I know that's a heart rate that I can maintain for a longer period of time. So I focused on that for the first 20 miles. For me, I always say first 20 miles is warm-up and after that is really when the race starts. And so after mile 20, I let my heart rate go up a little higher towards 160, and then mile 22, 23, like 165. And at that point, I tried to keep up with someone else at mile 22, 23, and onwards. So my heart rate ended up going to 165, 168. It was definitely working hard knowing I couldn't go too long in that heart rate zone, but So yeah, the biggest takeaway is really things are going to come up and it's not always going to go according to plan. At the second aid station, I ended up thinking I grabbed the water and it was a Gatorade. And I know for me, when I mix my own gels with Gatorade, it might cause stomach issues. So I didn't want to do that, so I ended up having to backtrack lose about 10 seconds, but I'd rather do that than that I drink something and it might go wrong with my stomach. So I ended up, all right, just like resetting for a little bit, just staying calm, grab the water, drinking that, and onward. So you lose about 10 seconds, but I'd rather do that than getting stomach issues potentially later on. This morning before the race, I was definitely feeling a bit nervous, and I think it's actually good to feel nervous for a race. I hadn't raced in 2 years in total And when you are getting ready for your race, you might feel nervous as well. One main thing that I try to focus on is, all right, you have some of these negative thoughts in your mind. I had it as well, even this morning. I was like, did I train enough miles? I didn't, I didn't put in the training miles that I've done in some of the previous races, and my foot has been hurting last week. I got a skateboard on the inside of my leg, really was sensitive the entire the entire week. I basically in the last 10 days have only ran one time. That's kind of the worst taper that I've ever had. Typically I try to build off the mileage, and now I didn't run for 8 days straight, then did one 5-miler, and that was it. That was the last 10 days of running. So yes, you're starting to question, did I prepare for it the right way? At the end of the day, it is not the last few days. It is more the consistency of training, the work you have put in for 2, 3, 4 months, or longer beforehand to get ready for a race. And that's what I put my attention on as well. At the end of the day, I've had several great training runs, and so that's what I tried to focus on. Don't focus on the negative, focus on the positive. And eventually, you're here for the fun anyways. You're trying to do the best you can, and if it's not your day, it's not your day. But I went in here knowing I was gonna give it my everything And I did. And today it ended up working out again. So yeah, I'm stoked. Tunnel vision marathon. I think the main difference this time between this race and some of the previous races that I've done is that I've matured a bit in my running. I used to be so dead serious and so focused on my goal. Uh, this is my goal, I got to run that, and I wouldn't waste any energy saying hi to people. And right now It's way more about the fun, about thanking the volunteers, about slapping high fives along the course, and it really makes it a lot more fun. I've noticed that I was running much more mindful. So when I saw a beautiful trail, I was really taking it all in. I was looking around, I was looking around. Like, so for 2 miles we're running through a tunnel, and typically I've noticed I sometimes zone out a bit and just focus on the running. But this time I was looking around like, hey, what's on the top of the of the tunnel, what's at the bottom. And even on the trails, that was— it was so beautiful. There were such beautiful views left and right, and there were probably 5 different overpasses to run over. So I was often really looking around and taking it all in. So it was a very pleasant, fun run that way. Even getting a chance to talk to some of the other people running, and although didn't want to waste much effort in talking along the way. At the end of the day, just little pep talk to each other to like, come on, let's stay strong and let's go for it, like definitely helped a lot. Walking over to the bus, the shuttle to get back to the car parking lot, and I'm actually totally able to walk. A few of the marathons I had a hard time walking afterwards. I already went for 1 mile little jog, had a little massage, drank a bunch of water. There's so much good food over here, so going to eat some food and then, um, yeah, going to chill out for the rest of the day. What an incredible community the running community is. It's so fun to meet people from all over the world, complete strangers, everyone high-fiving each other, all so passionate about running. It's, uh, it's really epic to see. So just got back in the car. And now, yeah, I'm gonna head over to the family and then back to the airport, back to LA. But that was absolutely an incredible experience. So stoked to come out over here and meet so many awesome people. It was a really good race, many good volunteers. The food was good, the aid stations were good, very well put together. So, um, yeah, stoked. Now I can train for the next marathon, October Long Beach, so we got a little bit of time, not that much, but