WEBVTT 00:00:00.779 --> 00:00:03.740 You know I'm doing whatever it takes. Put out, 00:00:03.940 --> 00:00:05.400 never hitting the price. Getting the medals, 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:08.359 I'm ready to race. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time to 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.599 get it on. Life is not a dash. Living like a 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:16.260 marathon. Who ready? Who running? This is your 00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:20.719 time. It's your moment. Who ready? Who running? 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:27.699 Strap season, let's go. Welcome. to Not Another 00:00:27.699 --> 00:00:30.359 Running podcast, where we talk all things running. 00:00:30.839 --> 00:00:33.539 I am your host, Lion 6, and in today's episode, 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:35.899 I will be sharing with you how I fell in love 00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:39.799 with the sport of running. In October of 2022, 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.740 I decided to finally go ahead and get surgery 00:00:42.740 --> 00:00:46.859 on my left knee. I went from working out six 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:50.020 days a week to laying on the couch doing nothing 00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:52.479 but eating Reese's peanut butter cups, McDonald's 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:56.619 french fries, pizza. You name it, I was consuming 00:00:56.619 --> 00:00:58.880 it. I did not care. For the first time in my 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:01.960 life, I was going to get fat. That was my sole 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:05.799 objective. I'm talking dad bod in full effect, 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:09.260 big back season. So at the start of my quest 00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:12.819 for achieving the almighty dad bod, I weighed 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:17.879 175 pounds. By the end of that, sitting around 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:20.140 doing nothing but binge eating junk, I was up 00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:24.079 to 200 pounds. Your boy had gotten big. To go 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:26.939 from being athletic and fit to out of shape is 00:01:26.939 --> 00:01:31.560 a very humbling pill to swallow. I mean, I became 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:35.459 super self -conscious about myself and naturally 00:01:35.459 --> 00:01:37.780 what I would do, even though probably nobody 00:01:37.780 --> 00:01:40.780 really cared, really probably didn't notice how 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:43.200 out of shape I had gotten, I just cracked jokes 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.439 on myself. That was my security blanket, my way 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:49.180 of putting up a front so people wouldn't laugh 00:01:49.180 --> 00:01:51.879 at me. It was me being self -conscious about 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:55.159 myself. I look in the mirror and I didn't like 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:58.599 the dude that was looking back at me. I knew 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:01.040 I couldn't return to work now until the end of 00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:04.959 January, so I decided I would try to clean my 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:08.439 diet up just a little bit. Long story short, 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:11.659 that didn't happen. I could not kick my Reese's 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:15.400 Peanut Butter Cup habit at all. So I'm sitting 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.219 on the couch chilling and my son come down the 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:22.020 stairs and he's like, hey man. Then pants is 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:24.599 looking a little tight on you. I look over at 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:29.300 him. I'm like Yeah, I know man, but I Just don't 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:32.159 have anything to motivate me to really get me 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:37.479 to want to do better I'm in a rut He says You 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:41.900 should do a marathon Like with anything first 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:47.159 thing I did is Google Marathon near me First 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:50.039 result that pops up is capital city marathon 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:55.020 Sunday, May 17 2023 I look at my son. I'm like 00:02:55.020 --> 00:02:57.919 bet we in there. This gives me like five months 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:02.479 to get in shape I'm motivated now. Let's go So 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:04.939 obviously the first thing I do is sign up for 00:03:04.939 --> 00:03:08.159 the marathon just to make it official Then I 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.060 scroll down the page and I see capital city marathon 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:12.939 training group. So I'm like, hey, I might as 00:03:12.939 --> 00:03:16.340 well sign up for this too So I get the email 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:18.620 from the training group and it just so happens 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:22.199 that the first day of the running group training 00:03:22.199 --> 00:03:25.699 that first Saturday Happens to be when I can 00:03:25.699 --> 00:03:27.939 start training again. So it was like it was meant 00:03:27.939 --> 00:03:32.120 to be essentially so the group meets every Saturday 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:35.460 at 730 and pretty much the way the program works 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:40.159 is this 17 weeks and each week it It's designed 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.280 to help you build up your mileage to get you 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:44.780 to the point to where you could complete the 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:47.699 marathon distance. At this point, I didn't know 00:03:47.699 --> 00:03:50.419 anything about running. I was completely green 00:03:50.419 --> 00:03:53.139 to marathon training. I would go to the Saturday 00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:56.500 group runs. And then Tuesday through Friday, 00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:01.159 I run for 60 minutes each day at the same speed, 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:05.310 as hard as I could go. I didn't understand. anything 00:04:05.310 --> 00:04:08.330 about running at all. I just always grew up knowing 00:04:08.330 --> 00:04:10.289 go as hard as you can, go as hard as you can. 00:04:10.349 --> 00:04:13.050 So that's essentially how I trained for the marathon. 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:16.329 In fact, I was so silly that every time I run, 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:18.529 I'd be wearing a 10 pound weighted vest thinking 00:04:18.529 --> 00:04:22.730 that it's gonna make me more explosive and the 00:04:22.730 --> 00:04:25.949 marathon distance way easier. How foolish was 00:04:25.949 --> 00:04:29.269 that? So fast forward through the training cycle. 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:32.569 I'm going to all these Saturday long runs with 00:04:32.569 --> 00:04:35.550 the group and Like a fool, I'm sitting there 00:04:35.550 --> 00:04:38.089 thinking I'm racing people, and these people 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:40.389 are just, you know, running how runners are supposed 00:04:40.389 --> 00:04:42.870 to run, just out there to build the mileage, 00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:44.870 get the mitochondria, and I'm out here thinking 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:46.930 I'm impressing people, and I'm racing. I'm like, 00:04:46.930 --> 00:04:49.810 oh, look at me. I'm the fastest, yada, yada, 00:04:49.889 --> 00:04:53.110 yada, this and that. So I was really out there 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:56.569 feeling myself. The weight was coming off. I'm 00:04:56.569 --> 00:04:59.930 finishing these training runs first. I was so 00:04:59.930 --> 00:05:02.629 naive. I'm coming home telling my son, like, 00:05:02.670 --> 00:05:07.399 look. These dudes can't touch me. Come race day, 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.420 ain't nobody beat me. Don't nobody have the willpower 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:12.660 I have. Like, if there's somebody in front of 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.439 me, nobody's mentally tougher than me, man. I'm 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:18.439 about to go out there and I'ma eat. I was such 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:20.379 a fool. I didn't even have a running watch for 00:05:20.379 --> 00:05:24.259 crying out loud. So it's race day. We finally 00:05:24.259 --> 00:05:28.360 here. I am super excited. Can't nobody tell me 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:31.509 nothing. I'm about to dominate. I stepped to 00:05:31.509 --> 00:05:35.910 the start line. I got a smooth SpongeBob baseball 00:05:35.910 --> 00:05:39.050 cap. I got it turned backwards. I'm wearing Adidas 00:05:39.050 --> 00:05:42.529 UltraBoost 2019. These things aren't even running 00:05:42.529 --> 00:05:45.509 shoes. I don't know no better. Bang, the gun 00:05:45.509 --> 00:05:51.490 goes off. So I take off. I'm like, ah! Going 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:54.689 as fast as I can. I'm looking to the side, this 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:59.269 tall dude beside me, and he just gliding like... 00:05:58.990 --> 00:06:01.290 He's not even trying. Here I am, and I'm in an 00:06:01.290 --> 00:06:04.310 all -out sprint. Keep in mind, I don't have a 00:06:04.310 --> 00:06:06.050 GPS watch, so I don't know the speed that we're 00:06:06.050 --> 00:06:07.990 going or anything, but I'm sitting there in an 00:06:07.990 --> 00:06:11.149 all -out sprint. I'm like... I keep looking over 00:06:11.149 --> 00:06:13.730 at this dude, and he's just gliding like a gazelle, 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:16.810 and I'm thinking, I'm not gonna be able to hold 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.790 this up. So I say we get to the mile -two marker, 00:06:19.829 --> 00:06:22.560 and I'm thinking, okay... Fast horse don't run 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.699 long. This dude will tire out. I'm just sit back 00:06:25.699 --> 00:06:28.759 and gather myself. And as long as I can see him, 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:32.819 I got the heart that I'm a hocking down. So I 00:06:32.819 --> 00:06:35.480 slow down. I'm sitting back in the cuts. And 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.560 then one person passed me, two person passed 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.720 me, three person passed me. We get to around 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.120 mile eight. And there's this couple. And they're 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:45.680 walking. And the guy looks at me. He's like, 00:06:46.139 --> 00:06:48.160 good job. You're number 10 right now. And I'm 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:52.350 sitting here thinking like, Number 10 I'm fighting 00:06:52.350 --> 00:06:54.529 for my life at this time. My legs feel heavy. 00:06:54.529 --> 00:06:58.089 I'm like, oh boy What did I get myself into? 00:06:59.410 --> 00:07:01.850 So the capital city marathon course is a very 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:05.050 rural course like you're on a lot of back roads 00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:07.990 where there's nobody around So I'm sitting here. 00:07:07.990 --> 00:07:10.050 I'm looking around and I don't see nobody around 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:13.509 me. I'm like, man This ain't no good. So I'll 00:07:13.509 --> 00:07:16.339 just keep on going going through the course like 00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:18.920 anybody else would, I'm in pain, I just wanna 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.680 tap out at this point. We get to around mile 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:28.660 18 and the lead female car is pulling up behind 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:32.379 me and I look over my shoulder and I see a lady 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:34.800 coming up behind me and I'm like, ain't no way 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:37.360 I'm about to let no woman beat me. So I'm sitting 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:40.899 here. moving and flapping around, floundering, 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:44.279 trying to move faster, and she just comes gliding 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:46.800 right by me. I'm like, how is this happening 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:51.240 to me? Like, what is going on? I literally was 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:54.620 giving it my all, but I could not move. It's 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:57.420 hard to explain. It's like being in a scary movie 00:07:57.420 --> 00:07:59.819 where somebody's chasing you or a scary dream 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:01.139 and somebody's chasing you, and you're going 00:08:01.139 --> 00:08:03.620 all out, but you can't escape that person. That's 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:07.339 how this was. I'm looking, I'm like, oh, this 00:08:07.339 --> 00:08:11.740 is just pathetic. I cannot believe this. By now, 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:15.199 reality set in. I wasn't coming in first. I wasn't 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:17.699 coming in second. Heck, I wasn't even coming 00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:20.720 in 10th place. At this point, I just needed to 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:24.480 figure out a way to finish. So before the race, 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:27.639 I made it up in my mind that no matter what, 00:08:27.660 --> 00:08:31.060 I would not walk. Well, the marathon had different 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:36.659 plans. I'm at like mile 24 and all of a sudden 00:08:36.659 --> 00:08:40.659 coming up behind me is a lady that was significantly 00:08:40.659 --> 00:08:43.740 older than me. She passed me by and she has a 00:08:43.740 --> 00:08:46.799 nice calm smile on her face and she says, good 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:50.299 job. And I'm thinking, man, screw this. I'm about 00:08:50.299 --> 00:08:53.740 to just walk. I don't even care no more. So my 00:08:53.740 --> 00:08:57.399 slow trot turned into a walk of shame. I wasn't 00:08:57.399 --> 00:09:02.549 walking because physically, My body quit. I was 00:09:02.549 --> 00:09:05.750 walking because I was being a brat. I was embarrassed. 00:09:05.750 --> 00:09:11.889 I was mad. I just couldn't believe that this 00:09:11.889 --> 00:09:14.970 was happening to me after all the crazy stuff 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:17.950 I was talking. And to have this happen to me, 00:09:18.490 --> 00:09:21.509 I just couldn't handle it. I crossed the finish 00:09:21.509 --> 00:09:24.309 line in three hours and 28 minutes, finished 00:09:24.309 --> 00:09:30.080 19th overall out of 247 participants. I was in 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.139 pain, both physically and mentally. My pride 00:09:33.139 --> 00:09:36.340 was hurting. I remember walking back to the car, 00:09:36.940 --> 00:09:39.940 and my wife and son, they were helping me. And 00:09:39.940 --> 00:09:43.159 I stopped, and they stopped, and I waved them 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:45.000 forward like, go ahead, I'll catch up to you. 00:09:45.820 --> 00:09:49.600 I got to stretch. I was lying. I bent down and 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:51.220 acted like I was stretching, but I was actually 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:55.450 crying. I was crying because... I never want 00:09:55.450 --> 00:09:58.330 to let my son down. I always want to be somebody 00:09:58.330 --> 00:10:01.389 that my son could look up to. And at that point 00:10:01.389 --> 00:10:04.429 in time, I felt like I failed him as a father. 00:10:04.590 --> 00:10:07.230 I failed him as a man. I've always preached to 00:10:07.230 --> 00:10:12.830 him mental toughness. And I just couldn't do 00:10:12.830 --> 00:10:15.370 what I told him I was going to do. And it really 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:21.210 hurt my pride to come up short to my son. And 00:10:21.210 --> 00:10:24.879 he had said to me, good job dad I'm still proud 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:27.919 of you and the fact that he said I'm still proud 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.759 of you that just I just lost it so I was like 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:32.860 hey go forward and I remember bending down that 00:10:32.860 --> 00:10:34.539 thing like I'm tying my shoe and I'm sitting 00:10:34.539 --> 00:10:37.279 there just bawling or acting like I'm stretching 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:44.740 so fast forward to June Father's Day and my wife 00:10:44.740 --> 00:10:48.620 bought me a Coral's Paste II I looked at her 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:50.620 and I was like I don't know what you bought me 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:53.879 this for I'm not about to run no more And she's 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.779 like, no, but you are. I was like, what you mean? 00:10:57.539 --> 00:11:00.840 Well, I didn't tell you, but while you were out 00:11:00.840 --> 00:11:03.379 there running, Iverson asked the guy that was 00:11:03.379 --> 00:11:07.480 tracking the runners, hey, is Ricky Reed in first 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:10.539 place? And he looked at Iverson and laughed. 00:11:11.899 --> 00:11:13.980 See, that's one thing about my wife. She knows 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:17.100 exactly what buttons to push and how to bring 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:19.559 out the best in me. I was like, really? She was 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:22.450 like, yeah. I was like, OK. Yeah, I'm going to 00:11:22.450 --> 00:11:24.850 train. I'm going to make sure this dude never 00:11:24.850 --> 00:11:28.649 laugh at my son ever again. So first thing I 00:11:28.649 --> 00:11:32.009 did was Google marathon training books. I came 00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:35.129 across this book called Advanced Marathon by 00:11:35.129 --> 00:11:38.909 Pete Fizer, I think his name is. And so I read 00:11:38.909 --> 00:11:42.549 that book from cover to end, set the kitchen 00:11:42.549 --> 00:11:46.850 table, read it in like three hours. Then I devised 00:11:46.850 --> 00:11:50.879 my game plan. My next order of business was to 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:55.940 figure out a goal finish time So once again, 00:11:55.940 --> 00:11:59.600 I used my good friend Google and I said what's 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:04.320 a good finish time considered a Standard finish 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:07.019 time for somebody wants to be a good marathoner 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:11.620 and it says sub 3 So then I'm like, alright then 00:12:11.620 --> 00:12:14.860 this sub 3 season. So my whole mantra that summer 00:12:14.860 --> 00:12:19.379 was sub 3 I joined a Facebook group called Sub 00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:22.179 3 Marathon, and I would go in the group, and 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:26.799 I'm asking questions. And this guy said, in the 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:29.299 marathon block, you should try to get multiple 00:12:29.299 --> 00:12:33.000 20 -mile runs. So me being the guy I am, I said, 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:36.639 OK, cool. Every Saturday, I'm going to run and 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:40.820 do a 20 -mile run. And I remember every Saturday 00:12:40.820 --> 00:12:43.320 that I'd go and do these 20 -mile runs. Each 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:46.240 time it got easier and easier to compartmentalize 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:50.059 the distance. During those 20 mile runs, I had 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:52.500 so much time to think, so much time to reflect, 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:55.679 and I just loved them. It became an addiction. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.100 So to sum it up, pretty much that whole summer, 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:02.679 I followed the outline of the book. One speed 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:07.259 day a week, and then a long run on the weekend. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.899 I would do my speed session every Tuesday, pretty 00:13:10.899 --> 00:13:15.809 much. go and I try to run fast as I could for 00:13:15.809 --> 00:13:18.289 60 minutes I mean pedal to the metal I didn't 00:13:18.289 --> 00:13:21.429 have no understanding of fart licks or workouts 00:13:21.429 --> 00:13:24.649 it was just 60 minutes as hard as I could trying 00:13:24.649 --> 00:13:30.230 to keep under 645 pace during that marathon build 00:13:30.230 --> 00:13:33.750 I peaked my mileage around 75 miles per week 00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:36.509 I would say I was averaging around 60 miles per 00:13:36.509 --> 00:13:41.299 week That October I ran the Portland Marathon 00:13:41.299 --> 00:13:44.860 and I reached my goal of attaining the sub -3. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:48.860 I finished in 2 hours and 58 minutes. This time 00:13:48.860 --> 00:13:51.360 when I crossed the finish line, I didn't have 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.600 the feeling of failure and depression. I could 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:58.080 actually face my son a winner. I completed my 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.899 mission. I made him proud. I made myself proud. 00:14:02.580 --> 00:14:13.750 And that's how I fell in love with running. catch 00:14:13.750 --> 00:14:14.190 a flight.