My aim with this blog post is to document a little bit of my origin story and training approach that led me to back to back 11-minute personal records (PRs) at the Richmond Marathon in 2023 (2:52:47) and just recently at Richmond 2024 (2:41:00). Spoiler alert: I couldn’t have accomplished anything without the great gifts from God and the selfless support of my loving family and friends.

I wasn’t supposed to be fast

This story begins 13 years ago in high school where saying I was a mediocre high-school cross country/track runner would be an exaggeration. As a Freshman I PR’d with 24 minute 5k and usually finished close to last. I didn’t crack 20 minutes in the 5k or break 6 minutes in the 1600m until Senior year. I never thought in a million bazillion years I would have a chance at even finishing a marathon, let alone qualifying for Boston and beyond.

Let’s rewind to Spring of 2018. I was a failing chemistry major at Virginia Tech with seemingly nothing going my way. I hadn’t taken care of myself physically or mentally for months and had nothing to show for it grade-wise. I changed majors to environmental science to live to fight another day. I was looking for a new apartment and found a random stranger to room with. Zach and I both liked NOFX and he played drums and I played guitar — A match made in Heaven. He was 27 at the time and I was 21. He selflessly big-brothered me showing me how to be an adult by teaching me:

• No, cereal isn’t a meal
• Do push-ups and pull-ups
• Go outside sometimes and run
• Stand up straight and ask what you want from this world
• to get a job
• How to play music with others in some semblance of time.
• How to cook
• How to clean dishes
• How to clean your room
• How to read a book
• That free-will exists
• How to recognize my faults and how to correct them
• To aim high
• Tell the truth, or at least don’t lie

I hadn’t ran anywhere close to more than 5 miles a week in almost 3 years. He encouraged me to get out the door and start running again. In the Spring semester of 2019, starting in January Zach, our neighbor Matt and I would meet at 6am to do push-ups, abb roll-outs, and go for a short 2-mile run (Which at the time wasn’t short). We did this on a consistent basis until May 2019. I was left alone that Summer while working for the small-grain breeder program as a farmer. I kept running. I ran around 10 miles a week. Nothing crazy, but I was steadily building a base. It wasn’t until later that Summer when I was home in Winchester for a week at the same time as my great friend Adam was. We named that week Hell Week. We pushed it; running every morning and lifting every evening. We capped off the week by running our old 10-mile mountain loop we used to run during cross country. Finishing that run, feeling as good as I did, blew apart any doubts I had about what I could possibly achieve as a long-distance runner. Granted, we only ran that at about 9-minute pace, I knew I could handle more.

Going into that Fall semester of 2019 at Tech I set the goal of racing the Hokie-Half, my first time running more than 10 miles. I trained hard, running 20ish miles a week and a long run once a week of around 8 miles. I surprised myself that race, running around a 1:40, about 7:30 min/mile pace.

I never considered running a full marathon until the Summer of 2020 when my great aforementioned friend Matt called. He asked if I would be interested in running one with him. How could I say no? I agreed. I created a training plan and did my best to execute it. The race ended up getting cancelled due to Covid, so I decided to map one out around Winchester and give it a go. That first Marathon might be the hardest run I’ve been on yet. It was essentially a joke. At the furthest I had ran a strong 18-mile long run leading up to it. I was arrogant and didn’t bring any nutrition, water or calories with my biking pacer Jonah. At mile 19 I began to feel it. I slowed down dramatically for those last 7 miles finishing with a time of 3:17. I felt miserable and had learned a lot from that gruesome experience.

In May of 2021 I met my beautiful girlfriend Emily and she has been my biggest supporter in running and life since. She has been at every Marathon, and most other races, cheering me on and taking care of many details so that I can better focus on the races. Thank you Emily!
I didn’t start training for my first official marathon, Richmond 2021, until around July. Considering the race was in November, that only left me around 4 months for some serious preparation. I did my best running many steady 30 minute, 45 minute, 4x800m track workouts, and some long runs of around 18 miles in length. I felt prepared, or at least, more prepared than the November previous. I had a great race finishing with a time of 3:03:43. I missed the 3-hour cut off for Boston by a couple of minutes. I declared that I would return and get below 3 hours.

The next year I ran into some injury issues with shin-splints from stupidly training in minimalist shoes. Don’t get me wrong, I love minimalist shoes; just not for long-distance running. There’s a shoe for every activity. I showed up to the start line at Richmond in November of 2022 woefully underprepared. I ran a 3:10:29. Disappointed, I gathered myself, debriefed where I went right and wrong and did my best to address the shortcomings.

Finally. Richmond of 2023 I ran a time of 2:52:47, an 11-minute PR. I did it. How? I trained harder than I had ever trained before. I ran weeks with the most volume I had achieved ever before with my longest week being around 60 miles. I made sure to emphasize quality long-runs and then I supplemented these long-runs with plenty of short 3, 4, 5 mile runs during the week. I didn’t run track workouts, fartleks, stride outs, or care about accurately training in the proper heart rate zones. I trained with the philosophy that enough quantity could out do the lack of high-intensity quality runs. I was partially correct and surpassed my expectations getting well below that elusive 3-hour goal.

I took three days off of running after RVA 2023, then preparations began for RVA 2024. Looking back I ran 31 miles the following week after the race. I kept running throughout the holidays and didn’t really take a day off. I remember hopping on the treadmill on January 1st, 2024. At this point I was determined to see just what I was capable of. I ran about 20-30 miles a week from January to about March when I started training to race the Blue Ridge Marathon. That race was brutal with 7500 feet of overall elevation change over 26.2 miles I had my work cutout. My build up for that race was several 30 mile weeks, a couple 45 mile weeks, then a 60 mile week preceding the race. Fortunately, my good friend Phill raced it with me and was had a great day. I finished with a time of 3:17 in 6th place.

When May rolled around I set my sights on RVA 2024. I ran about 40-50 mile weeks each week in May. In June I ran about 40-55 miles a week of high quality, meaning I was running these all at and around a pace of about 6:55. In July, I ran 60 miles each week, continuing to bump up the intensity and training volume. Rarely did I run with anyone else and I never ran with music in. These miles were all outside usually in the morning. Worth noting, I starting going to the runabout sports Wednesday night pub runs in April. I got to run with a lot of terrific people and I met Cole Hocker before he went on to run Gold in the 1500m in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Those late Spring and Summer Months were immense because I was able to build a strong base to launch an intense Marathon work-up off of.

As I approached August 2024, my first race for the RVA 2024 26.2 season loomed on the horizon. It was a 10k in Charlottesville on September 14, 2024. This course was flat, but had two nasty turn-arounds that could make any athlete quiver. Turn-arounds ask the endurance athlete to do something he/she never does: decelerate quickly, then accelerate quickly. My previous 10K PR I ran in May four months previously at the Winchester Apple Blossom 10k with a time of: 36:54. My goal was to beat that. It was a lucky day. In Charlottesville, I managed a 35:23; reassuring me that my training was working. I rarely rest. I ran a 14-mile long-run in Charlottesville the following morning. Racing during a marathon work-up is great, but I would prefer it not interrupt marathon specific training.

On rest, the best runners in the world take regular rest days. Don’t quote me on it, but I believe that Kenyan long-distance runners will take Sundays off. I obviously, have an issue sitting still for too long and I don’t rest much. This is probably a fault in my training and something I should work on.

My next race before RVA 2024 was the hokie-half marathon in Blacksburg, VA. The year previously, I ran a 1:21:25. This year I raced a time of 1:19:24; another thrilling achievement and Blessing from God. I was surprisingly emotional this race. Throughout I reminisced on my first hokie-half. I had come so far in those five years and I was overwhelmed with gratitude. It was a beautiful race and I couldn’t have asked for a better outing. On a race like this, you never know who will show up. Some years the hokie-half has professional runners swoop in and steal the show; but on this day I approached the starting line and found many extraordinary athletes, but none that I estimated more than a handful of minutes faster. This flipped my strategy and I began to hope I could crack the top 10. I started fast, leading the front pack at times. I eventually fell off of 4th and 5th and hung out alone in around 6th place. I stayed in the fight and grew into the race. My average mile pace was around 6:00 min and honestly, I didn’t know how long I could keep that up for 13.1 on an exceptionally hilly course. By mile 8ish I surpassed 5th and 6th place and cemented my position in 4th; holding it for the rest of the race. I looked forward to a hard 6 weeks training before Richmond 26.2, in the hopes of cracking 2:50.

My goal for RVA 26.2 was to break 2:50 (6:27/mile). A modest goal considering my recent results. However; 10ks and half-marathons aren’t marathons, and I ought not dare to confuse them as such. Behind the scenes I had a secret aim to obliterate my PR and shoot for the moon. I had never ran so well, so fast, and felt so confident; a man can dream right? I attempted to stay humble and keep from expecting too much.
I meticulously planned out each run for the next four weeks with a two week taper before Richmond. I coined the four week operation as Owning October. I was gearing up to run the heaviest I ever had averaging 11.7 miles a day for the month and peaking in mileage/week at 85. This month included a myriad of different styles of running including:
⦁ Progressive medium runs
⦁ Long runs at marathon pace
⦁ Fartleks
⦁ Track workouts
⦁ Stride outs
⦁ and slow recovery runs

I’ll delve deeper on operation Owning October in a future post. It was a successful block of training and I was fortunate to be happy, healthy, and confident at the start line in Richmond. I looked for my friend Noah, an incredible runner I wished to keep up with for as long as I could. He was planning to run around 6 minute mile pace for the first half-marathon and then race it from there. His pace was faster than I dared to adhere to. I ran with him in the early miles at a pace of around 6:00 per mile. I reminded myself to run my own race and I let him go. I couldn’t believe how great I felt running 6:00 – 6:10 minute miles, I was curious to see how long that could last. At around mile 9, I met Gaston and Rob. I chatted with them and their goal was to break 2:45 (6: 17 mile pace). We were ahead of that schedule and we all decided to stick together trading off breaking the mild to moderate wind that faced us. We ran strong as a unit. At around mile 18 I broke off and picked up the pace. I ended up finishing the last 8 miles alone; with negative splits until the finish, with my fastest mile being my last at a time of 5:25. Thanks to the help of my Loving family and friends (Emily, Mom, Mark, Sarah) I managed a massive race finishing with a time of 2:41:00. What I thought were my limits were shattered and I aim to keep testing them.