Meb's Lessons From the Marathon

Meb ran the final miles of the 2013 New York City Marathon with fellow elite runner Mike Cassidy. He learned valuable lessons, and the two remain friends to this day.

Meb Keflezighi, Olympian and New York City Marathon champion, offers reflections on the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon, based on his 26 career marathon finishes. Find more from Meb in episodes of Set the Pace Presented by Peloton, New York Road Runners' podcast.

The marathon is a mirror of life. It tests patience, humility, and perseverance. You learn how to manage discomfort, not just physical pain, but also self-doubt and setback.

The marathon teaches us to do hard things and how to handle it. It’s always going to be a challenge, but if you persevere, great things will happen.

Marathon training teaches us time management and showing up daily even when it’s not convenient. I tell people that if you have somebody to meet up, you’re going to show up and it’s going to help make it easier.

In training it’s all about controlling what you can control and letting go what you can’t control, a skill that applies everywhere in life.

Have gratitude for the miles, for the people that cheer you on, and make sure you have gratitude for the body that carries you for 26.2 miles.

The marathon reminds us that goals take time. Consistency beats intensity every time. And learning to recover gracefully from a disappointment, a missed PR, a bad race, or bad weather, or injury shows resilience.

I really think that it is important to be able to just recover, because a race is a race! Injuries happen, and you might not hit your goal, but at the same time, keep chugging away.

I remember in the 2013 New York City Marathon. I was having a tough day, but I had to refocus so I could get to that finish line. At 19 miles or 20 miles, you may not feel like you’re going to go, but you just have to make a new goal, to say, I’m going to get to that finish line even if it means walking.

Before you realize it you’re going to start jogging, get to that 5K to go, and then the crowd is going to carry you through it. You’ll remember the camaraderie and the friendships that you make, like I did that year with Mike Cassidy. We’re still friends to this day, even these 12 years later.

The finish line is always magical every time, even when you have a disappointment, so make sure you appreciate it and don’t drag your disappointment for a long period. It’s okay to be disappointed for an hour or a couple of hours, but after that you have to realize you just did something incredible to get to cross that finish line.

I say that the end of one race is the beginning of another. You discover a lot of things about yourself, but also, you discover about the community. You might have a bad race, but there’s many people that had a great race. Be a positive team player and be able to encourage others to keep going.

Everything in life is one day after another, one challenge after another. You have to take it day to day and make sure you appreciate the small victories.

Running 26.2 miles is an amazing accomplishment. In life and in the marathon, there are no shortcuts. There’s no instant gratification, but if you work hard, you’re going to be all right.

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