A Critical Decision
Choices, Decisions and Consequences.
Every day we are all faced with choices in which we’ll make a decision and then live with the consequences of those choices. Not all consequences are bad, often time the consequences of our decisions lead to great things like a healthier life, new friends, success in business and success in your career.
This past week I traveled to New Mexico for work where I was afforded the opportunity to be a part of a team that accomplished great things. It’s a rarity in this life when you get to be a part of something unique, to do something that has never been done before. The team lead for this effort asked me to return in October to continue building on the success achieved last week.
I’ve been given a choice to be a part of this team again, however the consequences of making the choice means there are serious negative impacts to my training plan. In the last five weeks of training leading into the Marathon in November, four of those would be limited in time available to run properly.
This is my 3rd Marathon build and I know that the last five weeks require many, many miles and hours and hours spent on your feet and dedicated to training. I’d be looking at 50-60 miles per week, which physically is not intimidating, but the time commitment to complete that many miles is a variable that I just can’t manage.
I feel that it is more important to be a part of this team in NM than it is to train for my next Marathon. This feeling is derived from a foundational belief in selfless service. The consequences of being a part of the team in NM has the potential to positively impact many, many lives for the better and by “positively”, I mean bringing our warfighters home alive to see their families again.
For that reason, and that reason alone I feel it’s the right and moral decision to drop my November Richmond Marathon. As much as I write about the social impacts of running and the benefits of running with friends and with a club, the undeniable reality is that training for and running The Marathon is a deeply personal decision.
Choices have been presented to me and I’ve made a decision. I will drop my 2025 Marathon.
Since I have dropped The Marathon and my miles will wane in October I have to modify my training and make adjustments that align with a 2026 Boston Qualifying Marathon. Especially now since the BAA has decreased the qualifying time by FIVE minutes! My qualifying time has been reduced to 3:15, which means I need to run a 3:10 for the possibility of receiving a bib.
The Shift
Everything I need is located in my garage. I’ve got the barbells, weights, dumbbells, kettlebells, squat rack, jump rope, box, pullup bar, rings and more. It’s all there, waiting to be used again. Before I picked up running again as a full time hobby I would conduct CrossFit workouts in the garage 3-5x a week. I loved it because it was intense, quick and didn’t take up a bunch of time. I also felt like I was getting decently strong.
I’m going to upshift to High Intensity Interval Training 3x a week while logging 100+ miles of running per month and staying “Half Marathon Ready”.
I’ve programmed H.I.I.T training before and it looks something like this.
10 minutes of dynamic stretching and warmup drills.
5 minute warmup drill. (Burpees, Jump Rope, Box Jumps, Pull Ups, etc)
15 minutes of strength / skill to practice the movement(s).
30 minutes for the “Workout” - AMRAP / EMOM / FT / CHIPPER, etc.
About Last Week
I traveled to New Mexico on September 8th and spent the week on the jobsite. That meant early mornings before 4am and long commutes. In all honesty, I didn’t possess the fortitude, desire or discipline to wake up at 2am to get in my run before driving to work at 3:30am. It was clear that around my hotel were groups of homeless, illegals and free roaming dogs. I simply didn’t think running near my hotel would be safe.
After arriving back to the hotel after work, the temperatures were near 100F and again I lacked the constitution to get out there for some long runs. So I kept it short and kept it on known routes that were common to runners and walkers. Thank you Strava for those public heat-maps! It really lets me know where all the runners are.
Despite the long hours and constantly varied work schedule, I did manage to get in a couple of runs during the week. One at Sunset and another at Sunrise; the only two times of the day that I really like the desert.
Overall in New Mexico I only logged 5.63 miles over six days.
I’d like to say I was “Training at altitude”, but at 4,000ft Above Sea Level, I was still another grand below the threshold of 5,000ft when “altitude training” is considered real. Whatever the technicality is, I felt the difference at that altitude and found it rather reassuring that after three days of no running I could maintain a 10’30” pace with ease.
The conditions in NM were about as opposite from NC as could be. It was hot, dry and at altitude. The humidity hovered around 10% and thus the “Real Feel” temperature was actually lower than the real temperature. It was 93F outside but due to low humidity, it only felt 89F!
This is the exact opposite of NC where humidity will over around 90% and while it may be 89F outside, the real feel is 93F.
I’m not a rookie to running in the desert. From the Middle East to Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada and now New Mexico; it’s all the same. Hot and dry, making your lips and mouth dry and causing an uncomfortable cough. It’s a weird thing, I went through as much water in NM as I do in NC for a 5K run. The difference being in NM I needed the water to defeat the dryness in my mouth, not because I was thirsty.
Overall running in NM was short and sweet and there really is a couple of magical moments in the desert in those sparse moments when the sun first appears and when it winks goodbye.
Let’s RACE!
I arrived home late at night and woke up early to meet my club for a local 5K Race in a nearby town. The My Kids Club 5K is the oldest 5K in North Carolina and this year was the 48th running of the 5K. It’s flat, fast and the last mile is a dead straight away where you can see the finishing arches with each step.
The Clayton Area Runners had about 25 people on the course and everyone was ready to go! My friend Amy had made a recovery from previous surgeries in the year and this was her “comeback race”, we were all excited to see her out there.
Jan and I had a little back and forth before the start about who was going to win this one. We have an informal competition each January at another local 5K where it’s turned into quit the rivalry. She beat me in 2023 and I beat her in 2024, but not by much. Next January we’ll be going all out to see who can throw the hammer down for a full 5KM.
All together there were four or five of us who were all about the same caliber and had similar finishing times. In my mind, anyone of us could have been up front but nobody would really know until the race was over.
I spoke to Justin at the start (pictured bottom-left in the tank top), and he said he’d be averaging an 8’00” pace. That sounded good to me because I was aiming for a sub-25min 5K. Next to me were Carlos and Jackson who both wanted a sub 25 and Jan who said she would be closer to 28 this morning.
I’ve found that before a 5K I need a decent little warmup. Luckily for me, so do my friends Becca and Jan, so we trotted down the course for a half-mile warmup before the start. We timed it just right and finished the warmup with 4 minutes to spare before the starting gun.
I was still sweating when the starting gun went off and I crossed the starting mats and took off! Justin told me he was going to maintain an 8’00” mile, but he’s a liar like the rest of us. At the 1/4 mile mark I was running a 6’45” and at the half mile mark I was running a 7’00” flat and still not catching Justin despite keeping him within eyesight.
It was at the half-mile mark that I decided to back off, knowing I couldn’t maintain that for the full 5K. So with a little discipline, I backed it off and logged the first mile in 7’30”. Not too bad!
The second mile presented some turns and a headwind that slowed my pace down to an 8’05”. It was at the last turn, when the wind caught my back and I was going to step it out the last full mile towards the finish.
Funny. I could see the entire mile. It was just one long straight away. No turns, no hills, nothing. The finishing arch never seemed to get any bigger or any closer.
Damnit! Just experienced this in NM the day before!
The difference? About 4,000ft in elevation and no fancy sunrise during the 5K.
Without thinking much about it, I simply starting turning the feet over as much as possible and knew with every step, was a step closer to getting this over with. My lungs were on fire and my feet were moving quick. I was ready for this to be over with.
I was running in fear to be honest. Fear that Carlos, Jackson or someone else was going to catch me. You know, one of my friends. But no, something else happened all together. I was passed by Tony’s 12yr old son who blew past me on the last mile and made it look easy. This was yet another universal truth in my life. No matter what race or pace I’m running, there will always be someone much younger who’s faster and someone who’s much older who’s faster. Happens every-damn time.
I crossed the finish line in 24:32, in large part to Justin who finished well before me, turned around and gave me some motivation in the last 100m to step it out. With that final push I averaged a pace of 7’54” and placed 4th in my age category and 31st out of 164 overall.
Almost immediately behind me was Jackson and Carlos. We were the first four runners in the club to cross the finish line. Everyone was pushing hard!
We cheered on the rest of our club runners and without surprise, many set new PR’s for 1-mile times and 5K times. The course proved once again to be FLAT and FAST.
My friend Anthony and I walked to the 1/4 mark and cheered on our runners when we finally saw our last runner, Soufen. She was our most seasoned runner on the course and was closing out the end. Anthony and I ran alongside of her for the last 400m, giving her encouragement and keeping the pace. With 10meters left, Anthony and I pulled off to the side to let her finish on her own and get through the arch by herself.
You know what she did, she fucking walked! In the last 8 meters, she started walking, literally at the finish line!
But hey, when you’ve logged as many miles as Soufen, you can do whatever you want, to include walking across the finish line if you want! Honestly, we were all just happy to see her back on the course after suffering a medical condition last year.
As for Jan, she didn’t beat me, but she did place 1st in her Age Group! She had an incredible run, which scared me a little for our January duel. Amy had a great comeback-race and placed second in her Age Group! Her finish line picture really captured all the joy of being back at a race with friends.
Weekend Long Run
The next morning I linked up with friends to get in a 12-mlie long run. This run consisted of 10-miles at an easy pace followed by the last 2-miles at Chrissy’s Marathon Pace.
I set my watch to only display the time of day and distance and did my best not to look down at it. I was there to keep pace with everyone and help people hit their pace and distance goals.
In the group Carlos was going for 8-miles, Amir, Chrissy and Myself for 12, Justin for 15 and Jon was getting in 19-miles total. Carlos turned around when he was ready and the rest of us kept chugging along at a conversational pace that wasn’t challenging.
After running a 7’54” yesterday, the morning run at 10’15” felt relatively easy, despite the humidity soaking through my clothes and draining my water bottle.
It was an easy Sunday Run Day and it felt good knowing I could easily get out there and run 12-miles without issue. Even better, it was with good people and good conversation.
The Long Run Continues
I start my Marathon build for the 2026 Mesa Marathon in September 2025. I’m exactly 12-months out from the start of that 20-week build that I hope will result in a Boston Qualifying race.