How to win on the World's Majors Marathons?

Experience can take us farther. How to win on the World's Majors Marathons?

Eventually, we all fall short in one way or another. Whether we’d like to admit it or not, chances are that we have stumbled at least once or twice on our quest for greatness.

Failure is always an inevitable thought that hound athletes and runners, especially when it comes closer to the big day. However, with the right support and mindset, one is mostly always able to carry on. Not trying is by far the greater possibility of not achieving.

I have so far ran three out of the six World's Majors Marathons. Each of which brought me a different set of experiences and sense of achievement. I’ve planned, trained, accomplished, and celebrated it. I’ve tried to invest enough time and the right motivation, so that I could gain the necessary strength and readiness for the challenges ahead of me each time.

"No marathon gets easier later. The halfway point only marks the end of the beginning."

-Joe Henderson

The surprising motivator

Perhaps, I’d share what motivated me to run, in first place.

It was late 2012, the city was recovering from the hard strike of hurricane Sandy. At that time I worked with an Investment bank in NYC and enjoyed casual runs at Central Park.

It crossed my mind to eventually run a marathon one day but I never took that very seriously before.

The NYC Marathon had been cancelled that year for a serie of fair reasons. Several parts of the city had been damaged and had to be rebuilt.

However, it was on a cold Monday morning in November, that I took the usual commute from the Upper West Side on a subway and got off at Columbus Circle station. That was no usual morning.

I was amazed to walk up the stairs of the station and find myself greeted by several happily smiling volunteers who threw me confettis as I passed an adapted finish line. They went on to even hang an actual medal on my neck.

I was really surprised as the volunteers kept on congratulating me as if I had just finished an actual marathon. The next thing I knew was that I signed up as a member of the New York Road Runners (NYRR) and started the qualifying program for the next year's marathon.

I needed to justify that medal to myself!

The beginning of the journey

My first marathon then happened in November of 2014. NYC was chill and windy that morning. At this point I was already running, training and preparing for this big event for almost 2 years. The year of 2013 was entirely dedicated to qualifying for this race.

Actually, it might be worth it to comment that I ended up running an ultra-marathon (60 kilometers or 37.3 miles) in November 2013. My first big race happened to be almost one marathon and a half. It took me seven hours and roughly 10 loops around Central Park to finish.

By the end of 2013, I'd ran the nine qualifying races and volunteered on a few others. NYRR has a 9+1 program in which one needs to run nine qualifying races and volunteer for one, to get guaranteed entry to the following year's race.

I started 2014 running the NYC Half Marathon and kept on the goal to prepare for the full 26.2 miles coming next. I can say that was a great year filled with training and expectations.

After the race, the wall

It was a great race day. My finish time was 3h:53m. Not bad, huh! A list with the name of all finishers under 4h was published on the NY Times. I still have the newspaper!

I really got excited after running my first marathon and thought I'd be running at least one big race a year. I thought of running in different countries, of building a great personal record wrapped with diversity and adventures. What a momentum!

Still in 2014, I signed up the 9+1 program so that I could run NYC again in 2015. It just so happened that I didn't make it in NYC and neither anywhere else that year. In fact, my next marathon would only happen four years later in NYC again with a pace roughly 1 hour slower than the previous one. One could argue that at least I didn't hit the wall during the race, but later. The winter was my biggest wall.

Other opportunities to build resilience

My next race then occurred in the Fall of 2018. Again, I was competing to myself only. The goal was clear, FINISH! Of course, I wanted to finish with a good time but the strength wasn't fully there yet.

The positive side of it was that I finished, one more time I crushed the odds. I also had the opportunity to run again in 2019, now in Berlin, Germany. In 2019, I was able to finish faster than 2018 but still building up to recover the good time I had in 2014.

Times of crisis

I was really excited to get on more race under my belt in 2020. But as we live in a moment of crisis and uncertainty due to the COVID-19 breakout, along other races across the world, the marathon I was to run in Milan got cancelled. I believe this crisis too shall pass. Our prayers go out to the families most affected by this crisis.

The lessons I've drawn from this awesome journey

I hope to continue to put myself out there, challenging my own limits and exploring the pleasures and rewards of achieving it.

I am my biggest competitor, my mindset is the key factor in determining what I can do and whether I can do it at all.

I didn't win recognition, not once, but confidence. I didn't get the confettis this time but I still won the medal. I won the constant support of my wife and friends. I won despite the odds of not finishing. I won new memories for the rest of my life.

I won these races not in first place or even close to the pro elite runners. I won every time against the miles in front of me. I won the tiredness and exhaustion beating my body. I won against the thoughts that tried to stop me. I won against the psychological wall pushing back throughout the track.

These experiences improved my physical and mental health overall. It improved my confidence and encouraged me to keep on going.

You may relate to this or not (yet).

You may have wanted to run yourself and thought you couldn't make it. Let me say this, you can do it! The crowd will not stop you, in fact, they will cheer you on and it is amazing how that pushes you forward. The only one keeping you from achieving your goals is you. Be it running a race or anything else, it's just a decision away.

Get out there and keep on moving forward!

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