Never underestimate your impact

Never underestimate your impact.

Finished my 2nd marathon today.

What a day it was.

Didn’t go as fast as I did a few years back, but felt much better about the journey.

Calmer.

Knew what was coming.

Nutrition was on point.

Didn’t run as much for this one as I’ve been busy with the other triathlon sports, but still.

Felt good going into today.

Finished sub 5 hours.

The best part for me was my fastest kilometre was the last one.

Had just enough in the tank to let it all out.

But that wasn’t the best part of the day.

The best part was who I did it with.

Want to rewind to last year.

Was having a conversation with some friends about this Ironman journey and whether or not I should do it.

Said that in preparation for the full Ironman, I’d likely have to do another marathon.

They responded that if I was crazy enough to do a full Ironman, they’d join me for the marathon.

So I held them to it.

Fast forward to January 1st and I signed up for the Toronto marathon.

Sent it to my friends and 3 of them decided to sign up with me.

All of them are reasonably athletic, but they’re not runners.

They never thought about doing a marathon on their own.

But here we were.

This was a journey we were going to take together.

Then a month ago, they started to get cold feet.

Two of them didn’t start training early enough so they were worried about the injury risk and weren’t sure if they were gonna do it.

The other one dropped out to focus on other workouts.

But he said he was going to transfer it to another friend.

So a month before the marathon, one of my best friends since childhood decided to join me.

He had just finished a Hyrox event in Washington and said Yeah, why not.

So he had a month to train.

Ran as much as he could but didn’t have a full training schedule.

Started today feeling nervous.

But he kept up with me the entire way.

And now he’s a marathoner.

Something he thought he would never do.

The best part of this journey was what he said at the end.

‘I wouldn’t have been here without you.’

That hit me hard.

When I started this journey, I thought this was just about me.

What I could accomplish.

What I could achieve.

But over the last month, I’ve had several people tell me personally.

They’re inspired by this.

Inspired to get out of their comfort zone.

To try something different.

To challenge themselves in a new way.

Saw this tweet a little while ago that perfectly encapsulates this.

A dad’s advice to his daughter was this.

Don’t wait for anyone.

Go do what you’re going to do.

Then wait and watch.

Those who want to join you along your journey will.

The rest won’t.

But one day you’ll see.

You’re impact goes way beyond what you think.

It’s not about the end.

Or doing anything alone.

But it’s about who you bring along the way.

Never underestimate your impact.

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This week in training - Marathon prep week - (Follow me on Strava here):

Swimming - 0m. No swimming this week as I prepped for the marathon.

Biking - 30.5k - one bike session this week in zone 1 to get the legs moving. Still not outside.

Running - Marathon - 52.4 km - amazing run week. 2 taper runs earlier then the big one. Happy to say I’m now a 2-time marathoner. Didn’t do it as fast as my first one, but felt much better prepared, ran the whole way and best part was running my fastest kilometre right at the end when my legs felt like jelly. Legs are COOKED right now, especially the hamstrings, so good reminder to make sure I run the Ironman only in zone 2 as my average heart rate for this was pushing 160.

Notes from Week 17 of training:

• Good rest week in prep for the marathon. Really happy with the result and crazy to think I’ve now run 2, even though the max I ran this year was only 16k.
• Nutrition was a whole ordeal this week. Had to practice my carb loading and race day nutrition. Carb loading was a disgusting amount of food. You need to carb load 48 hours in advance so Friday, this was my day - 2 bagels with peanut butter, half a carton of juice, two glasses of chocolate milk, 2 gatorades, 2 bowls of cereal, chicken parm, a massive plate of pasta, 2 bananas and half a bag of chips. Saturday was 2 bagels with peanut butter, rest of the juice, 2 more gatorades, another massive plate of pasta, 2 protein bars, rest of the chips, Oreo mcflurry and small Mcdonald’s fries. Let’s just say my stomach did not enjoy this, but it worked! Race day nutrition was also on point. Woke up early to have a bagel with peanut butter, one banana, then throughout the marathon had 14 gels (gross), 8 salt tablets and water at every station. Really good prep for when the Ironman comes.
• No swimming was good this week.
• One biking session this week, nothing crazy.
• Great run week. Kinda mad I didn’t run as fast as my last one, but felt way better at the end, ran the whole thing, did it next to someone I’ve known since I was 5 and had a super fun day. No complaints, other than my legs are currently on fire. =
• Movies - watched Conclave (great movie, especially given recent events), Accountant 2 (pretty good, solid sequel) and Once (good musical). TV shows - caught up with Your Friends and Neighbours (decent background watch), Late Bloomer (few great episodes this season but liked season 1 way better. Definitely worth watching though, describe it as Canadian Brown Atlanta).
• Feeling so good about the marathon day, even with all this pain. Curious to see how my body responds this week, especially as I pushed my heart rate a little too much during the race so my muscles are going to be sore. Crazy to think I’ll be back to the grind this week, but that’s what it means to train for an Ironman. Less than 3 months left so now training really picks up. Need to remind myself to enjoy all of this journey. LFG!

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