It became very clear to me very quickly after Mike and I started dating that he had a huge amount of innate talent, but not a lot of discipline to harness that talent. For example, his "training" regimen for the 2007 marathon (the first of our relationship) consisted of a couple of 5-7 mile runs a couple of times a week, and once - once! - he added in a half-marathon. Most people training for a marathon run significantly more than that, even just in the early weeks of training! And then he got up on the day of the marathon and just ran. 26.2 miles. 26.2 miles in the hottest Chicago marathon on record. And finished it so quickly, that we didn't even know the organizers had shut the race down after 3 1/2 hours (due to the heat) until we got home later that day.
It was then that I had the thought that if that's what he could accomplish with so little training, he could absolutely move mountains with the right program. It took a while, but I did finally get him to give the CARA group a try, and I knew right away he made the right decision. He enjoyed his runs and learned how to run better and faster. On race day, he shaved exactly 22 minutes off of his 2007 marathon time, and 20 minutes off of his PR. But the best part? All the (south side!) friends he made through CARA. His running life truly changed, very much for the better!
A Map Showing A Sub-3-Hour Marathon In Each State
Blue dots are the 50 sub-3 marathons and green are the 10 missed attempts since my 1st sub-3-hour marathon at the 2009 Boston Marathon
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