My 2024 Surf City Marathon. Fifteen years in the making.

I’ve been posting less about my running here on Medium, not because I run less but because I have a more dedicated space on Substack to share my love for the sport I love so much. Running a marathon, however, is always a special life event, so I'm leaving a note here.

It was my ninth marathon in total.

I ran in four between 2008 and 2010. I was in my late twenties then. My best result was 3.54 in New York City. The rest were over 4 hours. Three of these four marathons I ran with my close friend. We traveled with our families to Athens, Rome, and New York City and it was fun.

Little did I know how serious I’d become about running a decade later. The pandemic year was a turning point in my running journey. I improved a lot during 2020–2021 and in the fall of 2021 ran my first sub-3-hour marathon. I then ran four more improving every time.

This past weekend I ran a 2.43.58 marathon.

The race was in Huntington Beach, California (“Surf City”).

I wanted to run in the low 2.40s, so, say, 2.42, but I was slower by two minutes. I’m not disappointed. The final five miles were run against a strong headwind. The final miles are always the hardest and in this marathon, they were extra rough. So the wind stole at least a minute from my result. I would’ve got to my target otherwise.

But they were rough, these final miles. It was the closest I got in my last five marathons to…