Becoming a Marathoner: Live from New York

11/15/19 • 38 min

Over 52,000 people ran the 2019 New York City Marathon. Some were fast, some were less fast, but they all ran the same course, and the same distance, and according to our panel of experts, they were mostly all still nervous, and hoping that they didn’t have a problem with a bowel movement.

This episode features the best tips and tricks from a pre-race panel with marathon coach Jon Honerkamp, ultrarunner and filmmaker Billy Yang, 85-time marathon/ultramarathon finisher Mary Arnold, and Scott Fauble, who finished seventh in the 2018 NYC Marathon. It was moderated by Runner’s World editor Jeff Dengate, at the New York Roadrunners RunCenter, not far from the marathon’s finish line.

Previous Episode

Tom and Brian Williams: Chasing Ghosts at the Comrades Marathon

Before Brian Williams and his son Tom set off to run the Comrades Marathon – an 86.8 kilometer race in South Africa, Brian’s mind was already at the finish. He said, “If we succeed, it'll just be to be the fulfillment of a dream. It'll put to rest many of the ghosts of my past. It's hard to put into words what it means, but it means a lot.”

For his role in the anti-apartheid movement, Brian was exiled from South Africa for decades. He grew old away from his country, had a family in the UK and could not attend his mother’s funeral back home. So to return to South Africa after so many years, running Comrades was about much more than covering that massive distance. It was about reclaiming his sense of home. And running 53 miles in your 70s after a lifetime of not really being that active... it was a triumph of stubbornness, too.

Listen to the season finale of Athletes Unfiltered.