Don’t be fooled by what you (don’t) see on this medal - I did not, in fact, run The San Francisco Marathon. I had planned to run it as a long run as part of my fall marathon build but my back did not cooperate. Instead, I ran the Alexi Pappas 10K, finishing it in 49:43 to get it done in just under 50 minutes. If you know me, you know I wasn’t happy with the time but you know what makes me happy? Pliny.

50:09 for this year’s New York Road Runners | @nyrr Queens 10K - that’s not great but a 26:03/24:06 which is a very nice negative split. I won’t dwell on how much I left in the tank when I finished because I honestly wasn’t sure how much I had in the tank to begin with.

1:48:55 for this year’s New York Road Runners | @nyrr Brooklyn Half which is very much not my best result on this course but very much the result I deserved, considering the lack of fitness this season.

I’ve not had a good run (pun not intended or maybe intended) with races longer than a 10K for some time now with a lot of slow (relatively speaking) halfs and fulls over the last six months. Yesterday, with a solid last couple of weeks of runs under my belt - mostly at recovery pace, but done 3-5x a week - I felt like I could really let loose at the New York Road Runners | @nyrr 2025 United Airlines NYC Half.

I ran a 5K race in Tampa where there were no age group awards, just top 3 in the women’s, men’s, and non-binary categories. It wasn’t a large field so I figured I’d at least try to finish top 3 men.

I ran a 5K race in Flushing Meadows thinking “only the top finisher in each age group gets an award so I’ll run this and then bolt cuz it’s barely 20° out here.”

Let me preface everything I’m about to say about my Maratón Valencia | @maratonvalencia experience with the obvious - it’s awesome just to be able to run these things the way I do.

When I spoke at the New York Road Runners | @nyrr Members event, I made a remark about how folks should run in small races so they can have a shot at finishing top 3 in their age group and feeling really good about it. I was mostly kidding but it really does feel kinda nice to get an award.

This New York City Marathon | @nycmarathon makes 10!

On the eve of the New York City Marathon | @nycmarathon, let’s take a look back at #windycityruniii.

Like I said - Marathon Pour Tous | @marathon_pour_tous_community was, at times, fucking lit. But when it wasn’t? Well, the sights of Paris were lit enough for moi.

Marathon Pour Tous | @marathon_pour_tous_community, a marathon for all that runs the same course as the Olympians did in Paris 2024 | @paris2024 was, quite possibly, the hardest marathon I’ve ever run. Everything you heard about this course was true - staggering uphills with equally insane downhills, topped with a 10% climb over the course of an entire kilometer at the 28K mark. I’m currently in the middle of training for a goal marathon so this one was essentially a glorified long run. As such, I didn’t really race it but I also didn’t drop it down to party pace. The thinking went “let’s go entirely on feel and see where we’re at after that last horrendous climb.

Week 5 of the #windycityruniii training block in the books and, man, was it a hot one. Midweek speed work turned into just another general aerobic run with Sunday’s 16-mile workout with 10 at marathon-pace meant to make up for it.

The New York Road Runners | @nyrr #rbcbrooklynhalf - what can I say about this race that everyone else hasn’t already said!?

I went into #runldnii with some absolute crap training - 12 weeks with ZERO speed work (save for racing two 5Ks and a half) and a LOT of missed weekday runs. That said, I managed to do the long run mileage as planned for this training block so a solid base (if not a speedy one) was there. I would’ve been happy with a London PB (4:21:37) but was absolutely hoping to do 3:40s.

Not the best half marathon I've ever run but most certainly not the worst.

Finished the @nyrr #JoeK10K in 51:15 which is a new 10K PR! Sure, it's only by 21 seconds but still! A PR!