 So, I ran a marathon, it was one of the hardest things that I've ever done in my life, but also one of the most rewarding. I know this video topic is a little different from the content that I would normally post and it may not get the views it deserves, but I really encourage you all to stick around, especially if you're interested in running a marathon or curious about how somebody as unathletic as myself managed to run a sub at 345 marathon. So to begin, I'll give a little rundown on what my running background actually is. I will be the first to admit that I was not born even remotely athletic individual. In fact, my parents thought I would never play sports just because of the insanely egregious lack of coordination that I had growing up. Like I remember in like six years soccer when it's just like a blob of children chasing a ball. Like I was a one kid that could never keep up with the blob. So I was just in the middle of the field by myself. Pretty sad. My dad was a college athlete and they definitely tried to sign me up for as many sports as possible and it worked a little bit, but I was always last. I was always the slowest kid on the team and that's something that I just, you know, accepted all through elementary and middle school. Flash forward to college and I made a lot more progress. As a member of the Air Force ROTC Detachment at Yale, I had to be in really good shape to pass my mandatory fitness test that we had every single semester. At this point, I'd worked hard enough, you know, training to become an officer in the military that I could run, you know, probably top out at like a 630 mile, which was decent. And, but in terms of distance wise, I don't think I'd ever ran anything longer than a 5K. And that 630 mile time only went down throughout college with, you know, all the festivities that go along with college and not working out consistently. So I decided for my last semester of university that I would try to max my Air Force fitness test because that's the fitness test that was gonna land on the desk of my first boss once I commissioned as an officer. And to max that test, I needed to run a nine minute, 12 second mile and a half. And I was determined that I was gonna max it. I ran a 926 before and barely missed it, but I wanted to run the 912. So for the first time throughout all of college, I actually started, you know, running consistently, which is something that I've really never, ever done. That is until tragedy struck. Let me see if they have the screenshot. Focus. Yeah, I was one of those very unlucky souls who caught the OG COVID before anyone was vaccinated. And it really, really, really did me dirty. After that, after recovering, my time just dropped like nearly a minute. And I couldn't, you know, I couldn't run more than a mile or two without just being so incredibly out of breath. No longer was I running to max my fitness test. I was running just to recover from this stupid virus. In short, I did not end up maxing my fitness test. But what I did do was continue to keep running after the fitness test and consistently at that. And I may have caught the running bug because in the coming months, my number of weekly runs and weekly mileage gradually started increasing to the point where I ran my first 10K in August of 2021. Actually, I might even be able to pull up some of my Strava runs on my account. I kept running all through August and managed to complete my first 10-miler right at the beginning of September. 10 miles, that's not something that I ever thought was possible for me. It was nuts and it was such a huge confidence boost. And at that point, my younger brother, who you've seen in some videos before, he was training for the Air Force Marathon. And right around the same exact time that I ran that 10-miler, the Air Force Marathon ended up getting canceled. Knowing I was moving out to LA and, you know, just a mere matter of weeks, I just on a whim look and see when the LA Marathon is. And it's November 9th. That was exactly eight weeks out. And me, somebody who had just ran my first 10-miler and I thought that was incredibly difficult, decided to sign up with my brother to run the LA Marathon. I started upping my mileage super quickly, you know, dealt with some injuries. I'll throw up some of the Strava screenshots on the map. But within a couple of weeks, I did my first half marathon. That was a huge confidence booster. But I soon realized that I had hit, I very much hit a wall after a half marathon. The runs just become progressively and progressively more difficult. And you have to, my times dropped dramatically. But I ended up doing a 15-miler, then hurt myself, so I had to skip my 18-miler and was able to squeak in a 20-miler. So at two weeks out, I ran my 20-miler and then I only had two weeks to taper down before the marathon. It was eight weeks, it was a tight squeeze. Finally, though, it was marathon day and the LA Marathon starts at Dodger Stadium and used to go all the way to Santa Monica, but this time there's a little turn back and it ended in Century City. My brother and I were really nervous. So nervous, in fact, that we spent probably a little too much time in the porta-potties before the race. So by the time we actually got into the open corral, we were so, so, so far back. So the first two miles, I was aiming for somewhere between an 8.15 and an 8.30 pace for the marathon, but we were passing so many people just to get up to the Pacers that were actually running those times. So the first two miles were pretty slow. By mile four, I was keeping that solid 8.30 pace. I was feeling incredible. I wasn't even stopping for the water station, so I would just kind of jog through and pound it as quickly as I could. By mile 10, I was definitely starting to feel the mileage, but we were running down Hollywood Boulevard. My girlfriend was on the sideline, so I met up with her real quick and just kept on chugging, so that was a little confidence boost. The next six, seven, eight miles, my pace really wasn't slowing down, but my body just gradually kept feeling worse and worse and worse. And by mile 18, I had to just pound the Advil that I had in my pocket before I started that final eight mile stretch. Like I had heard so many times that at mile 20, you hit the wall because you run out of carbs in your body and your body has to start like breaking down fat, but so I was just pounding the little cliff energy gels as much as I could to just keep carbs in my system, which wasn't really a great idea for my stomach, but luckily I didn't really hit a wall at 20. Like my body was trashed at that point, but was able to just keep on chugging. Then I hit the turnaround at mile 23 and knew that I just had a 5K left to the finish line. And my mindset completely switched. I went from, all right, we're just gonna finish this race too. I'm gonna finish this race as quick as I possibly can because my body is in so much pain. So my pace picked up significantly for those last three miles. I think the splits were like 805, eight minutes and like 750, like I was cruising at the end. And I finally get to that last like 200 meter stretch into the finish line. And I was sprinted it, you know? As soon as I crossed the finish line, I literally completely collapsed because both my hamstrings are cramping up and like I have to have the medical guys like helping me up and they're like, are you okay? And I'm like, yeah. And like I'm starting to tear up at that point because like I was so emotional. And then I see my brother and like he's crying as well. And it was just like, you know, we were running for over three and a half hours and like finishing that and knowing that we were capable of that was just, we felt like we're on top of the world but it was just so emotional. Like I can't describe that feeling. I think my official chip time ended up being three hours and 43 minutes. But the course actually ended up being longer than a marathon. I took a screenshot on my phone of when I actually hit 26.2 miles. And that was I think around the three hour and 37 minute point. And then I crossed the finish line and it was like 27 miles, which they don't tell you. I think 26.2 is if you're taking the absolute shortest path in the course and like cutting all the corners properly. I was a beginner. I had never told you how to do that. So it did end up being like almost a mile longer than it should have been. But it's just crazy to think where I was five years ago, 10 years ago. And it just, I don't know. I get a little emotional thinking about you know, where I am today compared to that. So that's my story. And despite how much pain I was in throughout that entire process, I don't think I'm done running. Hopefully this was an inspiring little story. Something that I was super excited to share with you. So if you made it to the end, I'd love to show your support on the video. Drop a like down below. Let me know if you have any questions about marathon or my training. Don't train like I did. If I do another one, I'm definitely gonna train properly. But let me know in the comments. My Instagram DMs are always open. If you have any questions, if you're new, subscribe. And I'll see you next time.