From “I’m not a runner” to Half Marathon Finisher

I don’t like running. Running isn’t really my thing. I like to do sprints but jogging sucks. It is sooo BORING. I don’t have time for it.

The poor self-dialogue could go on forever but you get the idea. At the end of the day, it all boiled down to “I’m not a runner.” It was a limiting belief in my life for 29-years.

All Talk, No Walk

In 2016, I took my first attempt at overcoming this mental block. I didn’t like having limiting beliefs and I knew the best way to break through it was to do the complete opposite. I was going to run a marathon and become a runner!

Let’s say I genuinely didn’t like running. At least in this scenario, I really put that belief to the test by going into the deep end. I didn’t play in the kiddie pool by just jogging a couple of times and saying it isn’t for me. I went ALL IN.

Well, 2016 came and went and I didn’t do jack squat! I had a new job at a technology company and I was living the startup life hard. I was all in on Gary Vee and putting in the time and pushing through with grit… And a year went by without me running a marathon lol

What I did do was start yapping my yapper. I told everybody about my plan thinking that if I told everybody what I was doing, it would somehow make me more accountable to achieve it. That definitely wasn’t the case.

What did come out of it was a strategy. You tell enough people and somebody is going to have actually done what you are trying to achieve. That happened and a base plan was created. Run the Lon Beach Half Marathon and then the LA Marathon.

Jumping Off A Cliff And Building A Plane On The Way Down

Stated another way, COMMIT first and put yourself in a situation where you have to FIGURE IT OUT.

Side note: My grandma says that should be my catchphrase, “I don’t know how to do it, but I’m going to figure it out.”

So, my wife and I made the commitment TOGETHER, to run the Long Beach Half Marathon. Looking back, we registered on June 20, 2019, which would have given us plenty of time to train for the race on October 13, 2019.

Next thing we know it, time flies and it is Sept. 2nd.

“Honey, are we still running the half marathon next month? HOLY SHIT!”

It is right around the corner and we hadn’t trained at all. We made a quick decision and did a Tony Robbins style, “YES!”

It also happened to be Labor Day. You may or may not know about running shoes, but those mofos aren’t cheap. We’re based in Vegas so we headed to the outlet to shop the SAAALLLLEEESSS! Came out with some good deals and now we at least looked like runners with those new shoes lol

Designing The Plane

We were committed, we had shoes, now we needed a plan.

This was surprisingly easy. We had also signed up for CAMP BYLR which came with a training plan for their Misogi Endurance Challenge. That was the base that largely focused on bodyweight endurance workouts with some occasional medicine ball exercises.

Now we needed to make sure we got enough time on our feet. I can’t find the blog post I used for the life of me, but essentially what we did was the training program from CAMP BYLR and added long runs based on a progression from the previously mentioned blog post.

• Week 1: 5 miles
• Week 2: 7 miles
• Week 3: 8 miles
• Week 4: 10 miles
• Week 5: 8 miles
• Week 6: Long walk + Half Marathon on Sunday

My wife and I also verbally agreed that our only goal was to finish the half marathon. I say verbally because in my mind I kept wanting to set an aggressive pace goal.

We (or I guess I) set an easy target of 15-min/ mile. I at least needed a minimum target.

Building The Plane

Week One

This was probably the hardest week. Long runs are typically planned for the weekends and our first weekend had a wedding on the calendar. The nice thing was that it was in Los Gatos which is a beautiful green area and was a nice escape from the Vegas desert heat in September.

We laced up our new shoes and drove to a spot where I thought it would be a 5-mile route. It was also an area that had Cougar warning signs. Whoops!

We start running and honestly, 1-minute feels like forever. We get through our first mile and come across a steep and long incline. Walk break? Yes, walk break!

Mile two and I’m lost. My planned route is out the window. The new plan is to keep running until Runtastic tells us we’ve hit 5 miles.

Mile three and we’re dying. We run by a high school where kids are getting ready for school. I feel like an old out of shape man at this point. I’m ready to stop. Azhalia tries to lighten the mood by running up some stairs and celebrating Rocky-style. With frustrated eyes and attempted smile, I tiredly grunt at my wife. Not exactly a proud moment, but that’s what happened.

Mile four–I swear Runtastic doesn’t work. There’s no way it’s only been 4 miles. I’m pretty sure we’ve already run a half marathon at this point.

4.75 miles and I start to recognize we’re close to our destination. I had chosen a coffee shop to finish at. I had heard to choose a destination that could also act as a reward to motivate you.

5 miles and we made it!

“Honey, what do you want? They have X, Y, Z…”

My wife replies with “WATER!” So much for a reward. We’re too exhausted to enjoy anything. I get something since we made the effort and start to walk back to our car.

Distance: 5.2 mi (5 mi target)
Average Pace: 18:58 min/ mi

Holy crap we’re slow!

Week Two

I don’t really remember anything from this run. Just how surprised we were that 7 miles wasn’t so bad. It took one long run and our bodies had quickly acclimated. It still hurt but it wasn’t torture like our first run. We even stayed within our goal pace!

Distance: 7.24 mi (7 mi target)
Average Pace: 14:49

Week Three

This was another painful run. Mostly because I have zero concept of direction/distance and get lost all the time.

I believe what happened is we were at mile 7 and had a decision to make. Run 1 mile home on a road that had no shade in the hot Vegas sun, or go a route in the shade that would be a “little longer.” We chose the latter and it bit us in the butt.

The shaded route ended up being 2.81 miles to get home! The last 1.5 miles my left ankle was done. I fractured that ankle in high school and it has always bothered me. All I remember is trying to focus on moving forward vs the pain.

Distance: 9.81 mi (8 mi target)
Average Pace: 15:22

Shoutout to my Dad! I think he joined us for the first 4-5 miles of this run 🙂

Weeks Four – Six

I don’t think there was too much to note here. Just generally feeling good for 90% of the run then struggling with ankle pain for the last 10%

Week 4
Distance: 10.58 mi (10 mi target)
Average Pace: 14:06

Week 5
Distance: 8.21 mi (8 mi target)
Average Pace: 14:07

Week 6: Taper Week 🙂

Flying The Plane

Getting Ready for Take-Off

I think our race day planning was pretty solid. We planned on continuing our taper and resting. We drove from Vegas to LA so we brought all of our groceries and even our blender to make our bulletproof coffee.

The planning was solid, but the execution was not so great. The mantra we found on the interwebs was “nothing new on race day”. Well, we hadn’t built the right habits for our long runs so we did a lot of new things on race day.

Rest the day before the race? Yeah, right! We came into town and saw family and part of that meant seeing my little sister. That also meant we had fun playing dodgeball for probably two hours. It doesn’t sound like much but it was exhausting and my ankle felt it that day and the next morning.

Cook the designed healthy dinner we planned the night before the race? Yeah, right! Let’s splurge and eat at our favorite vegan spot while we’re in town. We never get to eat there!

Get to bed early and wake up early enough for a smooth morning? Yeah, right! Late to bed and somehow an hour late waking up. I honestly don’t remember pressing snooze once.

This easily could have all gotten in my head and ruined my mood. Fortunately, my wife has done a number on me and helped me get better at going with the flow. So I did my best to do just that.

Why be in a shitty mindset for the day we’ve been training for in the last 6-weeks?! We got ready in record time, Azhalia attempted to make bulletproof coffee, we missed our first warm-up, and a peaceful slow morning but we’re out the door and walking a mile to the start line.

Buckle Your Seats

The rest of the morning was surreal. Volunteers setting things up. Marathon runners passing by since they started earlier. Other racers going through their warm-ups. The cool ocean breeze… And a birthday wish?

Somehow I didn’t really put it together until today, but the funny thing is that birthday wish went towards the person who first outlined our plan. Run the Long Beach Half Marathon and then the LA Marathon. Funny how things work out.

We get into our warm-up routine. Find our place with the group that matches our pace and wait…

We take in the moment and try to ignore the race day jitters. We take pictures for other racers who want their group shot, they take pictures for us. We listen for instructions from the announcers.

And suddenly the first group is released. A surge of excitement, a few steps forward and in my mind silence. This repeats three times, each time butterflies building more as we inch our way closer to the start line.

I scramble last-minute to turn on Runtastic for shits and giggles… and we’re off!

Takeoff and Reaching Cruising Altitude

Excitement surges. We take no heed of all the videos we watched about being careful of your pace in the beginning. We were running (should be read in a Forrest Gump voice).

All I remember for the first three miles was good energy. Everybody being fresh and just moving. We kept a quick pace, walked the inclines (what few there were), and enjoyed the moment.

I’m actually glad I decided to turn on Runtastic last minute. I’m also glad I’m writing this blog post because I never really tracked my progress despite recording it in there. The numbers aren’t impressively fast by any means but far quicker than anything we did in training.

• Mile 1: 12:31
• Mile 2: 13:05
• Mile 3: 12:39

Now we’re really in the race. The easy miles are over, the excitement starts to wane, and it is just me, my wife and forward movement.

Mile 6 is rough. Our pace slows. I revert to my mantra to focus my mind. We take our first Trubrain for fuel.

“Doing good. Looking good. Feeling good.”

Some Turbulence Along The Way

It is mile 8 and I’m hurting. My ankle is killing me. I can’t believe it! I’ve done this distance before. Get it together, Anthony!

Then the brain goes weird places. You ate the wrong food last night. You didn’t get enough sleep. Why did you play with your sister?!

I try to get back to my mantra. I’m slowly moving forward. The only thing really keeping me going is my wife’s commitment and seeing her keep pace ahead of me. She pulled me out of my rabbit hole simply by being there to push me. Isn’t that great? Having somebody to lean on just enough to get you out of a rut? And being there for them when they need you!

I should say my mile call-outs could definitely be off. I’m just throwing estimate out there based on my recollection.

Finally the clouds part and some excitement again! There’s a water station but not just any water station. A COCONUT WATER STATION served CHILLED. It makes me smile just thinking of it. What a relief that was.

Mile 10 was our slowest pace at 15:22. Because you know what surprise was at mile 10? Awesome supporters with all kinds of goodies. Who knew?!

They had pretzels, orange slices, GUs, donut holes, and more! So, of course, we slow down our pace and enjoy it lol. We take our second Trubrain and take in some fuel. I may or may have not had too many donut holes.

Final Descent

Miles 11-13.1 weren’t much easier. But there were supporters on both sides of the street, live music, and all kinds of good vibes.

A tired excitement is revived. Ankle is in a world of pain but I try to jog as much as I can.

Mile 12 and the wife and I are in a walk session. I want to say it is the first time we held hands during the race. A spectator yells, “You start together and will finish together, AWESOME!!”

That gets us going and the excitement all around starts to build. People keep saying we’re almost there… We get into a good pace.

400 YARDS!!

I hear somebody yell 400-yards and I’m ready to go. I pick up the pace up a final incline and sprint the decline.

I see the finish line.

“Finish like a champion” runs through my mind.

I empty the gas tank and go all out. I sprint past the finish line and we made it!

I lean on Azhalia for support as I’m limping along with my left ankle and right hip causing all kinds of pain. She holds me up as we get the freebies at the finish line.

We find a patch of empty grass and I essentially just fall to the ground. We enjoy our freebies (Honey Stinger, bananas, chips, more coconut water) and try to stretch.

What an EXPERIENCE!!

New Destinations For Our New Plane

So we’re limping along (I guess I should just say I instead of we) walking back the mile to our Airbnb, and an interesting medal catches my eye.

I find out it is a medal for completing the Beach Cities Challenge, a race series that includes 3 Southern California Marathons or Half Marathons – The Surf City Marathon, OC Marathon, and JetBlue Long Beach Marathon.

So, a new vision is born. We have a new plane, let’s take it out for some flights! This is what we have lined up.

• Feb 2: Surf City Half Marathon
• Mar 8: LA Marathon
• May 3: OC Half Marathon

Wish us luck 🙂