Over time, we find out where we belong.  We find our niche.  We get comfortable where we are.  This is true with the places we go, the friends we seek, and activities we participate in. And so much more.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t try new things, or visit new places, or look for new experiences, but, by and large, we find our comfort zones and we often stay in those places.

This is true of so many things in life.  

For me, it also seems very true of my marathon times.  It seems I have found my comfort zone.  

Now, to be clear, I wish my comfort zone was a little bit faster (maybe a lot of bit faster), but I believe I am right where I out to be.  The passage of time and a whole lot of experience is telling me this loud and clear.

When I first started marathoning, for years and years I ran each race faster than the one before it.  Those were my golden years when I was much younger.  My seventh marathon was in Chicago in 2006.  I ran a 3:25:16. That was my Personal Record. I’d never be that fast again.  

About seven years later, on November 3, 2013, I ran the slowest marathon of my life (to date) on the streets of New York City. I ran 4:30:07.  That still wasn’t a bad time, but it was slower than I’d ever run a 26.2 mile race before.  

I didn’t realize it that day, but I had found what was to become my comfort zone.

The next year, 2014, I ran the Lehigh Valley Marathon, a smaller and faster race, and finished at 4:14:37.  I thought I might be on my way to faster times again, but it tuns out that time was an illusion.  

In 2015, I again ran Lehigh Valley, but this time at 4:32:11.  I still didn’t know it, but I was back running where I was supposed to be.  For at least the next decade, right up to today, most of my races have resulted in a finish right around four and a half hours. This has happened time and time and time again.

In 2016, back in New York, I ran a 4:19:59.  That year I was a little quicker. I didn’t realize that I was closing in on my zone.

I didn’t run a marathon in 2017 (one of the very few years since 2002 that I didn’t run a marathon), but was back in New York in 2018 where I ran my slowest race ever- 4:47:47.  

Average those last two races (4:19 and 4:47) and what do you get?  4:33:00.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was where I would be going forward.

An Achilles injury, the requisite surgery, and Covid cost me two years of running, but I was back out there in 2021.  From there, my comfort zone became very clear and readily apparent:

2021 – New York City  4:39:32

2022 – New York City  4:38:44

2023 – Pittsburgh  4:34:17

2023 – New York City  4:34:44

2024 – New York City  4:33:09

We tend to stay where we are most comfortable.  We tend, over time, to find our niche.  In my last ten marathons, over a little more than a decade, I have finished in the 4 hour, 30 minutes realm seven times and in each of the last five races.

This isn’t to say that I don’t wish to run faster.  This isn’t to say that I won’t train to run faster.  This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t always strive to be a little bit better tomorrow than we are today.

But it is to say that sometimes we find out who we are and where we ought to be.  

I’m a 56-year old guy, a 26-time marathoner, and one who runs his races in about four and a half hours.  That’s who I am right now. It’s the marathoner I have been for more the last decade.

It seems I am right where I ought to be.