This is how you should celebrate a marathon (video). 14:54 guy who couldn't make DIII nats runs 2:16 marathon!!

Looks like he was in the AlphaFly's. His 'walking' (rather, wavering from some instability) around in them, due to the worked legs afterwards, is a bit humorous, no?

His reaction reminded me of Chris Thompson's after his British OlyTrials win:

https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/39-year-old-new-father-wins-u-k-olympic-marathon-trials/

Looks like the shoes are a big factor here. As far as requiring the pros to show emotion, it sounds as if you want more of a WWE flavor in the sport.

1) Cool. It obviously meant a lot to him to run that time.

2) No, we shouldn't require pros to show this kind of emotion. How could that even be a thing?

3) I don't care if the shoes helped him here. That's a solid marathon for a guy with his humble college stats.

1) I could barely walk at the finish of all of my marathons.

2) No, we shouldn't require pro marathoners to leave a that much in the tank.

3) Good run, Alex. Set your sights higher next time. You've got real talent.

He must've finally started running a lot. Just a guess, he probably ran 60-80 miles in college, and has now run 100 miles per week or more in preparation of his marathon. Mileage matters a lot unless you're an extremely talented freak, which a D3 runner is probably not an extremely talented freak, so he needed the high mileage to bust a good marathon. And people saying it's all the shoes, there are plenty of former D1 runners wearing the shoes who aren't running 2:16. Shoes don't take you from 2:24 to 2:16, or even 2:20 to 2:16. Hard work and a ton of mileage does that.

McKirdy Trained >> JK

He must've finally started running a lot wrote:

He must've finally started running a lot. Just a guess, he probably ran 60-80 miles in college, and has now run 100 miles per week or more in preparation of his marathon. Mileage matters a lot unless you're an extremely talented freak, which a D3 runner is probably not an extremely talented freak, so he needed the high mileage to bust a good marathon. And people saying it's all the shoes, there are plenty of former D1 runners wearing the shoes who aren't running 2:16. Shoes don't take you from 2:24 to 2:16, or even 2:20 to 2:16. Hard work and a ton of mileage does that.

If it was the shoes, then Seth Demoor would already be 1:04/2:16

He's been probably averaging around mid 80s with a couple of weeks here and there around 100 from what I can see. I know some people that train with him and he definitely is known as someone that wears his emotions on his sleeve. Recently he had an unsanctioned race where he averaged something like low 5:40s for 32ish miles. Got DQ'd though and he was not happy about it. This is a great story of a dude just plugging away and getting the results he deserves. Congratulations to him.

45tt wrote:

malmo wrote:

1) I could barely walk at the finish of all of my marathons.

2) No, we shouldn't require pro marathoners to leave a that much in the tank.

Yeah, but you didn't win any of them so you wouldn't have felt that adrenaline.

Malmo would have had no problem walking after a marathon if he had Alphaflys on his feet rather than whatever the hell guys were racing in back then. Even pre 2017 any racing flat would have left the vast majority of people walking down the stairs backwards. How quickly people forget.

Lhotse wrote:

If it was the shoes, then Seth Demoor would already be 1:04/2:16

Sarcasm? You mean, without the shoes, DeMoor might instead be 1:08/2:29?

Oh wow! It's funny, I was telling my friends on Monday that I was worried an anonymous handle was going to start a LetsRun thread on me, and all of them would assume it was me trying to talk myself up, so that you for being the one, rojo!

The shoes are definitely a factor. I'd say 60-90 seconds or so when compared to what most guys were using back in the pre-vaporfly era (streaks, adidas boosts, etc) but your guess is honestly as good as mine.

Training in college: I did 60-80 mpw for freshman and sophomore year, 80-100 for junior and senior year. Complete training for the past three year (post college) can be found on my strava:

https://www.strava.com/athletes/7054442

Coaching: I am coached by Ben Wach (track coach at Oberlin college, fellow SUNY Geneseo alumni) I have known him since high school when I ran 21:00 for 5k as a freshman. I trust him coaching expertise as much or more than anyone on the planet.

Celebration: I've always been the emotional type when it comes to racing, and while I've never really had a good reason to think so, I always felt that I was capable of more than I did in college. I don't know what finally clicked for me, or if I was just always meant to run longer distances than what was offer in the NCAA, but I think that John McKirdy said it best in an instagram post yesterday: "It's about realizing that you are worthy of your dreams." My coach and I had a vision at the start of the pandemic of training so hard that when races started back up again we could burst onto the scene and turn some head, but we NEVER imagined it would be like this.

Anyways, thanks for the support!

The beauty of someone who does it purely for the love of it versus those who have other primary motivations. I DGAF what "big-time pros" do after they finish.

ShilohDoesntCare wrote:

45tt wrote:

Yeah, but you didn't win any of them so you wouldn't have felt that adrenaline.

Malmo would have had no problem walking after a marathon if he had Alphaflys on his feet rather than whatever the hell guys were racing in back then. Even pre 2017 any racing flat would have left the vast majority of people walking down the stairs backwards. How quickly people forget.

Walking down stairs backwards (the days afterwards) has nothing to do with the shoes, it's about the effort. I would never be excited about winning a podunk marathon, and had I won at NYC, I would not be able to jump around "because of adrenaline". I'd be headed to bed and curl up in fetal position.

The fact that Mr Burk can jump for joy indicates he's got a lot more in his tank. Now he can reset his sights on bigger goals.

I found this to be really inspirational. Here is a race report he posted on reddit. Cool stuff.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AdvancedRunning/comments/n4bcif/race_report_mckirdy_micro_marathons_rockland/

Nice recap, skruB. You've got a lot more.

I was going to post some typical letsrun negative trolling about cheater shoes and the like for some lolz but you’ve got a great personal story and journey! This is the kind of running letsrun was founded on. Long term development, trusted coach and training plan.

Good luck and sub 2:10 in your future!

We should be sending more runners in college to run marathons. There are a lot of talented marathoners out there who never get a shot because they are forced to spend 4 years in college trying to run XC, 1500/5000/10000. They run their first marathon after college while trying to work or while going to grad school. Japan sends collegiate athletes to run the marathon and this has resulted in many more Japanese runners posting sub 2:10 than Americans.