This might be the most amazing story I've ever read. Let Cathal Dennehy introduce you to Paul Pollock. Prior to the 2019 Valencia marathon, the Irishman was having a tough go of it. He was over 30. He's put his medical career on hold and had never broken 2:15:30 in the marathon. He'd had 11 or 12 stress fractures. In his buildup to Valencia, he'd only averaged 41 miles per week. 4 weeks beore the race, he ran a Park Run in 17:20. The training had been so bad he and his coach said there was no point in doing the full marathon as there was no way he could break 2:15. They decided to just run with 2:11:30 group for a half marathon to get experience at the Olympic standard pace before dropping out. He did do one thing however that he hadn't done before. He tried on a pair of Next% two days before the race and decided to wear them. What happened next is crazy.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40245614.htmlDennehy wrote:
What unfolded on that Sunday morning, he still doesn’t fully understand. Pollock got to halfway on target pace but felt so easy that he didn’t step off the road. When he hit 20, 21 miles and expected a large cement wall to be erected in front of him, the way it usually is, he only saw open road. In fact, he started to speed up.
“That very rarely happens in a marathon,” he says.
He ripped through the final miles and crossed the line in disbelief at his time: 2:10:25, a Northern Irish record, automatic Olympic standard, which at the time made him the second fastest Irishman in history