Outlandish October

It’s CRAZY & COOL!!!! 😎

As I write this, I’m watching The Weather Channel sincerely hoping none of you are impacted by the destruction of Hurricane Helene. The flooding- I don’t have words. As always, safety first!

Boston Marathon Problems

Coach Nikkia has a marathon coming up in Maine, and I am SO EXCITED for her! Basically, I’m excited to watch her wiggle through Taper Tantrums and twiddle her thumbs as she stares at her rowing machine in all the free time she has at her disposal! 🤣🤣

One of the things we do when she has more time is talk, and this week we TALKED. Most interestingly about the OUTLANDISH new Boston qualifying times.

“Boston needs to decide what it wants to be,” Nikkia said, and she is correct. I’ve written extensively about the Boston Marathon and how its importance really boomed along with the distance running industry’s expansion once Garmin emerged in 2007-2009. (Once upon a time we didn’t have a reliable way off a track to know how far we had run! CRAZY!) All these new marathon runners latched onto qualifying for Boston, because, aside from the Olympics, that’s all there was. Back then, the qualifying standards were reasonable: just about anyone determined enough could qualify. Which is why the people I ran with were too good for it. Today, that is no longer true.

I absolutely understand that Boston has a demand issue, and those are tricky. Just ask Ticketmaster!!! There are several ways Boston could have gone about this though, like partnering with specific races to limit where qualifying times came from, without changing the qualifying standards. This isn’t an Everyman race anymore and honestly dulls the sparkle for me.

For everyone else it feels more like a blow. What are we doing now?

Boston perhaps has figured out what kind of a race it wants to be. Maybe it’s up to us to decide what kind of runners we want to be. Either you love the marathon distance or you don’t, so with the goalposts moved out of reach why stick with this distance? Maybe this is a relief- Do you really want to do the work to be faster? That can take a lot of the fun out of running.

If you are feeling really bummed let’s talk it out in Office Hours. (Click the word "office hours" to book!). My honest response is GREAT! Let’s look at fun races in fun places! Halves don’t wipe us out, you can do a local HM or even 10k on your next vacation! You can plan that Disney cruise without timing it around your taper! Life gets easier when goals are more manageable, when our hobbies are just for fun. Who we are when pressure is high isn’t necessarily better than when the pressure is off.

You are coached. You are loved. And I can’t wait to see who you will become next. ❤️❤️❤️

#coachedandloved

Loving you is a dream come true, thank you for supporting my small, woman-owned business! Seriously- I wouldn't still be here without you.

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