Let me start with: total fan girl moment!
A consultant I have been working with sent me an email a couple of weeks ago saying: ‘you mentioned you love running. We are hosting an event with Meb Keflezighi talking. Would you be interested in coming?’ Of course I was! I also got to invite one of my coworkers who is training for her first marathon. I am glad I picked her – of all people I know, I don’t think I could have found somebody else who would appreciate this event as much as she did. We had our fan girl moments together!
We got there early and Laura just laughed because when Meb walked in, I totally made a little ‘oh!’ sound 😆. When we managed to get to him and introduce ourselves, he looked at me and said that my name sounded familiar. Maybe he was just being nice, but it made me sooooo happy! I told him where we met. It was at Vermont City Marathon expo and he agreed to take a picture with me and signed a card for me despite being due to depart. He didn’t know it at the time, but it was my birthday. It was the best present I could have asked for!
I hope everybody gets to hear Meb talk or reads his books. Until today, I didn’t realize that he was one of those poor starving children in Eritrea. His family managed to move to Italy and later to the US. It’s amazing how much his family was focused on bettering themselves! His parents were pushing all of the children to get education first and foremost. So much hard work! Without a doubt, Meb was born with a gift, but he did work very hard for his success. He stressed the need for the proper diet to fuel running. He recalled being in college and eating way too much. Fixing the diet led to Meb’s results improving tremendously. It definitely made me think of some of my rather questionable food choices… I enjoyed hearing him talk about mental work that goes into endurance running. I don’t think most people realize how much of your mental fortitude goes into endurance sports. I frequently hear others (those who don’t do marathons, triathlons and such) focus on the physical training. However, it’s only one side of the story. In some ways, I think that reviewing your own motives is at least as important as hitting the pavement. You will have a crisis. And you will need to know why you are doing it. That’s the only way to get through those tough miles.
When I got to chat to Meb alone, he gave me an interesting piece of advice: practice as much of your running as you can on trails. It is harder, but then when you run a street race, it feels easier and you are faster. I guess I will be working on finding ways to run on trails around here. I have been getting spoiled: there is an abundance of paved roads around here. According to Meb, he limited his training on roads and track to speed work. Interestingly, I have been doing my speed work on the paths around my house, so they included a lot of hills. I will be rethinking some of my running training now!
I will definitely be reading his books and working harder on my training than I have before! I actually got an email from the consultant who invited me to the event the following day and he said he is now thinking about running a marathon. I applaud him and I will support him. I hope he does!
And a fabulous moment from the end of the event: I went to get his book autographed and when he saw me, he said ‘hi, Agata!’ I think it will take some time for the excitement to wear off! 🤩