Why Breaking2 Broke My Heart (& other weekend updates)...

If you're even remotely familiar with anything distance running you probably already know that Nike was working tirelessly with 3 elite distance runners in an attempt to run a sub-2 hour marathon. I'm not going to go into all the details of that journey because if you do a web search you'll be inundated with a ton of info on it. The attempt was run on Saturday May 6th in Monza, Italy (on the Formula One track). It started around 11:30pm EST and 2 hours and 25 seconds later it was over...

Just 26 seconds short of their goal! 

I was a little heart broken about it because I was really hoping they would all make it. But even though they didn't "break 2" it was an incredibly amazing accomplishment. It's the closest anyone has come to a sub-2 hour marathon. And while it doesn't qualify for a world record (because of the Pacers and other fancy stuff they had) it will go down in the history books of distance running. Congrats to the Nike team, to the athletes (especially Eliud Kipchoge, who crossed the finish first) and everyone who was a part of this endeavor. It was a truly incredible effort.

My truly incredible effort for this weekend will take the form of running in the Wings for Life World Run and swimming in the Swim Miami 1 mile open water swimming event tomorrow. It will be a back-to-back event day, and I will be exhausted after, so today I tried to take it easy with a 1 mile run...

Surprisingly, this morning's "easy" run was almost identical to yesterday's run (which did not feel easy at all)...

I have a conservative strategy for tomorrow so that I ensure I'm not too exhausted to complete both events. At Wings for Life I'm going to run anywhere from a mile to a 5K and then walk until the catcher car passes me. Then I'm going to hop on the shuttle bus that will take me back to the start so I can collect my medal. Hopefully I can complete the Wings for Life event and be in my car heading to Swim Miami within 1.5-2 hours of the race start 💪.

Swim Miami is part of a three-part swimming series, but unfortunately I didn't feel ready for the first one (Swim Ft. Lauderdale) so I'm only participating in Swim Miami & Swim Miami Beach...

So tomorrow (if all goes according to plan) I will get the middle medal after I swim 😊. I wish I had a preview of the Wings for Life medal but they tend to keep them a surprise. Regardless I know I'll be happy at the end of my two medal day! Wish me luck!

What's on your running/swimming/training agenda this weekend?

More on the Nike Breaking2 project          More on Wings for Life          More on Swim Miami