Running to the Next Level (Big Announcement)
my running journey so far, what's next, and the debut of the Asheville 2025 series
Hey everyone and welcome to another running article!
First of all, if you are new, welcome! Make sure you are subscribed and you can get these letters straight in your inbox!
This article kickstarts a series of articles as I prep for the Asheville Marathon 2025. These articles will also be paired with visual content posted on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. So be sure to follow me there too: @themeyerperspective
I plan to debut the channel in January!
This series will go over some of the more in depth details of my training, what I’m learning, what I’m changing, and how all of this can relate to everyday life too.
So whether you are a runner or not, I hope this series will resonate with you!
In this first kickoff article, I wanted to do a deeper dive into my marathon journey so far, what has led me here, and answer some crucial questions about what I’m doing differently for this upcoming marathon.
As I look back over my last 2 marathons, I ask myself these questions:
Was I eating enough? Was I eating the right foods for my runs? Was I doing the right workouts, getting enough miles in per week, and was I actually hitting my harder quality sessions with everything I had?
So as we go through my running journey, those are the questions I want to answer.
Let’s jump in!
First Half Marathon
As with most runner’s journey’s, my running obsession started with some arbitrary race goal. For many it might be a 5K, a 10K, or it could even be the full marathon.
For me it was a half marathon.
A lot of people set the goal to “run a ___” as a bucket list type item. Then they achieve the goal, pat themselves on the back, and move on to some other life goal cherishing that moment where they conquered the run forever.
For other (weird) people, like myself, something different happens.
All of a sudden that run clicks something inside of them, a fire starts, and they think…“let’s do that again…but faster.” And so the craziness begins.
And as that fire grows, the enjoyment and obsession over what is one of the most interesting sports begins to explode too.
When I got into college, the furthest I had ever run was about 4 miles. My main endurance activity growing up was going to Taikwondo twice a week. While I did earn my black belt in that sport, I definitely was not running cross country or track along with it. I was all in on martial arts.
I would run occasionally to try and “stay in shape” for my actual sport. Or, in reality, just because I thought it was probably a smart thing to do.
But back then, even a half-mile jog was a good workout for me.
So when I got to college, I did what so many others do, and I set an arbitrary goal.
“I want to run a marathon before I graduate.”
Then senior year rolled around and the furthest I had ever run in one go was now 5 miles.
With 5 miles as my all time max, I quickly downgraded that goal to a half marathon and even convinced my roommate to run with me!
We picked the flattest and most fun race we could find: the New Orleans Rock n Roll Half Marathon.
We trained up, made it there, and made it across the finish line.
The first goal had now been achieved.
I already knew I wanted to do more, but the true obsession didn’t start until I actually learned the proper way to train for a race.
First Half Marathon with Actual Training
The New Orleans half marathon was a success, but the training for it was the most bizarre training method I’ve heard of.
The race was like March 1st and we didn’t start training until January. That essentially gave us 8 weeks. Which is usually fine for people with high levels of fitness running multiple times a week already.
Most training blocks for normal people are typically no less than 12 weeks.
We knew we could both run 4 miles without stopping and we needed to get up to 13.
Most people told us the most you ever need to run in training is 10 and then adrenaline will carry you the extra 3 on race day.
That was the advice we got…which is actually pretty accurate.
However, we didn’t believe that so we wanted to run the full distance before race day.
So our grand plan was to run 3 days a week. Each run would be the same distance and intensity, and we would just increase the mileage by 2 miles every week.
We would run Monday, Wednesday, and then increase the mileage on Saturday.
And somehow that actually worked!
We didn’t get injured, thankfully, and we got to run the distance of 13 miles.
From that race, I continued training here and there as I graduated and moved to North Carolina. After I moved, I started signing up for the annual half marathon in Durham.
That was where I set and accomplished my first time goal of a sub 2-hour half marathon.
1:59:59 I believe was my official time. Something like that. It was long enough ago, the results aren’t actually available online anymore.
After that, I still didn’t know how to train well. I would run a few times a week, and often my plan was to run as fast as I could for as far as I could and try to increase the distance. And every now and then I would run at a slower pace for a certain distance too.
That was as dynamic as it got.
However, I thought I had figured it out. And since I was now a running genius, I decided to sign up for the Big Sur Marathon for April 2020!
…
Yup…2020.
So that got canceled.
Not before putting in a lot of training with my “rock solid” training strategy. The furthest I got was a really slow 20 mile run. But the training I did was mainly random fast runs, usually I’d run 2-5 miles as fast as I could and then one really long run, slowly increasing that long run up to 20 miles.
Well, covid hit, then I got married! Taylor and I would run together some and even signed up for a couple races together. In fact, our first unofficial date was a 5K.
But fast forward to 2023 where we signed up for the Nashville Rock n Roll Half Marathon together along with her sister and mom.
Around this time, I also met a real runner who shared with me a book: Jack Daniels Running Formula.
In that book, I finally started learning how to properly train, the correct mileage to target, what an easy recovery run is, what tempo and v02 workouts were, and why they were all important.
So, I put the book to the test. I set a lofty goal of running a sub 1:40 half marathon, stuck to the plan in the book, trusted the process, and crushed the goal!
1:39
This is when the obsession was officially lit. Now it was time to conquer the full marathon.
First 2 Marathons
I won’t go into great detail on my first 2 marathons, as I have full articles covering those already, but if you are interested, I’ll link them here!
The quick summary is I trained for both using the same plan in the Jack Daniels book. And in both I had the goal of a sub-3 hour marathon.
First was the Outer Banks Marathon in November of 2023. The second was the Asheville Marathon earlier this spring of 2024.
They were both hard. The first one had rain and 30 mph headwinds at times. Only one person actually ran sub-3 hours.
I finished at 3:30.
Fired up, I started training again too soon and injured myself.
After a quick recovery, I started training in the cold, snow, and ice, and finished the Asheville marathon in 3:20 after hitting a huge wall around mile 20.
The one big thing I learned from both marathons is that you should always keep learning.
When I started the half marathon in New Orleans, I thought I had this running thing figured out all on my own. You want to run a distance? Just increase mileage until you are there. You want to run faster? Just run that pace at whatever distance you can and slowly increase the mileage.
When I found the Jack Daniels Running Formula, I learned just how wrong I was.
But then I did it again…I stopped learning.
I thought I had found the running equivalent to the Bible. But the reality is, the only Bible in this world is God’s Word. His Word is the only book that truly is enough.
In all other aspects of life, one book, one set of knowledge, is never enough.
So, now, I’ve picked up 2 more books, and as I study, I am learning some of the mistakes I made in those 2 first marathons, and some of the changes coming…
But we’ll save those for another day!
But those changes are about to be put to practice.
I’m getting prepared to jump into my next training block for another crack at the Asheville Marathon 2025!
So, again if you aren’t subscribed, ensure you are so you can follow along as I try to tackle the goal of 2:59! This is about a 20 minute PR, but coupled with what I think went wrong in my last marathons, I know I can do it.
That is another big part of training. You have to be confident in yourself. We should pick somewhat realistic goals, but also…dream big.
If you are confident your goal is within reach, then you didn’t come up with a big enough goal.
At the same time, I’ve also learned that if your fitness isn’t there, you can’t fake it in a marathon. But if training goes smoothly, we’ll crush 2:59 and maybe even more!
This will be my 3rd attempt at a sub-3 hour marathon, but you know what they say…3rd time's the charm!
I want to tailor this content to be not only interesting to runners, but also to highlight endurance and process through learning any new skill. Whether it’s another sport, a new business, a new relationship, or growing in your love and knowledge with the Lord. I hope that you find this series encouraging, inspiring, and perhaps a little entertaining.
And if you want to help support, the best way to do it is to like and subscribe on your go to platform: Substack (here), YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
Until next time, run with joy!