Good morning everybody. This is not my first half marathon but definitely my first one at altitude. I ran New York in March and it was freezing and it was hilly. I am told that this one is high as far as altitude, but not a lot of elevation change Would love any tips or tricks. I will be there four days early to get used to being there. My brother lives in Denver so I have gone skiing and things like that and altitude doesn’t normally affect me at all, but I’ve never run in it. Thanks

Hey friends! If you follow on socials you may know this already, but I have a hat coming out for our very first MFM brand collaboration with For The Run 🎉🎉 This has been a labor of love finding an ACTUALLY GOOD running hat in a world of really bad running hats so I’m super excited for it to be out! There is absolutely NO pressure, but to thank yall for being here the only discount I’m doing for this is for the Skool community 🧡 Everything will be live on myfirstmarathon.co on 9/19 at 10am ET! Discount code will be “Skool20” and will work for all merch including the hat!

I forgot when I first joined this group that I never introduced myself. Hello everybody. I’m fairly new to Running. I only started my first formal race July 4, 2024. I’m an older Runner I started when I was 54 separated and then eventually divorced. My friends dragged me out of the house and force me to exercise and work out and eventually running. Since then, I’ve been a local Running store Brandon ambassador inspiring other older runners to get off the couch. I also work with a few brands like Shokz, Swift Running, BibBoards, Feetures and Garmin. Still working on my first marathon, which was supposed to be New York, but then the Charity pulled all the bibs. It might be Disney marathon weekend in January. We shall see. I’m also a professional base player so I get to travel a lot

This has been top of mind for me this week because when I tell you EVERY SINGLE one of my coaching calls this week was essentially "marathon training is overwhelming and hard, and I don't think I can do it" I mean EVERY conversation was centered around doubt! I say this to hopefully normalize that experience for you if you're going through something similar. It's not just you, it's a very common part of marathon training to hit the "what the heck am I doing point" and that does not negate every single mile that you've ran up until that point in training. Imagine you 3 months ago frustrated with yourself over a 13+ mile run!! That person wouldn't even recognize the you now. So keep your heads up, remember your mantras, and keep putting one foot in front of the other! You're all doing great!!!

Happy September y'all! This month's Athlete Spotlight is @Aury Moreno 🥳 Aury, we are so glad to have you in the community — you have such a joy and passion for running, and we can't wait to cheer you on ahead of your marathon in November! Aury shared that she had struggled with calling herself a runner for the longest time (me too!), and to be called an athlete was next level. I think it is a great reminder that we are often the hardest on ourselves, and that everyone in this group is absolutely an athlete! 👏 Be sure to check out her full spotlight — it's a good one!: https://www.myfirstmarathon.co/post/first-marathon-buddy-program-athlete-spotlight-meet-aury