How to Become a Marathon Runner: How I Found My Purpose in Pace, Pavement, and the Playlist

As I drive past Epcot Center’s enormous, golf-ball-like geosphere of Spaceship Earth, sweat dripping off my burgundy running shirt, I get an encouraging thumbs up from Minnie Mouse. The sun continues to be rising over the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando as hundreds of competitors from around the world race to the finish line. runDisneyRace for the Taste of 10,000 The Ratatouille-inspired race takes us around the World Showcase Lagoon and through Epcot’s mini-reenactments of Morocco, Japan, Mexico, China, etc. Racing through the so-called happiest place on Earth, I crossed the six-mile mark in about an hour and finally saw the end in sight.

I already want to do it again.

Watching two different series about health and longevity recently has made me extremely grateful for my running journey. Netflix DocumentariesLive to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones” examines the weight-reduction plan and lifestyle of the world’s longest-living people. Exercise is clearly a crucial factor. “Boundless” – one other documentary on Disney+ (with actor Chris Hemsworth, “Marvel’s Thor”) also explores how to fight aging and discover the full potential of the human body. One of the episodes talks about endurance training and its importance in constructing healthy mitochondria. My semi-regular run in New York’s Central Park seems to qualify as endurance training, so I’m grateful I do it.

Like any geek to the better of his abilities, I grew up with a fear of going to the gym. I had a baseball phase, like all red-blooded American boy, but the only sport that ever meant anything to me was boxing, mainly thanks to charismatic boxers like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Throughout school, I never joined any team. Only when my wife began talking about love handles did I determine to take the asphalt road to maturity. Running made sense to me. I’ve been meditating for years. The disciplines are very similar in that you simply are one along with your thoughts, solo. All you wish are sneakers, stamina and a great playlist – music has all the time recharged my battery.

The first time I ran a mile was sometime in 2008 Picasso Park (we lived in Paris at the time) – and I sort of hated it. But the next day I went for a run anyway, recurrently up and down the very long Avenue Raspail. Back then, a sensor in the sole of my Nike sneakers tracked my pace and distance, which appealed to me as a nerd. (Smartphones on the horizon have quickly made this technology obsolete; I currently wear a pair of Hokas and an Apple Watch equipped with the Strava app). I soon signed up for my first race: the Nike+ Human Race 2009, a global 10k with tons of of hundreds of runners. Just a few months later, my wife and I ran a half marathon together through the French capital. At the age of 37, I discovered my favorite exercise program.

Although I stopped running when I moved to Manhattan in 2011, the break didn’t last long. Running on the busy streets of downtown never appealed to me; as an alternative, the six-mile loop in Central Park became my recent treadmill. Finally, in November 2019, I joined the likes of Sean Combs, Alicia Keys, Kevin Hart and Oprah Winfrey in completing my first New York City Marathon at the age of 48 – in five and a half hours at a 12:38 pace.

What motivated me? Music.

I recommend using music as a personal source of energy to anyone who needs an impulse to start their very own running training. With sweat-resistant earbuds and your smartphone, any playlist you place together will encourage you to put your feet up and stay the course. I ran a marathon with Powerbeats Pro headphones and streamed motivational music from “Nicki Minaj”Megatron“”James Brown”Revenge“Washington’s Slime”The rhythm is changing“Biz Markie’s”Business is ending” and more.

Knox Robinson – former editor-in-chief of The Fader magazine and currently co-founder of the magazine Black roses in New York Running Crew – that is a long-time friend of the author who has now run over 25 marathons, pursuing his second calling in life as a running coach. He mentioned years ago Świat Biegacza Magazine (Knox once appeared on the cover): “I have a playlist of spiritual vibes and astral jazz, saxophone with sitars and harp – Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Carlos Santana. Basically it might either be spiritual jazz or something low BPM like trap music. Use what works for you.

Creating an efficient playlist that gets your adrenaline pumping and stays motivated is subjective. But the best strategy is to select songs which have a comfortable tempo and a minimum of one energetic song that permits you to pick up the speed. Personally, I survived the last half hour of the marathon at 168 BPM.”Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz over and all over again. The footsteps at my average running pace exactly match the bass and snare beats of this song, which helps me avoid slowing down.

Regular running will allow you to discover your perfect fit through routine. My own playlists include hip-hop and R&B songs with various beats per minute. Using two songs that have a total duration of 10 minutes may be helpful for timed runs without the help of a smartwatch or app. Almost any music you want to listen to can motivate you to follow it, especially beats with a pulsing beat. More of my favorites include “Us”It made you look“Roots”Think @ Work“I “212” by Azealia Banks

My New York runnersStatistics say that in my last 10K race I placed 274th out of 308 people in my age group (50-54). I’m definitely running my very own race without feeling competitive, and I suggest you do the same. I normally run a mile every 10 minutes and it doesn’t hassle me. A misconception about running culture could also be that runners are always striving for brand spanking new personal bests and obsessive about statistics. Not this runner, or reasonably not many runners. It is totally acceptable to adopt any attitude into practice.

With lifelong health in mind, I plan to run many marathons long distance. No greater than 25, no, but one for every decade until my 70s. With the 2024 New York City Marathon fast approaching, I have some work to do, starting with RunDisney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend in early November. Never underestimate the encouragement of a Minnie wave.

Miles Marshall Lewis (@MMLunlimited) is a Harlem-based author and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, and many other magazines. Lewis is currently completing a cultural biography of comedian Dave Chappelle, the sequel to Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar.