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This Marathoner Decided to Run 26 Races by Her 26th Birthday

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- Hey, how's it going? I'm Quin George with Runner's World. Last fall we decided to work with 10 of our members to get them ready for the New York City Marathon. And today we're speaking with Lauren Wright, who decided to run 26 races by her 26th birthday, but now more than 100 races completed on her fitness journey, she has an amazing perspective on what running means to her. I figure we can just start simple. I would love to know what running does for you. - Yeah, so stress relief, endorphins, energy. It's like my go-to like, you know you're having a tough day coming up, get up in the morning, get some miles in. I run with my dog sometimes, he's a Vizsla, so sometimes it's a relief from being attacked by my own animal. They have so much energy, you have to exercise them like an hour and a half a day, you know, so he's like, oh, we're coming back from a run, I can go on another one or like, whenever you're ready. So sometimes there's a more practical reason why I run as well. But I would say the one that I think about the most is the stress relief and the disconnecting. I'm somebody who spends a lot of time in my email, on my phone and so I have found it to be a hobby where you really just get to listen to nature or listen to music and not spend the time checking your email, communicating with someone else. It's kind of my like zen time, if you will. So I love it for that for sure. - Almost everyone I talked to about it and I also get it entirely, I mean, I feel like that's most workouts where I appreciate it just for, it brings me back to my body. I mean, it's exactly what you said. I feel like our attention spans are kind of getting eradicated. So it's nice when you're forced to run and you're like, I'm present, I'm lucid, I'm in my moment. What kind of motivates you to run? What keeps you going? I mean, like I read the article and I know you said that a big part for you is motivation and how you get yourself to keep going. - [Lauren] Yeah. - So what draws that out? - I like running, I'm a competitive person. I once accidentally won a 5K and I think it would probably be contested. It was a weird thing like the trail wasn't marked and it's possible I ran less than, it doesn't matter. Whatever, got the prize, it is what it is. But in general, I'm not like competing for victory. It's really just about like, you finished the race, you feel good about yourself. But I do like that aspect because I am a runner of size. I'm not fast. I'm very like atypical for some of the races that I do, especially like the full marathon series. So it's nice every time you survive, like I'm very much like I survived that. And so like when you're doing hard things, whether it's like work or life, it's fun to jump into a challenge, like a long distance race as an example and then be able to use that as an example for other contexts of surviving through hard things, thriving through hard things, taking on challenges that maybe didn't align with your body or your skillset or any of that. And then like proving that you could do it. It's a concept that like having that as a practice and having done over 100 races is just like a good reminder that I can use for other contexts of life. That is really helpful. So that's like knowing that that is the case is really motivating. - Yeah, yeah and I appreciate a lot that you had to say about it. I think your mindset specifically is really lovely. The part in your article when we talked to you where you said, when you went to sign up, they didn't have double XL shirts as an option and like obviously you read that line and like that's sad. That's kind of disheartening. And the fact that the immediate follow up you were like, so that's great for me 'cause I can serve as an inspiration for people. I think that is such a beautiful way to go into it. I think that kind of makes you even more motivated 'cause you're like, I can really set a standard for other people. - Yes, for sure. - A bit more that you talked about, which I thought was really interesting that I want to ask you about. What do you think is more crucial for completing a marathon? Kind of your fitness or your mindset? - I think it's mental. I mean like there have been races where I did all the right things, all the right training and they went well. And then there's been races where it's like you ran 10 miles to run a marathon or you ran six miles to run a half. And like you don't feel prepared at all. But it's so much mental, right? There's the hitting the wall in the marathon and you know, when you hit that mile 20, it's like, my body physically is not working, so we're really only gonna rely on brain. And that has definitely been the case for me. Like I think I've maybe mentioned, I don't know, but New York took me a long time and starting at 11:30 in the morning, it was pure mental motivation. 'Cause it's like I had been running for a full work day, like it took me seven hours and 44 minutes. At that point, it's not physical. Like if it's physical, you should be proud of yourself because people don't move for eight hours in like really most context of life. But at that point it was like physically we know nothing was cooperating. So it was very much like you've done this before, particularly since New York was my third. I was like, you did this twice before and didn't die. So we think you will survive, but body is not cooperating so you just have to tell yourself you will survive. And that was nice, I actually ran with someone who I never met before. It was their first race and I was able to like serve as encouragement for them because they hadn't done a marathon before. So they didn't have that same context of like, I will not die 'cause they were telling me that they would and I was like, you won't, like, I understand that everything hurts, but like if you determine that you'll finish, you will be fine. Like worst case scenario, you get down on all four and you start crawling, but you'll get through. So we ran probably five or six miles together, which was really nice, so yeah. - Yeah, I mean, I agree with you entirely. I especially think a big part of that a point is with every step you're taking, just reminding yourself, oh my God, I'm one step closer. It is gonna be a lot more, but that's still another step literally in the right direction. How do you think Runner's World helped mentally prepare you? - So the cohort group was phenomenal. Like, we're still friends. We run a lot as a group, so there will be some group chats that get outta control and not everyone has an iPhone, so I won't address that right now. (people laughing) It's a little bit like, there's a lot of love this message, like this message 'cause we're encouraging people and because I think there was like 10 of us and so each of us are running races all the time, right? There will probably be every weekend, two or three people running a race and posting their medal photo or asking for tips or advice or whatever. So it's phenomenal. Like the cohort model I think was great. Like we are a group that will absolutely be friends for life. We have a place where we can go to talk about nutrition and shoes and have you run this race before and if you have, what should I wear? What should I know about packet pickup? So like, just the fact that they brought all of us together was something that I just don't think we would've built those quality relationships otherwise. And super grateful for that. And then just being able to have a group that provided a lot of advice. I was one of those people who was looking for a new running shoe and I was able to get a whole bunch of just like expert tested, this is what we would recommend. So I don't know if you've seen that meme, the one that's like, what's the best shoe? And they're like, well you gotta think about gate and speed and da da da. What's the second best shoe? The Brooks Ghost. It's like that, right? Like I was just pretty much suddenly, what's the best piece of advice I could get? But there was actually a practical like, do you supinate, do you pronate? How far do you run, where do you run? You know, so actually having, in addition to the group of like self-proclaimed experts and most of us have run enough races that, you know, we could probably claim it. And then the actual Runner's World authorities as well was like a really cool combo to have in a training cycle. - Every single person I've spoken to when I've talked about, I'm like, oh, what was the benefit to running with Runner's World? They're like, I met some phenomenal people. Every person brings up how phenomenal everyone was, how you all stay in touch, how you're all motivating each other. Like it literally feels like you all met before these meetings and said like, all right, make sure we hype each other up. Everyone is so motivated by each other. It's really endearing to see, I assume the cohort is one that no one really saw coming, but is there anything else that really jumped out from training with Runner's World that you didn't realize how much it impact your race? - I mean, the VIP tent at the marathon, I don't know how I would've done it otherwise. The people who I saw like sleeping on the grass, I was like, where did you get your bagels? So like that was huge. Like truthfully, I'm so, so grateful. Like I'm glad I didn't get into New York any other way 'cause I would not have wanted to experience it like the masses, being able to like take a nap, hang out, read a, get a bagel three hours later, get a second bagel, have like reserved porta-potties, like kudos to Runner's World for that, that we were able to have that VIP space, which was, yeah, that was so great. As somebody who started at 11:30, it was like I would've been there literally all day sleeping on the wet ground. So grateful for that. And then I just think the whole experience was a ton of fun. Like everything from the photo shoots and just like the meetups in New York, I think, yeah, it had something to do with the cohort, but I think the entirety of like just an elevated experience of running a marathon, especially like having done two before, I didn't even have friends with me at my first marathon. It was just me, and so it was nice having, you know, people surrounding me, both the experts who helped make it a fun experience. And then also the cohort members, who by that time we were absolutely friends. - So would you recommend training with Runner's World to other people? - Oh yeah, I mean like I said, if we had questions about anything from like nutrition to shoes to running in heat and running in cold and both again, the idea of you getting expert advice and then the expert advice of just people who have run a lot I think was really nice, right? Like a second voice and a test it and I read a lot of the articles and things like that, but it's kind of nice to ask your own personal question, right? Like you can use a search bar and say like, when did Runner's World talk about X? But it was nice to actually have the chat to say, as opposed to me searching through 550 different articles, could I ask my personal question about nutrition before a race and then get somebody to respond to me personally or even to ask like probing questions, like, say I have a nut allergy, right? So like if they're recommending that, you know, almond butter and a bagel is a great alternative, it's like okay well that won't work for me. So getting to actually have somebody who could respond to me as opposed to, obviously with an article it's like, this is good, let me go find a different one. - Yeah. Yeah, it's like what's something I could eat that actually wouldn't kill me for this race? - Exactly, the two-way communication part of working with Runner's World and of course in addition to the VIP tent are absolutely reasons I would say, yeah, run with them for sure. - So before we finish this conversation, I just wanted to ask if you had anything else you wanted to add or if there's any advice you want to give to people looking to run a marathon? Anything that specifically jumps out to you? - I mean my biggest thing is like just do it. You know, it's one of those things, it seems like a very big number. It seems like an insurmountable challenge sometimes, but from running in New York and even in some of my other races. But I would say like, especially in New York and I see people talk about this a lot of the times. It's like that's one of the more inclusive races, right? Whether you have like the project finish line or people who are just out there cheering like into the wee hours of the night. It seems like it's like a city holiday, which is cool, but like you did see more variety than some of the races that I have personally participated in. Whether it is variety and like speed, age, size, race. Like it was just a very diverse field, which was really cool. But in general, like even if you don't see somebody who looks like you, like somebody's gotta be the first, right? The reality is, you start doing, other people will be like, that's okay. You know, like I posted a picture of my medal with 7:44, which was actually my slowest run time. But still it was like, I'm proud of this time. So like if you can finish in eight hours, that's still okay. Right, like I think some of that's a little bit of the misnomer is like the first thing people think when you say like, oh I'm running and running marathon. It's like, but are you fast? And it's like, no, but I'm persistent but I have mental fortitude, right? But I know that I can do it, and I'm not saying like get inspired and go run a marathon tomorrow because you will injure yourself son. (person laughing) Any sort of training. But definitely like not being afraid to walk, right? Like if you have to walk the thing, more and more people are Gallowaying and more and more people are like, this is just a thing where I wanna finish, right? Like finishing is a goal. Most of us are not going to win to begin with. Most people only get a PR the first time they run. So, you know, take on the challenge, it's fun and yeah, if you can do it in a more unique way, like a Runner's World, that's great, right? Like if you didn't previously have a running community, I think it makes a huge difference to be able to be a part of one and it would've been hard, if not impossible to curate the same type of community, you know, on my own. So very grateful for that as well and would encourage people to take the opportunity if given it. - Yeah, yeah, I agree entirely. And also you said about like the running time, which obviously when you're thinking about a race, a big part is like, oh well I get a good time. I think you're kind of forgetting the aspect, you are going 26 miles in a day. Like that is insane. Literally the first man to do it who we're running after died to doing that. So like kind of crazy. - Surviving is winning, trust me. - I know, I really appreciated this conversation. So thank you for your time. Thanks for listening. For more info on Lauren Wright's story, click the link in the show notes below. We also have a few exciting opportunities coming up to train with Runners World. So if you wanna get a bib to one of the hottest races of the year, go to the show notes below. We have an exciting offer for new subscribers that you do not wanna miss out on. So let's get moving.

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