On March 8, 2020 I competed in the Los Angeles Marathon.
One day prior to a global shutdown due to a pandemic, I was lined up at the starting line outside of Center Field at Dodger Stadium with 27,500 of my closest friends.
As a side note, I’m thankful that the race didn’t get canceled. After reading this, you’ll understand why.
In 2018, I was at one of my final baseball practices at The Master’s University. I knew that my playing career was coming to an end and was considering what I would do next.
You have a lot of time to think when you’re a pitcher at a baseball practice. Essentially, as a pitcher, you do about 45 minutes of actual practice then just stand around and find things to do for the remaining 3 hours and 15 minutes.
So I decided, once my playing days were over, I was going to become a long-distance runner.
Training didn’t actually begin until after my wedding in July of 2019… so there was definitely some buffer time involved. However, once I got started, I was determined to run a marathon.
If you know anything about the Adams Family… my family that is… not the *snap* *snap* ones… If we do something, we go 100% all in.
So naturally, with no running experience whatsoever, I decided I’d run a marathon.
I started out running one mile a few times per week, then built to 2 over time. Soon, I was running 4 to 5 5k’s per week.
I knew in order to take the next step in distance, I would need help. So I went to a local Barnes & Noble store and got a book called “Meb for Mortals”.
Meb Keflezighi was an American Olympian who won silver at the 2004 Olympics and finished fourth at the 2012 Olympics in the Marathon.
I studied everything he did from how he ate to how he trained to when he trained.
Shortly after, I started following his 9-day running schedule which included a long-run every 9 days.
The training process was fun on some days and long and grueling on other days. It’s not fun to run for 2-3 hours straight. I don’t recommend it.
In January, as a warm-up for the marathon, I ran the Pasadena Half-Marathon at the Rose Bowl. It was an exciting experience and made me certain that I wanted to do the full marathon in March.
Over the course of February, I got new running shoes and covered over 100 miles in preparation for the marathon.
So, on March 8, I was ready and I finished. It took a long-time and it was painful but I finished.
Afterwards, I began thinking about how training for a marathon is very similar to what I was teaching our clients about improving their health.
- You don’t have to be world-class to get started.
- With a little outside help, you can accomplish what you never dreamed possible.
- Taking tiny steps everyday is more valuable than huge leaps every other week.
- By staying the course with discipline, you can finish the race.
Although running a marathon is a bit extreme, I learned a lot about what it takes to be committed to something for an extended period of time.
A lesson that is invaluable to me and can be helpful for you on your health and performance journey.