Flyers Marathon Training Program -- It's That Time!



Annie B

Ladies and gentlemen, lace up your Nikes, reset your stopwatches, and put your race faces on because it’s finally, officially, inescapably Marathon time!

All over the country the weather is cooling down and runners are speeding up. Many of the nation's biggest races are between September and November, and thanks to the Flyers Marathon Training Program, I've had the pleasure of training with people who have run many of them. From Chicago to New York, the MTP has been helping us all get mentally and physically prepared for these monster races, and also remind us to be excited about them.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed at the prospect of running a marathon, no matter if it’s you’re first or your thirtieth (I’ve been told). The sheer mileage you have to put into training takes up as much time as a second job, and you know that each late night is going to result in a harder run the next morning. Here in New York, where everything from the subway to The New York Times is promoting the marathon, it can be daunting to know you do have to finish 26.2 miles before you can smile as big as that guy in the subway ad. 

NO Silly Blogmaster,
Not that Type of Subway Ad!

When I found out I qualified for New York, my first thought was ‘YES!’ and my immediate second was ‘Oh no.’

Luckily for this first-time marathoner, I found the Flyers and the Marathon Training Program, which has kept me fit, positive, and totally pumped to run this race. The MTP is staffed with enthusiastic and knowledgeable coaches who have done so much  -- including to stand in relentless downpours every Wednesday for the past six months -- in order to train us, and their support has been invaluable.

Frankly, all it took was for coach Todd to say ‘You’re running 10 miles tomorrow’ for me to do it. Before that, I didn’t know I could run that far. As the miles increased, I found that being held accountable for my mileage by both my coach and the fellow Flyers made a massive difference in how I trained, and truly, made it really fun. It’s been great to progress as a group, and to train with people with the same goal -- to compete in a marathon -- and on top of their full time jobs.

In addition to the Wednesday workouts, there have been a number of organized group runs in nearby parks and the famous 3-Bridges Run, all with set pace groups. Pre-MTP, I’d always considered running a solitary and painful thing. These group runs, while difficult, were so much fun I might have run them even if I wasn’t training for a marathon.

So, thanks to the MTP, the great coaches, and the very friendly and funny Flyers I’ve been running with all summer, I’m excited to run November 6th, and, more importantly, I feel that I’m prepared do it. Without the Flyers, I simply would not have put in the miles, nor would I have known what I was capable of doing. And, I would have been way more grumpy about training.

Good luck to all Flyers running fall marathons, congrats to those who already ran theirs, and if you are running on November 6th, I’ll see you there!

-Annie B