Bret

Good work! Sorry about Richie's ailments. What type of knee surgery did he have?

Saw the splits on Strava, was wondering what the story was, very solid negative splits! hope Richie gets back to 100 percent.

Thanks guys.

So in April 22 - in Boston he had a mini-stroke (TIA) at the finish - freakish thing and though we had lost contact with each other in that race at mile 13 (he dropped me and was crushing it) - I happened to be right there at the finish minutes after it he had it and was there to walk him in to get some medical attention (which he refused) - but he had no residual issues or problems with it since. Then he broke his foot in the fall of 22, and then had a herniated disc in his lower back in the winter, and then in April of this year had a torn meniscus and surgery to his knee.

We planned to run 10 to 11 mins pace but ended up running 9:30's for the first half. He expressed that if we were feeling good at halfway, we could dial it down to have a chance at a sub 4 hour race. We started ticking 8:40's for the next several miles and he was doing well with it and I was encouraging him quite a bit. But the lack of training and the warmer temps started to get to him around mile 20 and when it did not look like we would be fast enough to get in under the 4 hour mark. At that point the reality of the effort began to take hold on him and he was no longer motivated to "get close" to breaking 4 hours.

Understandably, I did not push him when he said he was going to "mail it in" the last 3 miles and since I thought I had a shot at a sub 4 at that point, I went for it at his urging.

So this was a big come-back for him and I was glad to run with him to tick this box and enjoy the day.