This year on June 4, 2023, I completed my 71st marathon at the Rock N Roll San Diego Marathon event. But it was not an ordinary run by any means.

Anyone that has run this particular marathon knows there is a big, long hill after mile 22 (1.1 miles long). But I went into it saying I truly believe I am going to run my fastest marathon in eight years. I had no doubt I could do it. Sure enough, I felt good the whole time. I ended up running the second half of the race eight minutes faster than the first half with my fastest time since February 2015. Not only that but from the bottom to the top of that huge hill, I did not lose a second off the current average pace at the time.

The race was all about conquering the hill and being excited about it and believing it would have zero effect on my time because my mindset would overpower everything else. On the hill, I simply said out loud, “The belief this is hard is just an idea, and it’s totally untrue.” So rather than dreading the hill, I had a huge rush of excitement when I was on it. After the hill, the final three miles were significantly faster than any other miles, and I crossed the finish line at 3:44:22 at 8:34 per mile.