Shot by Runar Gunderson, a kind soul from Norway who graciously and selfishly shares his experience, advice, and recommendations on all things related to preparing for and running the New York City Marathon.
If you’re running the NYC Marathon for the first time, or even if you’re a veteran, definitely check out Mr. Gunderson’s website and be sure to join his very active and helpful New York City Marathon 2024 Help Group Facebook Group (note that this link is for the 2024 NYCM, so look for either “New York City Marathon Help Group” or “Runar’s Runner”).
Amazon Prime released “Ingebrigtsen: Born to Run” today. I watched the first half of the first episode during lunch today. My initial impression is that Jakob is an asshole. He has a deserved cockiness on the track and I’ll be the first to admit that I love and appreciate confidence and cockiness, especially in athletic endeavors when you can back up what you say and how you present yourself in public. But in the first 15 minutes of the show, he’s just an inconsiderate ass to his very-much-pregnant wife. And everyone in the show thus far drives Mercedes and Lamborghinis and I’m rolling my eyes as I write this, wondering if I want to watch the remaining episodes. I will though, because the Ingebrigtsen brothers, Jakob especially, are phenomenal athletes and I’m curious to learn about how they’ve been raised, where the live, how they train, and compete. I’m not as excited to get all of the behind the scenes lifestyle and drama. That’s one of the big reasons why I’m not active on Instagram. There’s an old saying, “don’t meet your heroes.” I’d rather know you as the world record holding runner and not the asshole off the track or road.
I swear I’ve seen this stretch pose eleventy million times in the past 10 years in running-related media. It’s gotten to the point where I’m going to document it in a photo gallery here.
I just happened to stumble upon this video when I opened YouTube the other day and immediately became engrossed. My wife makes fun of me because I gawk at runners. I just think the human body while in flight is beautiful thing. And, just like every human is different, the way every human runs is different, and it’s amazing to see how someone who might otherwise be considered to have “bad form” is an amazingly gifted and talented runner.
I digress. I admittedly didn’t pay much attention to the first sets of 3ks that the guys ran, but started watching in the early reps of the 12 x 250m hills. And then I heard coach calling out “43 seconds.” I then started trying to do math and gave up because 1) 250 meters isn’t a common distance and 2) these guys are just cruising effortlessly after fatiguing themselves on the track just minutes prior. And they all do such a great job maintaining maintaining their form, posture, and picking their feet up, 12 times over.
And I like Coach Metcalf’s simple yet reassuring calls. “Great work,” “looking great,” “fantastic,” “amazing job,” “great mechanics.” And the reminders to relax and drive the elbows back.
The reasons are many, and far behind me at this point. In recent times I’ve found myself scratching my head and wondering why we even started our run club, and why we continue to support it. Like many endeavors in life, there are times when the bad starts to outweigh the good. Or, in running training, when you reach a point of diminishing returns.
But then you see something like this and it all becomes crystal clear again.
I'm Josh Janicek. I'm a student of running and run coach. Follow along in my observations of how running imitates life.
