You're broke. Totally broke. It's embarrassing. it hurts.

But then in that moment you say to yourself, you're finally brave enough to ask her out. She was the love of my life. She just didn't know it yet. Yeah, I know who you are Casey But who gave you my number right then and there You think someday I'm going to marry this girl.

Beautiful, beautiful dad. Wake up, are you awake Casey Was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident tonight knif I was like are you okay, are you okay? Are you okay and he said no, no and then I looked at him and his leg was snapped winter 2007 I was on a scooter. the other guy ran a red light I'm a mess. Tomorrow they're cutting me open and replacing my femur with the titanium rod.

They rebuilt the leg out of metal. The doctor said I'd mostly recover but they made it clear I'd never run R again broken here here. and then in that moment a thought I would heal and I'd run a marathon and I'd do it in the impossible time of under 3 hours. Now, a marathon is always 26.2 miles long and to break 3 hours, you have to run faster than a 6 minute and 50c per mile.

Pace That's impossible. First attempt: Casy Richmond Virginia Richmond Marathon The goal was 2 hours and 59 minutes. Let's go casy now! I'd never run 26 miles in my life, but I was confident I could do it. Just finished my first marathon Uh, I failed.

For context, the average worldwide marathon time is 4 hours and 29 minutes and my very specific goal was $259 I had to make some changes starting now I'd run every day, no more drinking, definitely no more smoking and uh I lost 20 lb work work itner I was a totally different person for that second. Marathon Still failed though. Guys are home New York City 2009 This was my first time breaking 310 California International This is a super fast course Disney Mickey Mouse You get stuck in this Loop You try, fail, try fail. All right.

Today is February 20th 2011. Uh for Lauderdale Florida failure. It's a muscle and every time you use it it gets a little stronger. Open it up.

Joe You're so close. Try fail, try fail. Get knocked down. Get back up.

Get knocked down again. Yeah. night. Yeah! In Greek mythology there's this story of a king who's been cursed and his curse was to push a boulder up a hill and just as he got to the top, the boulder would roll back to the start.

His curse was to do this really hard thing and he'd get super close to accomplishing it, but then he'd fall back. I'm not going to make a good time and have to do the entire thing over again and do this over here we go and over for eternity. See: 26 miles, 3 hours, 3 minutes fail Fail fail. And then you get married and then you have a kid and then another kid and then a new job and you're You're moving and you're moving again.

Then you're 40. You're 40 but you still haven't done it to you. Okay, we're off all right. Just had to have a quick visit to the medical tent.

Feel good now. but a minute ago I felt very dizzy. This is my Nana her Impossible Dream was to Dance Forever she did that. She was on her feet dancing until the day she died at age 92.

She made it happen. No one else has anything invested in this. No one cares if you do it or don't do it to the world. This person suit is just your cute little hobby.

I was 26 when I set this goal I was young then and I couldn't do it now I'm old. If I don't do this now, it's just going to get harder. And if I back off if I let reason win, then I have to carry the weight of that unrealized goal until the day I die So those are the stakes and I'm I want to be like Nana Go Runners Came from the past 6: A.m. August 1 Today's day one of Marathon Training 2023 New York City Marathon This year was really different.

This is Roberto he's my coach now and I followed all of his guidance. The stadium seen all the fans I took no shortcuts. We're cooking 653 of it. So I have an Olympic Marathon coach.

He's running next to me and me alone for 26 month. This was it. Ah, your boy is fit! I was fitter than I've ever been I was Fast 6 days Roberto and I had Roberto pacing me. That is the New York City Marathon finish line.

It's pretty exciting. It was 16 months of focused training just for this race. Good Luck Good Luck today's going to be the day I was Stronger than I've ever been casy. Casey at Mile 13 I was on Pace Casey mile 18 I was on Pace I felt strong go Casey Go! Why was this so hard talking about a margin of less than 2 minutes? Moreover, why do I care anymore? It's not about a broken leg or needing to prove that doctor wrong.

I Have now run two dozen marathons I I Woner Come on! Chris You're looking great at age 42. I Had just run the fastest marathon of my entire life. We had a good day. The official is 30127.

We had a good time. Um, good day. Yeah, 648 through 22 miles. Uh so yeah and uh, but you were all great out there.

Thanks for cheering! It's just an arbitrary number I don't need to break 3 hours to know who I am. What matters are the experiences. the journey. Even if I failed in the goal see Life's a battle and there are times when you need to accept that you've been beat.

It's been a long road and there's a lot to be proud of. but I'm never going to break three. I'm just not that guy. Oh that.

It's been uh, 5 weeks since I failed in New York City I'm here in Tucson Arizona Doing it again. You don't just give up. You can't just walk away. You get out there and you find that dog.

Yes, it's hard. It was easy. Everyone would do it. You're not out here because it's easy.

You do a lot of meaningless, purposeless, stupid things. You get obsessed. You spend years focused on them, and literally no one cares but you. But you persevere anyway.

You keep running. Go. Let's get it. You keep running.

You don't quit. You die trying. Because when when you add up all those stupid meaningless obsessions and accomplishments, what they equal, what they add up to is your life. Yeah, Coming over from New York About the Finish Nice.

Roberto was the time again. Say it again. 257 Oh my. God Let's go.

Yeah, you, you're sub three. Marathon Bro.