Especially as I've gotten older, I still believe that I can run a lot faster in a marathon than I have.

How do you continue to grab that extra 1% while training or racing considering the career you've already put together?įor me it really comes down to excellence and really just your human potential.

You're a four-time Olympian, two-time Olympic medalist that's succeeded at the very highest level of your sport for over a decade now. It was like, 'How can we use this time to get better,' and that was always our mantra throughout the whole thing. We decided to just use that time to try to get better, lifting more, just different things with flexibility or workouts that were a little bit shorter that I might not be able to do in normal buildup. It's hard to really target training when you don't know or don't have any idea of what you're targeting for. But it was so hard to do during COVID because you didn't know whether these races were going to get postponed or canceled. And I think just trying to be as fluid as possible and really leaning into that uncertainty is the only way that you can deal with it because as athletes, so much of what we want is always about being in control of everything and knowing that you have these routines, which are certainly important. What was the Tokyo experience like for you? These past Olympics were unlike any other. And now, going forward, knowing that the NYC Half Marathon is coming back, I'm just so grateful that we have this race and it just makes it that much more special and meaningful, to have the opportunity to compete. Sometimes you almost need it taken away from you to really appreciate what you had, and how good it is. I'm so much more appreciative and grateful to have these opportunities.

I have a hard time saying that personally because we play a game for a living and there are people going through a heck of a lot more than having a race canceled, but at the same time it's so great to be back and having a little bit of a sense of normalcy again. I know the pandemic, it was so tough on everyone.

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