If you can breathe

You can run incredibly fast if you can still breathe.
That’s the main lesson I learned while attempting to ramp up my marathon pace repeatedly the past few years.

Each pace felt somewhat different. At first, marathoning felt like survival, something to make it through. Soon it was a calculated equation, a stride that I could sustain. But before I knew it, as I attempted for external standards, it began to feel more like I was skipping along, nearly taking flight, without an ounce of conservation. Despite all the new signals warning me to slow — a panicked feeling that I was moving much too quickly — I found that if I could settle my breath and my heart rate as a result, I could continue.

Once I learned this it reframed how I saw other runners. Watching the Pros in the New York City Marathon rolling through Manhattan, I could see in their eyes that even at 5 minutes per mile, they were calm under duress, which meant they could breathe. And if you can breathe, even as your legs begin to scream and your body burns through calories faster than ever before, you can calm your mind and settle your stride.

Until you can’t.

Then the effort quickly begins to mount. As the stress risks overwhelming you’re forced to recalibrate on the fly. To keep finding the line of utmost exertion where you can still breathe. I found I could run much faster than I’d ever previously imagined as long as I focused intensely on settling my breath and my stride amidst increasing signals of panic.