Inspired by may of the guests on this show and the support of my family I have completed my first marathon in 3 hours 53 minutes . Chris and I hopped on a podcast episode to reflect on the training process, race day and lessons learned from running this event as a father. After completing this event I have a new found respect for marathon runners and truly believe that anybody can do one if they take their training seriously and set aside the time. If you are considering running for your first marathon feel free to reach out and discuss with myself and Chris, we'd love to give you the extra push. Like and Follow to hear more inspiring stories on the High Quality Fun Podcast. 7 Lessons Learned Training for My First Marathon as a Father: BUILD BETTER HABBITS - Training for a marathon while being a good dad, forced me to build better habits. I started getting to bed sooner and drinking less. ME TIME - Having the alone time with my thoughts during longer runs was monumental to my mental state. Gave me time to think through a lot. MENTAL STRENGTH - Not only are you training your body to run the distance but you are training your mind get you there and to overcome other struggles. CALORIES AND HYDRATION - I've never ran an event where you are exhausting all calorie reserves. Its very important to intake water and calories throughout the event to ensure you have fuel left in the tank to get across the finish line. TEAMWORK - With any relationship its important to plan and align on goals. For us we didn't want to sacrifice our social life or time with our kids. We had to work closely with each other to carve out time that worked for us as a unit and adjust based on the day to day. GRACE AND FLEXIBILITY - The training schedule you found online should not be treated as gospel. Things will come up and you may get injured. Don't beat yourself up you can tweak the schedule to work with your needs. As long as you are able to do the longer runs and grow that distance over time you will be successful! RECOVERY - Training for a First marathon introduced a lot of new pains and soreness. These were scary at first and could have put me out of commission but talking with other runners it turns out this was common and was easily fixed with rest, icing, and stretching. Sign up for this link to get all these lessons direct to your inbox. https://highqualityfun.eo.page/csv6t If you want to see more content like this, please consider liking and subscribing and check us out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/high.quality.fun/