E30 | Abby Herring on Her Path from Collegiate Nationals to Boston

Join us for an engaging conversation with Abby Herring, an athlete whose inspiring journey from collegiate track nationals to marathon running offers valuable insights for runners at any level. Abby shares her experiences from achieving a personal record and top ten at the Columbus Marathon to qualifying for the Boston Marathon on her first attempt in Charlevoix, Michigan. 

The episode dives into the nuances of marathon preparation and nutrition, with Abby sharing her own race day logistics and strategies for overcoming the infamous "wall." From the unique aspects of the Boston Marathon to the support of the running community, Abby’s story is rich with practical advice and inspiration. Whether you're a seasoned runner or just starting out, this conversation offers a blend of motivation, personal anecdotes, and expert tips to help you on your running journey.

Transcript

Marathon Running and College Athletics

Speaker 1 0:32

Welcome to this episode of the Hobby Jogger. Today, I'm joined by my co-host, as always, mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you?

Speaker 2 0:42

I'm doing pretty good. Today I got out for a little over seven miles and it's been a while, so I'm doing pretty good.

Speaker 1 0:49

I didn't get the. This guy has been lazy and didn't do much on Strava, lately telling me he did good.

Speaker 2 0:54

So must not have been uploaded to Strava yet.

Speaker 1 1:00

No, no, it hasn't. Well, Rob, we have a very special guest today, one who I was recently following at their debut marathon and have followed in the past, was previously, maybe still is, coached by a previous guest. We have Miss Abby Herringon. Abby, how are you.

Speaker 3 1:14

I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 1:18

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for coming on. I know I had kind of eyeballed you as a guest when I had Caleb on before Western States. You had just got done with Nationals probably right around that time.

Speaker 3 1:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:34

I was kind of cheering for you there. You know, one of Caleb's runners makes the nationals pretty big deal, I think.

Speaker 3 1:39

Yeah, well, thanks yeah.

Speaker 1 1:42

Yeah, so it's fallen you and congratulations on on the Columbus marathon. That's, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 1:47

Yeah, thanks, it was definitely an experience, learned a lot.

Speaker 1 1:51

Yeah, that's, that's the biggest thing you don't know about running that far. Until you run that far, you can read about it, talk about it, you know whatever, but until your body experiences it and does it it's a whole different game. So, yeah, glad to hear that you have learned and hopefully enjoyed yourself out there while you were doing it.

Speaker 3 2:11

Yeah, definitely. It was a good experience. So after I don't, I'm completely, I'm going rogue right now.

Speaker 1 2:18

I'm sure you had questions to ask first, but this whole show is rogue Abby, so don't worry, just roll with it.

Speaker 3 2:25

Yeah, right after first rounds. So the first round of the nationals for track, maybe like two weeks after I had competed, I ran a marathon off of really no training to try and qualify for the Boston marathon and so that was just like a super chill event. I ran up one up in Charlevoix, michigan, and early June Okay, I got a BQ there and honestly, like the marathon, it was super flat, there wasn't a ton of people. My teammate, kylie Mastin she had come and run the second half of the marathon with me but we just treated it like a normal run, made it through, it was fine. And then Columbus was an experience. I definitely went into it going a lot faster and didn't have a great fuel plan. I set up and so around mile 17, I just kind of stopped taking in the fuel and it got me at the end. But big PR in the marathon.

Speaker 1 3:25

Yeah, no, I was just looking at the results. You were seventh and you actually, so you know how in Strava your group, like I, ran with these people yeah you were. You were grouped with a good friend of mine, very good friend of his friends, and uh, guy caleb knows uh will walmsley uh okay, up here he went down.

Speaker 1 3:46

He ran his first marathon, so he was somewhere near you the whole time oh fun yeah so it was fun to watch you both and you know, know, root for you guys. I didn't realize that was your second marathon, however.

Speaker 3 4:03

Yeah, this was the one that I had trained for. I guess you could say the first one was honestly just like go out and try and finish.

Speaker 1 4:14

That's the name of the game for me. How about you, Rob?

Speaker 2 4:19

that's. That's the name of the game for for me. How about you, rob? Yeah, that's always the goal, right, just to get across the finish line. Doesn't matter if I'm crawling, I just want to cross the finish line a goal is to finish always.

Speaker 1 4:26

So you you're from. Are you originally from west virginia, or did you just go to college there?

Speaker 3 4:32

I am. I'm from parkersburg, west Virginia, which is about two hours from Huntington Gotcha.

Speaker 1 4:37

Okay, I thought so, and you also had, I guess, a West Virginia area code, so that would make sense, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 4:51

And is Caleb still coaching you? Yes, so I asked him after I graduated if he would write me a plan leading up to the Columbus marathon, which was two weekends ago. And so I told him I really didn't want to focus on doing workouts just yet. I think my body, and just honestly, like mentally, needed a break from just here's the pace you have to hit, and, um, just it would. It was nice just for a couple months to not worry about paces so much and just go based off mileage. And so he wrote me a mileage plan to have over the summer and then through this fall leading up to the Columbus Marathon. But I think now I'm going to try and implement some long run workouts in there, and so he'll write me another one workouts in there, and so he'll. He'll write me another one. He's still coaching me, even though it's not, I guess, like his traditional martial athlete coach relationship. It's it's some outside experience.

Speaker 1 5:45

Yeah, and he certainly knows what he's doing. Uh, also, I know probably the result he wanted this past weekend, but no, still a heck of a finish for for a big race.

Speaker 3 5:55

So finishing the top 10 at Javelina, so that's big's big deal yeah, I think honestly, getting to the finish line of those races is just an accomplishment in itself yeah, that's, yeah, just a goal to finish yeah how did you start out running abby?

Speaker 1 6:13

like is this? I mean, not many people make it to nationals. I know when you made it to nationals it was, you know, at Marshall. That's a big deal. Like to make it to the women's final, the men's final, whatever. Like that is a big deal. Had you always been at the top, like since? You probably ran like at a pacer club, like a youth pacer club or something I imagine growing up right um, so I started running late middle school.

Speaker 3 6:38

I started running in eighth grade and I joined just because my friends were in it. I played tennis all when I was growing up. I was in a whole bunch of random sports like tennis and, uh, took a dance class here, took a swim, was on a swim team at one point. But I started running, I guess more seriously, in high school. I competed for four years and then decided to run in college but I wasn't anything great. I was very average. When I came to Marshall I was probably like fourth or fifth on the team. And then it wasn't until my junior year here that I really started moving up and getting, I guess just like the training was paying off and acclimating to all the mileage. And then that's whenever my time started going down.

Speaker 1 7:33

That's tough in college sports. What year did you go into college?

Speaker 3 7:38

I graduated in the spring of 2019. Okay, and so I went to college in the fall of 2019. And then, as we all know, covid hit that spring and it was just kind of everything. Everything shut down, and so we were sent home from college and kind of just without.

Speaker 3 7:56

It was weird from an athlete's perspective because we were training for an outdoor track season, which never happened. And then it's like you're training through the summer and you don't know if you're going to have a cross country season, and the fall rolls around and you're training for a cross country season that you don't know if it's going to happen or not, and so that was a really weird time to be an athlete and just not knowing whenever you're going to be able to race. And I guess, from a coaching perspective too, it's like you know when do you have your runners peak, like, are they going to have a conference meet, are they going to be able to race? And so it was just a really weird time for everyone. So I would say that probably put another setback on things. Yeah, it was an interesting experience.

Speaker 1 8:41

Yeah, and it's an interesting time overall in college athletics right now that you know you have NIL money starting to come into sports and, like I don't know, obviously famously Parker Valby had NIL money, then switched companies and went to New Balance, I think for a lot of money, which is good for her, which you were on the starting line with her at Nationals.

Speaker 2 9:02

So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 9:04

But that had to change a bit of the dynamic too. In college I think I maybe talked to Caleb a little bit about that. So in college I thought about this today Is it pretty normal for all Because obviously the sprinters don't run cross country Like the 100 meter, guys and girls do not run cross country the 200 meter, maybe the 800 meter does, I don't know. That's a pretty painful event. But is it pretty standard for everyone to have a track season, an indoor track season and cross country season?

Speaker 3 9:40

Yes. So I would say, everyone who's on the cross country team is going to run indoor and outdoor, and so that's really, honestly, what's so unique about distance running is that you're competing all year round, like the fall is cross country, and then you go straight into indoor. You have a small break from, I would say, thanksgiving and Christmas, but that's like it's a hard training point, and then indoor, outdoor, straight into summer training, which I would say is typically the hardest training block of a distance runner. It's the heat, it's the workouts, it's just everything combined. And so, yeah, going through each of those seasons, you can just feel your body breaking down a little bit more every season.

Speaker 1 10:49

That is a brutal schedule. I guess I never put that together, that, yeah, all the distance runners would would run all three seasons in college and that doesn't leave you. Know, if you're a soccer player, you play soccer, you have the offseason, you lift weights, do whatever, hang out with your friends, come around to the season, it's time again, but probably doesn't leave you much of a social life in college, I imagine right.

Qualifying for Nationals in College

Speaker 3 11:15

Yeah, I mean my social life was pretty much with people on the team. And so that's who you're around most, and a lot of times, your values will align with theirs, and so my best friends were all on the cross country and track teams, and so I mean we made the most out of our Sunday morning long runs or our workouts on Fridays. So, yeah, they definitely made that experience great.

Speaker 2 11:41

And that really doesn't change as you get older. I mean, casey and I are significantly older than you and most of my friends are runners, so yeah yeah, it doesn't.

Speaker 1 11:50

Yeah, you're right, it doesn't. Yeah, not a whole lot changes in that respect. And it makes sense because you know my friends were, you know people who played soccer and whatnot and, like you said, your values align. You all have to get up Sunday morning and hit the long run. You know, saturday morning you can't be at the frat party till 4am or whatever.

Speaker 3 12:11

So yeah, yeah, exactly, you make your own fun.

Speaker 1 12:15

So and I I'm ignorant to this as well I guess I could have done research. Abby, how do you qualify for nationals in college? Is it time-based? Is it winning like an invitational race? How does that work?

Speaker 3 12:30

So for cross country, that's a little bit confusing and I sometimes I get confused even when I'm explaining it. So for cross country, in the fall everybody goes to the conference meet and then there's a regional meet. After conference Everybody goes to regionals. At regionals they take a certain amount of teams. I want to say it's like three teams, two nationals, so the top three teams in the region. It could be two, I'm not sure, but they take so many teams and then whoever's on those teams, they pull those girls out of the top. So let's say, girls from the top three teams, all placed in the top five. Well then, the sixth runner would be the first individual to go, and they're going to take, I believe, two individuals. And so I ended up getting sixth place at regionals and I was the second individual to go. So four of the girls in front of me were on a team and then they took me and another girl as the individuals to go to nationals for cross country. I hope that made sense.

Speaker 1 13:33

Yeah, it does. What team were they on?

Speaker 3 13:35

Oh gosh, I don't even remember.

Speaker 1 13:37

Yeah, don't even know, don't even care. I like that.

Speaker 3 13:40

Yeah, I didn't even realize I had made it to nationals. Caleb had told me before like the run, he's like you have a chance to do it and I'm like oh okay, yeah. And then after I finished everyone was like super stoked, like why are we so excited? And yeah, I had made it and I didn't even know.

Speaker 1 14:00

Nice.

Speaker 3 14:01

That's the best I like that.

Speaker 1 14:03

It's similar to kind of when in your age group, I guess. Then, rob, for me, you know I just once the guy hands me the pin, you know it's a big deal to me. Yeah, I guess it's similar, Not really but I guess in the same fashion of finishing. I don't really know where I'm at, but you know, try and draw some sort of parallel to my self there, I guess not a good one.

Speaker 1 14:25

But so you, you qualify at regionals abby big deal. I I know, uh, you know caleb, super proud of you for that. I saw I'm posting on social media, I believe I maybe Marshall, I saw it, or something as well. You, you make it through to nationals and I watched the national finals Were they are they in Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 14:45

So this year. This past year they were in Charlottesville, virginia, which that's okay. I think they were in Oklahoma at some point, so it was in Charlottesville Virginia at panorama farms. It's a super hilly six K course.

Speaker 1 15:01

Okay, so it's in Charlottesville, yes, so not too far, I'd say like five hours. Yeah, maybe the year before they were in Oklahoma, but yeah, so I was watching it.

Speaker 2 15:12

It's awesome.

Speaker 1 15:13

It's really cool because it's this massive start.

Speaker 3 15:15

There's how many I think there's 250-ish girls there.

Speaker 1 15:22

Okay, so 250 starters on the line and the women run 8K, correct? 6k 6K, the men run 8K.

Speaker 3 15:31

Yes.

Speaker 1 15:33

I don't understand that, or maybe it was 10K.

Speaker 3 15:35

Oh my gosh, I don't even remember Either 8 or 10K.

Speaker 1 15:40

Yeah, Some Ks, some amount of Ks that you ran there down at Nationals. And the start is really cool. If you're listening to this and watch the start of either the men or the women's National Finals, it's pretty awesome. Like just this big field. Do they drop a rope or something? Maybe I don't know, and then it's just.

Post-Collegiate Running and Marathon Goals

Speaker 3 16:02

It's insane. There's a starter out in the um grass field, maybe like 200 meters in front of everyone yeah, that poor guy's just standing out there ready to get run over, yeah maybe not even 200 meters, but I mean he just shoots the gun and then stands to be still while everyone goes around him.

Speaker 3 16:21

Um, yeah, it was a crazy experience. I know we were doing like strides on the start line, so every team has their box and then there's a tiny sliver for all the individual people who made it and everyone's very serious here. No one's very happy-go-lucky at the start line, so everyone's kind of standing there not talking. But I look over my shoulder I'm like, oh my gosh, there's Caitlin Toohey like doing a stride right beside me, like this is crazy. Yeah, it was a really cool experience getting to see all the people that you would see and all over social media or getting these big awards, breaking records and you know you're right there with them. So that was something really cool to experience.

Speaker 3 17:06

Unfortunately, I did have COVID at the time. I, my trainer and I we were both really sick. I guess we got really sick the night or two before the race and yeah wasn't feeling great. And then that next day after nationals I ended up taking COVID test positive. So I it didn't go as well as it could have, but I'm glad I was there. It was a good experience. Good things ended better. Yeah, but it is what it is.

Speaker 1 17:36

You made it there. That's commendable, that's I mean, that's, that's quite an honor. I mean I never made it to nationals, so so I I'm jealous of you.

Speaker 3 17:47

I'm sorry to hear about getting sick for the, for the big one Cause yeah, no, I mean, just being there was really cool and that was such a, such a big accomplishment.

Speaker 1 17:55

So yeah, cause that's somewhere where you know you train that hard and you put all that work in and you just want to send it and just hey, let's see. You know, see where the chips fall. And and you know very sorry to hear that that I didn't and I didn't realize that that you had come down sick for that, or yeah, it's okay.

Speaker 3 18:14

It it is what it is. And I mean, looking back, I don't not that I could have changed anything, but I had. There was so many people just like throughout that time I didn't even know were keeping up with like my running or things that I were like was doing, and they were shooting me all these texts and giving me phone calls and taking pictures of me on ESPN and so, um, I guess just realizing all the support I had was just another plus of it. So, whether I raced well or not, it was a, it was a good experience.

Speaker 1 18:45

Hey, I, I didn't know you at all and I was rooting for you. So I was definitely rooting for you and Caleb down there and awesome to see you know someone you know, associated, friend of a friend you know do so well. So, yeah, very happy to see that, thank you. So you wrapped up nationals and you graduated correct.

Speaker 3 19:05

Yes, so I graduated in the spring.

Speaker 1 19:08

Okay, so you're graduated and still, obviously, you still like running. You're still part of the running community side.

Speaker 3 19:17

I'm going to go run a marathon. Yeah, so I the majority, I say my friend group kind of all graduated after, or I guess at the same time that I did. I had a couple of friends who stuck around which was they were great. But a lot of my friends who had already kind of closed off their door of collegiate running started running marathons, and they were. You know, I qualified for the Boston Marathon. Abby, you should try and do it. Well, the window, like the application window, it opened early October and so I was like, well, I'm going to have to find a marathon and run one fast. And so I just decided I would just sign up for one right after after um, first rounds from track, after um, first rounds from track and um, yeah, I ended up getting the boston qualifier and now I'm applied. I'm going in april. It should be a good experience yeah, you're.

Speaker 1 20:16

What was the first time that you ran um, when you just ran it just to uh?

Speaker 3 20:20

257, which I believe is 6.45 pace 2.57, okay.

Speaker 2 20:26

That is fast.

Speaker 1 20:27

Yeah, that's not bad for just going out there, just to go around the track, as they say. So that's awesome. So yeah, you're well under. I don't know what the qualifying time is for.

Speaker 3 20:42

I believe it's 3.30, but that's without the buffer.

Speaker 1 20:45

So believe it's 3, 3, 30, but they it's that's without the buffer, so really it's like 320 yeah, will was trying to explain to me the buffer the one time and I was like dude, I, I don't, I don't, it's complicated, let's just leave it that. Just tell me what time you have to run and I have to retreat and we'll get. We'll make that our goal, I guess. So, yeah, that's awesome. So you qualified for Boston and you're a teacher now, correct? Did I read that in your bio?

Speaker 3 21:11

Yes, so I am currently still in my master's program. I'm getting my master's in literacy education and while I'm working towards that I have a graduate assistant uh position at a preschool and so I help teach at the preschool currently nice yeah, well, good job, I mean that's that's awesome work, no, very noble work.

Speaker 1 21:38

I think we need more teachers for sure, especially competent ones, right, rob? That's always a good you know yeah, great to start.

Speaker 2 21:46

You don't want to deal with those teenagers anyways. You know they're nothing but a pain.

Speaker 1 21:49

No gosh no, if I had to teach a grade, I think I could do second through fourth I think I could.

Speaker 3 21:59

Yeah, that's a sweet spot for me. I would say first through third is probably my sweet spot. I love preschool, don't get me wrong, but that's um. I got my bachelor's in elementary and so that's kind of where I would like to end up in the next couple of years.

Speaker 1 22:13

Yeah, Rob, what would you? What would yours be? You'd be like the high school gym teacher, probably.

Speaker 2 22:18

That actually would be fun. But you know, second through fourth, you know the kids can go to the bathroom on their own and get their lunch out on their own at that point, right?

Speaker 1 22:37

That's my babysitting. Rule is if you need me to babysit, your kids have to be able to do things themselves. Like I, I want no parts of that. So that makes sense. Yeah, I can't. Good rule yeah, I can't, yeah. Well, will's kids were just at the edge of it. I am the best substitute babysitter ever.

Speaker 3 22:51

So it's a good title, yeah yeah, I, yeah, I am the.

Speaker 1 22:54

I am the king of that that domain. But now we're getting to the good stuff. Because you're out of college, not the good stuff. College is awesome. We'll edit that part out, but now we're focusing on the Columbus Marathon.

Speaker 3 23:10

Yes.

Speaker 1 23:11

First, what made you decide on the Columbus Marathon?

Speaker 3 23:14

So my friend Maddie, she ran with me all throughout college. She lives in Columbus currently and she ran it last year and she was like you have to do. It's the most magical experience ever. Course is flat, it's also close-ish to Huntington and so I just thought staying, I guess, in this area for a good, a good first, first real effort, would be the way to go. But I'm super glad I did it. Great atmosphere, oh yeah, yeah, tremendous atmosphere.

Speaker 1 23:47

I know that was kind of will's thoughts as well of picking it kind of close to home. Flat didn't want the hills of akron, so yeah definitely flat and did what was your goal going into it. I mean, you had already run a 257 marathon, so obviously we're gonna try and drop a little bit of time. Did you have like a place in mind? Did you have just a time?

Speaker 3 24:09

honestly, I just I wanted to do just better than I had. The first marathon, I think, was just my goal. Yeah, I started off. I just we didn't really think too much about parking. We're like we'll just get there. And you know, the corrals open at six but like the race doesn't start till maybe like nine or eight, I don't remember. But we, we got there and it took us like an hour to park.

Speaker 3 24:36

And then you got to find, got to find where the corrals are at and all all the things, and um, yeah, it didn't really put into perspective how long all that would take.

Speaker 3 24:45

And so I showed up like one minute before the race started, like I got in the corral and I was in the very back, fireworks went off and we were going, and so, um, at that point, when I was in the corral, I was like, yeah, whatever happens today happens. Like if I Like, if I'm running like 730 miles, that's fine. And so I guess it changed. Once the race went off I was like, okay, I got to work my way through this crowd and then I think I dropped like a 638 or 640 mile for the first mile. I got in that mindset of just trying to catch. You know the people in front of you and you know keep going through the crowds. And I think I kept that mindset for a little bit too long because I was dropping like 615s, a couple 610s for like the first, like 18 miles, I want to say, and then felt great and then my stomach started hurting and I stopped taking in fuel and I think that was like Abby, that was not a good decision.

Speaker 1 25:56

Yeah, that's the detriment of a lot there.

Speaker 3 25:59

Yeah everyone's last words.

Speaker 1 26:02

Yeah, famous last words. Did you happen to remember passing a guy who you thought, wow, this guy's way too big to be running this fast after this many miles? Did that ever cross your mind by any chance?

Speaker 3 26:15

I don't think so. I don't, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 26:19

All right, because our buddy- remember.

Speaker 3 26:21

I would remember.

Speaker 1 26:22

Yeah, our buddy will. Uh well, he should be competing in the Clydesdale division. He's a former rugby player with me, but he's the one that you ran with for a large portion of it, so you did start out behind him a little bit, which I was, because I was tracking. Like I had a handful of people I was tracking.

Speaker 2 26:39

Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:39

Wow, I really expected Abby to start out before Will. And what's Will doing? Like he's sending it down the road.

Speaker 3 26:46

I am. Yeah, I was in the very back of Corrale, so that's probably why. But I mean there was a group of people that I I mean it was probably like 50 people that we were running with I'm sure your buddy Will was one of them I mean, just like going, like passing these people, and then they'd pass us back, and it was just like a whole, a whole experience. Towards the end it got to the point where, like people were like stopping and like they were on the ground and then I would keep jogging past them just trying to make it to the finish, and they'd sprint by me and then they'd stop again and then it things got crazy for like the last three miles of that marathon oh yeah, things, things get intense out there in the marathon and you'll see, I went down to the finish line of the Akron Marathon here.

Speaker 1 27:41

Yeah, I saw a couple people on the ground.

Speaker 3 27:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:45

You know, you see some things. There's right out my house. It's about 100 meters to the north and the route goes through there. It's about mile 23.

Speaker 3 28:00

Oh yeah, that's a rough spot.

Speaker 1 28:01

Yeah, you see some puking. You see some people ducking behind cars. You, it gets pretty, it's pretty nasty out there. So, yeah, it's a marathon's not easy.

Speaker 2 28:14

As of late, I've been obsessed with the marathon nutrition because Casey and I are primarily trail runners.

Speaker 1 28:21

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:21

Nutrition again, not a exact dialed in science, by any means, but road marathon runners are just so fast. How do you dial in your nutrition? Because your body can only absorb so many calories, so many carbs, right, and you're moving so fast. It seems like a totally different world. A different plan is needed compared to trail running, where, in comparison, we're running a lot slower. So what was your plan?

Speaker 3 28:48

So my plan going in which is what I did for Charlevoix again I kind of kept the same. I had a negative split at the Charle Charlotte Boy Marathon the one that I had ran in June, right after track season and so my plan there was to just take in cliff blocks. I don't love gels. I think I really need to start using them, though, and just start training with them, because they're so much easier than like the gummies or the cliff blocks with them, because they're so much easier than like the gummies or the cliff blocks. But that was my plan for Columbus as well was to use those, so start at mile five and then every three miles take them in. So five, eight and then so on. I really need to start looking into some gels, though, because they're just so much easier to take in, and then the like the blocks. Have you guys ever had the cliff blocks?

Speaker 3 29:35

oh yeah they're just so thick and they're just like once.

Speaker 2 29:39

Once you start chewing them, they're turning like uh, it's not good so one thing that helps with cliff blocks put them in the freezer oh, okay freeze them and just let them dissolve slowly, like don't even try to chew them.

Speaker 3 29:53

It does help quite a bit yeah, that's a good tip, because I mean, at the, at the point when I took the last one that I did, I was like this is torture. I was like I don't want to take any more of these.

Speaker 1 30:06

Well, you're probably you qualify for at least close to like elite status, right, Abby, I mean?

Speaker 3 30:13

So for Columbus, I think elite was. They had Elite 1, like Tier 1 and Tier 2. I qualified for Tier 2.

Speaker 1 30:22

Well, now you're Tier 1, right.

Speaker 3 30:24

Maybe you should be.

Speaker 1 30:26

But like I think, because when you do you get to have like water bottles at.

Speaker 3 30:32

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1 30:34

So that's a big help. Where then you get just? You know you can have straight liquid calories every. I don't know how far they allow you to do that, but that would be. I mean, that's what I use, rob is Tailwind. That's 90% of what I eat is just liquid stuff.

Speaker 2 30:50

Yeah, I do the same. I switch back and forth between Tailwind and water and put in some gels. And big fan of the gummy worms, gummy bears.

Speaker 1 30:57

Oh yeah, but. But most marathoners can't use tailwind because they just have to take the cup from the table.

Speaker 3 31:04

Yeah, which is again, and that's like a whole nother Olympic event is getting the water in your mouth from one of those cups.

Speaker 1 31:11

That is you're right Cause, especially like you're running.

Speaker 3 31:15

you know, six, 15, six right because, especially like you're running, you know 615, 610 miles. Yeah it's, it's really like I kind of got it towards the end of this marathon. You have to like take the cup and grab the top of it and make it like almost a like a triangle shape into your mouth yeah try to funnel it in, but, um yeah, the first couple stops. It was just going all over, like my neck and my shirt it's the worst, and then you pick up one.

Speaker 1 31:42

I've only ran it, well, I've only run one marathon, but I've run some halves and I did it. I think it was las vegas, like the. Uh, the nice young man told me it was water. It's pretty hot in vegas, like it's dry. He told me it was water and I just on the face and it was not water.

Speaker 3 31:59

It was Gatorade.

Speaker 2 32:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:01

It was Gatorade or whatever, you know. Yeah, and he might not have. Maybe I misunderstood, because I do have listening issues at times and he might've told me correctly. But yeah, next thing I know my eyes are like sticky and my face is sticky and everything's sticky. So yeah, got a big old face of Gatorade.

Speaker 2 32:24

Oh, that's the worst, especially the Vegas sun. Oh man, it's at night.

Speaker 1 32:28

It's at night on the strip, so at least it was at night yeah.

Boston Marathon and Ultra Aspirations

Speaker 1 32:31

But that's that's a fun one. It's the Vegas strip half marathon in February, so but yeah, yeah, fueling that's one thing it took me a while to figure out in the trail world, but I'm carrying a vest that I can just pull stuff and I have no problem just walking for a minute where you know when Abby's sending it down the road, a little bit tougher to eat and drink at a 6.15 pace than it is a 15 minute mile. So hopefully you can, you can get that figured out for the next one.

Speaker 3 33:02

Yeah, I definitely want to start training with some gels and seeing, see, just see how that goes, maybe even having like a handheld and then trying to wash, wash the gel down with like some water, like how you guys said tailwind. Well, I don't know, we'll just have to experiment and see.

Speaker 1 33:17

I uh, I recommend never second or sports and science. I'll send you a it's not affiliated with us at all, but I'll send you a never second discount code perfect when, when we're done here. So you have that.

Speaker 2 33:33

I don't know what it is, but we'll make sure you do that right away, casey, because you've been promising me that for, I think, maybe a little over a month.

Speaker 1 33:40

Oh, have I? Yeah, you got to remind me. Well, I am right now, that's my fault. Well, you should have texted me like hey, dude, like.

Speaker 2 33:51

It's more fun to remind you on the podcast.

Speaker 3 33:53

Yeah, yeah, he needs that discount code.

Speaker 1 33:55

Yeah, so I'll send you that. Uh, I have to look it up and see what it is. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to hide it from rob or the listeners right now, I just I it's in a text message somewhere and I gotta I gotta get it, so we're qualified now for boston. We're in entered into boston, correct?

Speaker 3 34:15

yes, yes entered into. Boston correct? Yes, yes, entered into Boston. So April mid-April, let's say April 16th, I don't know if that's right, though it's on a Monday, which is so random to me, but that'll be my next thing.

Speaker 1 34:32

Yeah, that's kind of surprising that it's on a Monday. I never understood that. I would think Sunday would be much easier to kind of keep traffic down and such. But hey, they've been doing it a long time. They know much better than I do, I'm not going to second guess them.

Speaker 3 34:46

Hasn't failed them yet.

Speaker 1 34:47

Has not failed them yet. So what is our plan? Going into Boston, what are we are? Are you an elite one at Boston now, due to the Columbus time, do you know?

Speaker 3 34:58

I don't. I don't think so because they take your um, like the time that you submitted at the beginning, like before October gotcha, so they don't. They don't update it for you no, I am in the first corral just, or I guess, the one behind the elite corral.

Speaker 1 35:15

Oh, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 35:16

But plans going into it. I want to start doing some workouts again, probably just in the long run, and then figuring out the fueling for sure. But I have quite a few months to figure it out. So, yeah, I think for me from Columbus my big takeaways were I hadn't run that fast in a long time. I had just been doing some easy miles for since June and so, yeah, definitely getting some speed back and then making sure I'm fueled out throughout the race because I really didn't think the wall. I knew the wall existed, I really did, but I wasn't expecting it to hit that hard.

Speaker 1 36:03

Yeah, that's the first time you hit it. It's just come how like you got hit with a baseball bat all of a sudden, Rob, you've been there you know, oh yeah, you can't find the wall.

Speaker 2 36:14

The wall finds you. You never know when.

Speaker 3 36:17

Yeah, it doesn't discriminate either.

Speaker 1 36:20

No mean, I was. Last time I hit it was it was actually at grindstone, but at least I was only like a couple hundred feet away from the finish line and it just kapow, cracks you right like everything's going great, you're fine, it's all good. Next thing you know it's like you get hit in the face with a baseball bat.

Speaker 3 36:37

So yeah, all of a sudden it gets you yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 36:42

Well, you're not gonna have sun. At Boston probably it's gonna be 45 degrees, and in Chile there, so it's known for the weather.

Speaker 3 36:49

I know up there and what net downhill course too right yes, so I think the first half is all downhill and then then the climbs start coming and I guess heart you know, you always hear people talk about heartbreak Hill but I guess that's just like the last, one of the few, the one they say, the one leading up to it is worse, but that's the one that gets people.

Speaker 1 37:10

Yeah, yeah, so it's, I always watch it. I'm, you know, a fan of the sport. Obviously, since I have the Hobby Jogger podcast, right, rob, there's got to be at least a fan of the sport to watch it. But yeah, I'll be tuned in, it's cool. I hope for bad weather because, like to me, like I want to see carnage and just you know oh yeah, yeah, like my favorite running of the Boston.

Speaker 1 37:39

I don't know what year it was, but there was a Japanese fella who no one knew and he just sent it out of there and it was cold and rainy and the Kenyans are miserable. They've got like jackets on running and this Japanese guy has just sent it, ended up winning Like. I think he was like a factory worker or something from Japan. Oh my gosh, that's awesome, yeah, it was my favorite Boston Marathon that I've seen. So, anything can happen there. So you know, best of luck to you at.

Speaker 2 38:03

Boston and Abby, if you want to do a little research. Previous guest Elizabeth Klor. She wrote a book called Boston Bound. It's a pretty fast read, but it's a good read.

Speaker 3 38:15

Yeah, I'll definitely look into it. Cause honestly he's got it right here.

Speaker 1 38:21

Keep it on my desk.

Speaker 3 38:23

I'm definitely. I want to learn more about um, the race and honestly, like I've just been asking Caleb, even he went, I think two or three times, but I've just been like, okay, how does the school bus work? I've heard you have to ride on a school bus like where to stay. You know what, what hills are the worst, how, you know, how do you take it out?

Speaker 1 38:47

So yeah, that's definitely a book I should read. Yeah, yeah, and she was an awesome guest. Uh, elizabeth very cool, uh, very intelligent, and especially when it comes to training and especially the mental aspect of like getting over the hump of I mean, I don't know how many times now she's qualified and ran it, maybe I. I'm sure we asked her, I'm sure we talked about it. I just don't have it off the top of my head, but yeah, very experienced very cool and, yeah, looking forward to.

Speaker 1 39:13

you'll be one of the people I'm tracking up there. I think I got a handful going up again of friends and so awesome you get to take part in it, you know.

Speaker 3 39:21

Yeah.

Speaker 1 39:21

Very cool and looking forward to to watching you do that and what do you have planned after that. What are your goals or aspirations as far?

Speaker 3 39:30

as running. So I I I'd always told myself I'd never do an ultra marathon. But the other day it was where my roommate and I were watching like the Javelina hundred. We were like, man, we could do an ultra marathon. So we were like conspiring how we could like make our debut, definitely not a hundred mile. Or we were thinking more of like I'm not sure if you guys tuned into Javelina, but like the 31 K that started and it was like a party. They kept showing everyone the start line. We're like we would start with something like that.

Speaker 1 40:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3 40:08

But I yeah, I think for me, just like even running the marathon was something I never thought I'd do. I think it was maybe when I was like a sophomore in college I said the day I ran a double, I don't know what I was gonna do. Or the day I went over 50 miles in a week and I ran 80 in training yeah, who knows. My goals are changing all the time. Every month I'm like, well, maybe I could do a little bit more. So we'll see.

Speaker 1 40:38

That's generally how it starts out, right rob, it's like an addiction.

Speaker 3 40:41

You start with the 5k. I mean, I started off as like a miler, and then I inched my way into the 3k, and then it was the 5k, and then it turned out to be the 10k, and so, yeah, who knows?

Speaker 2 40:55

one race. I would recommend um because your your very good friend, caleb. I don't know if he has the course record, but I know he's won it several times as Highland Sky in your backyard. That's my favorite race in this country. Run it a couple of times, oh no way. Highly suggest running it If you want to make the transition over to the ultra world. It's in your backyard. Very challenging, very, very fun race.

Speaker 3 41:19

That's the 40 miler.

Speaker 2 41:21

It's actually 42, which still bothers me, because they say it's 40 miles and it's not.

Speaker 3 41:26

It's like 42 and a half, your watch hits 40 and you're just, you're done, checked out.

Running Community in Huntington, Abby Herring

Speaker 1 41:31

Yep, that is a big mental barrier. When that happens, like 50K, you hit mile 31 and you still can't hear the finish line, it's like, oh man, this is, yeah, it's not good. But yeah, I know, abby, with the group of friends that you have down there in Huntington, we will see you on the start line of an ultra at some point within the next couple of years, because between Caleb and Holly Ann, I know they will have you on, you know you will see what they do and they will have you on the start line of of some ultra somewhere, no doubt because holly ann's a killer too, uh oh, she's holly ann's insane.

Speaker 3 42:10

She's an inspiration. Yeah, she's awesome she would.

Speaker 1 42:13

She ran the uh. I just saw her up here for the burning river. She won the women's 50 mile and was real close to being maybe winning overall, maybe being second, I don't know. Uh, but yeah, I got to. Got to talk to her a little bit up here. She's awesome.

Speaker 3 42:31

Yeah, she's incredible.

Speaker 1 42:33

Yeah, yeah, certainly is look forward to seeing, seeing her. But yeah, you guys have quite a little running community down there in Huntington.

Speaker 3 42:40

Yeah, ultra marathon has almost been normalized. With how many people do them here?

Speaker 1 42:45

Yeah, like Dan Green, I know he just was probably one of the people you were watching out at Javelina, I'm sure, yeah, friend of his. So, yeah, awesome down there what is going on in Huntington, and certainly look forward to following you on your career, abby, and we just want to thank you for coming on.

Speaker 1 43:05

Yeah, thanks for having me Appreciate it, yeah appreciate it and thank you for taking the time out and sharing your story of you know growing up and then going to, on to nationals, which is awesome, and then continuing, uh, getting a top 10 at Columbus First time, really, you know, going out there and doing that. So that's, that's awesome. So thank you so much, abby, for your time and, rob, thanks for joining us as well, thanks for co-hosting.

Speaker 2 43:31

Yeah, this was a good one. Yeah, so, abby, where can our listeners?

Speaker 1 43:35

find you your Instagram handle? I wasn't sure because she's private on Instagram so I didn't.

Speaker 3 43:39

Oh no, you can follow me, it's abby A-B-B-Y dot Herring H-E-R-R-I-N-G.

Speaker 2 43:47

Strava.

Speaker 3 43:48

Strava. Yes, just Abby Herring. Click on the bio. It says Marshall U X-E-T-F alum.