Chris Short Is Continually Testing His Physical Limitations

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My guest today is back for round two after achieving running goals that few ever accomplish and he did it in the short span of 16 months.

Since our last chat, he finally got his elusive BQ, ran Boston, ran halfway across the state of Iowa, and capped it off with running the NYC Marathon.

Even for a guy that “runs all the miles,” that’s clearly a lot and I am looking forward to trying to keep up with Chris Short today!

Mastering The Marathon

Chris Short’s favorite distance to race is the marathon.

He never knows how it will go due to the wide variety of factors that can influence race day and he says that is half the fun.

Chris has run a lot of marathons over the years, both with and without specific time goals.

His standout marathon was Wineglass in 2021 where he finally earned a Boston qualifier which had been eluding him for some time.

He has also run three of the six World Marathon majors and has very strong opinions about those races.

The Marathon Majors are an experience unlike any other.

For that reason, he prefers not to focus on PRs because it could take away from the experience of the day.

Majors also don’t lend themselves easily to time goals, because of the crowds and distractions along the course.

The Stars Aligned

Chris Short had a big goal of eventually qualifying to run Boston.

He achieved his goal at the Wineglass marathon in the fall of 2021.

The weather was perfect and everything lined up that day resulting in his first BQ.

Wineglass wasn’t always the target race, even though it all worked out.

The Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA, was the original goal.

Chris had run the race before and the course logistics were favorable for a BQ attempt.

The race was unexpectedly canceled one month prior to race day, which left Chris scrambling to find another goal race.

Thankfully he was able to pivot and still achieve his goal.

Toeing The Boston Line

Chris had a lot of emotions going into Boston because of all of the build-ups over the years.

The weather for Marathon Monday was perfect, but Chris was nursing an IT Band injury going into the race.

Chris was assigned to start in the first corral of wave 2, which put him in a unique position.

He found himself toeing the start line with no one in front of him.

The excitement got the best of him resulting in the first 10k of the race almost matching his 10k PR.

He slowed himself down after that, but the damage had already been done.

Boston wasn’t his best marathon, but the experience lived up to all the hype.

His time at Wineglass allowed him to register for both Boston 2022 and 2023, which gives him another chance at redemption.

Giving Back The Only Way He Knows How

Running has been transformational for Chris and has done so much good for him over the years.

He wanted to give back in some form and the most logical way was to do what he did best which is run.

It was a couple of years ago when he first heard about MS Run the US.

MS Run the US is a hand-selected team of runners that are each assigned a segment where they run 160 or more miles over about a week period.

The segment Chris was selected for required him to run around 200 miles in 8 days across the state of Iowa.

Chris committed to raising a minimum of 10k.

Initially, Chris was more worried about the fundraising than he was about running the actual distance.

Ironically the opposite would end up being true.

MS Run The US

Chris was successful in his fundraising endeavor and he credits that to the generosity of both family and friends.

His company was also incredibly generous in helping him to reach his goal.

According to Chris, the event itself actually went by very quickly.

He was amazed at what his body was able to do.

At 4 to 5 days into the segment, his body was beginning to adjust to what was required of it.

There was no point in the race where Chris considered giving up.

Mentally everything fell into place during those 8 days and Chris focused entirely on the run.

Prioritizing Rest and Recovery

Chris has had a high level of intensity between training and racing over a 2 year period.

Hindsight has allowed him to realize that he hadn’t given his body the rest and recovery that is required.

Overall, his body was pretty beat up after all the cumulative efforts.

After his segment for MS Run the US was complete, Chris took a much-needed month-long break.

His body is still recovering and there is some lingering soreness from overtraining.

Going forward, Chris is focused on making sure that he takes proper downtime after hard efforts.

Looking to the future, Chris is hoping to eventually run all 6 World Marathon Majors.

Running continues to reaffirm that he can reach his goals if he puts in the work.

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Mentioned In This Episode:

• MS Run The US
• Steamtown Marathon
• Wineglass Race Series
• Chris Short Transformed His Life Once He Prioritized Himself (Round 1)

Stay connected to Chris Short by following him on Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Chris Short has been transformed by running and tries to give back to the sport what it has given to him. He has yet to find a challenge he won't try. Click To Tweet

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As Always, I’d Love to Know What Stood Out to You From this Episode! Let Me Know Your Takeaway in the Comments Below!

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