The Honolulu Marathon was this past weekend. I was following along on the tracker as it was happening, as usual.
There was a local guy running the marathon who bought my Flow Running course as soon as I started promoting it this past summer. He was actually my very first sale of the course (!) which is why this runner in particular was of interest to me. I’ve never actually met him, but he’s a local friend of an athlete I work with and apparently he’d been following along with interest as I’d been talking more and more about run form/efficiency, etc. We’ve gone back and forth a few times via DMs, but other than the Flow Running course, I didn’t have any personal involvement in his training or preparation. Nonetheless, I was curious to see how he would run!
He’d previously given me really great feedback about the course… said it gave him a lot to think about as he’d never heard running form talked about the way I presented it. Ie, initiate movement with your hips, not your arms and legs… Teach yourself to do that by instilling Contralateral Gait as a default movement pattern… Use Flow Rope to teach yourself to move from the center out, etc. I explain it all in detail in the course.
Half way through the race, his splits indicated that he was on track for a 3hr marathon (fast!). Based on his pace in the first half, the tracker predicted that he’d run 3:00:14, which, while awesome, could be a bit of a heartbreaker. I mean, anyone who’s that close to the 3hr mark is going to want to get under it. It’s just how the runner’s brain works. Typically, the back half of the marathon is harder/slower than the first half (!) so you can imagine the stoke I felt for him when 90minutes later I saw his official finish time of 2:58! A negative split! SO COOL!
I don’t coach this runner personally, so I don’t have any insight into his training, but given that he was my first Flow Running customer, I felt some degree of investment in his performance. I sent him a DM congratulating him on his race.
He replied and told me that it was his 5th marathon and first sub 3! He also said that he felt that his work with the Flow Rope really helped him improve his run form, especially as fatigue set in during the back half.
Someone on Instagram congratulated him and asked him about his training:
So while undoubtedly the role I played there was small (his training was clearly effective and remains the main reason he ran so well!), the fact that he felt like the smoother run stride he developed this year (using the flow rope) was a catalyst that allowed him to get himself across the finish line faster just absolutely made my day! Helping runners have experiences like this was 100% my goal in putting that course together.
NOTE! The Flow Running course is not for everyone. The format of the course expects that the athlete will have the self motivation and discipline to follow through on learning and practicing the content taught.
I tend to take it for granted that athletes are self motivated enough to do the small supplemental things that can make a big difference in performance later. Many actually aren’t.
Anyway, the content is there for the motivated runner who is open minded enough to take a different approach to improving the way they move. If you want to run better in 2025, now is a great time to start seriously exploring how you can be smoother and more efficient with your movements.
And. Since I created that initial course, I’ve continued to personally explore how Flow Rope can be a tool to help us move better overall (beyond running). Turns out, building on the basic foundational swings and learning some more complex patterns can be hugely beneficial in improving mobility, posture, balance and coordination. More about this later, but I’ll say this for now - The Flow Rope has taught me about timing, momentum, precision, rhythm, rotation, and fluidity of movement in a way that no other tool or technique ever has. Also, patience.
I have the skeleton of my next course written and will post it here once I start recording the instructional videos. It’ll essentially be a series of 3-5min videos teaching increasingly complex patterns in a way that will allow people to work at their own pace to learn. My plan is to break it all down and make it as simple as possible. Target audience for this next one will be anyone who wants to move better. Could apply to sports like running, swimming, skiing, surfing, tennis, dancing, golfing, etc. OR an older person who wants better mobility, balance and coordination, which would go a long way towards preventing falls. So if you’re looking for a personal intention for 2025, might I suggest the goal of improving the way you move? Stay tuned!
What a great endorsement!!