2024 New York City Marathon Officially The marathon broke the world record for finishers, with 55,646 runners from around the world crossing the finish line earlier this month. It’s far from the race’s humble beginnings: In 1970Only 55 runners completed the race, which then lapped only around Central Park.
The record-breaking participation in this month’s race comes as no surprise to me, as I’ve seen the growing popularity of marathon running in my own life: this year, I cheered six of my friends on from the sidelines. And last year, I ran myself.
Over the past few years, my circle of 20- and 30-somethings has moved away from late-night booze in favor of early-morning meetups at the track. Suddenly, I have strong opinions about brands of gels and running shoes and belts. I spend my weekends cheering on all kinds of races. Running culture has taken over our lives.
As it turns out, we are part of a global trend towards marathon participation In recent decades – a phenomenon further aided by the pandemic era moving boom.
Twenty-something like me big reason For the jump: 15 percent of NYC Marathon finishers in 2019 were in their 20s. Just four years later, in 2023, they made up 19 percent, according to The Atlantic. At the Los Angeles Marathon that same year, the proportion of 20-something runners increased from 21 percent to 28 percent.
That growth prompted The Atlantic to dub the run “The new quarter-life crisis” And while “crisis” usually implies some kind of negative spiral, my team’s new running obsession can be seen less as a sign of confusion for our generation and more as a positive rebellion against it.
Why are so many young people taking up distance running?
Marathons in general are becoming more inclusive: women’s participation was first allowed in the 1970s and has only recently begun to gain traction. Something like equality with men There are also more finishers of color.
But for the Gen Z demographic, another key driver is… the way life is now.
“Many of them started running during the pandemic. Many of them were starting careers at the time, graduating from college and maybe not really graduating, maybe not having these typical adult milestones,” says journalist Maggie Martens, author of the book. Better Faster Father: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women. “They see home ownership and marriage and kids as out of reach — even more out of reach than the millennial generation.”
This adds a lot of uncertainty. And what helps manage uncertainty if not a four-month, intensive training plan that calls for four to six training sessions a week covering hundreds of miles, plus cross-training and stretching?
Marathon season is basically over, which means it’s an ideal time to start thinking about whether you want to run next year.
Now, a disclaimer: I have been a competitive swimmer and a softball player. The pandemic shut down all my favorite workout classes and basically forced me to lace up my running shoes. I’m not a particularly fast runner, and I’m not setting out to break any world records. I mainly think of it as a great way to move my body, hang out with my friends and challenge myself to go a little further than yesterday.
If this sounds like you, read on for advice on what I learned from training as a 20-something, And also need to know if you expect to start training.
Training can be a way to add structure to your life
I found that preparing for the New York City Marathon required spreadsheet-scheduling of my life: Sunday, long run. Monday, rest. Tuesday, 4 miles. Wednesday, 8 miles. You will find it.
During the hardest, highest-mileage training weeks, I occasionally felt something like despair, but mostly box-checking helped bring a sense of predictability, even when my work or personal life was up in the air. It also created new milestones where others — buying a house, having kids — felt out of reach
I went to the 2024 Chicago Marathon Expo a few weeks ago Today, explained podcast, and several 20-something runners had similar experiences to share.
“You can have the worst day in the world, but the upside is that you turn around and you think, ‘Well, at least I got my miles in,'” Taylor-Nicole Limas, 28, told me.
For some, like 23-year-old Mitchell Rose, training is a way to impose structure on adult life. “It gives me that end-of-semester feeling, like you’re working on something, where the work gets very monotonous. I’m now three months into my full-time job, and I’ve come to realize, ‘Oh, it never ends.’
Use running to push you to finally make big lifestyle changes
The rigors of training force you to give up bad habits and adopt healthy habits as well. I’ve personally found that I need to add a fourth meal to my day — just to make up for the thousands of calories I burn in my training. I also gave up alcohol and went back to late nights in an attempt to reduce the chances of feeling bad on long runs (which sometimes works).
Other runners told me they had to make a similar commitment.
“I’m not proud of it, but I used to vape,” Pascal Gede, 26, told me at the expo. “I’m not vaping anymore. I think it’s made me a better athlete.”
All these little adjustments add up to a much bigger change, he said Kevin MastersProfessor of Psychology at the University of Colorado Denver and a former marathoner himself.
“You really orient your day — which turns into your week, which turns into month — around this event,” he said to say Today, explained. “It’s a guiding principle for your life.”
Training for a race can be a way to find community
The boom in marathon participation comes amid what the Surgeon General is calling for Loneliness is epidemicDecades marked by declining participation in community organizations, faith organizations, and recreational leagues.
This phenomenon is particularly evident among 20- and 30-somethings, who “Homebody generation“One Recent analysis It found that they spend an average of almost two hours more per day than previous generations.
“Where people used to get some purpose and meaning in their lives and feel connected to others,” from community organizations, Masters said, they “don’t do that as much for really young people.”
Running can be just that: run-club participation so high That it has become one the memeAnd plenty with social media going on dominant and content.
“I started a group chat with a bunch of marathoners for the first time,” Limas told me. “I thought, ‘Hey, we’re all running marathons. … We’re all women. Why not, when we’re stressed out, text each other?’ And they all became friends because of the group chat I started.”
Of course, Run Club isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Rose told me she had no luck when she tried them. “I have a long-term girlfriend. I don’t need to go to run clubs because they’re usually looking for things other than a good workout.”
Instead, he said, he prefers to just run with a friend: “If there’s somebody that you can knock on the door and say, ‘Let’s go for a run right now,’ and they often don’t drop everything, they’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s go. Like, let’s go for a long run together.’ Have a good time.’ It’s another layer of our friendship that I don’t think would be there otherwise.”
