America's Tyler McCandless and Japan's Yuki Kawauchi helped each other at the Chicago Marathon

After running miles 3-15 alone at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, I caught up to reigning Boston Marathon champ Yuki Kawauchi. When I caught him I said, “come on Yuki, stay with me” and tapped my side. I looked back a minute later and he was right on my tail and I said “good” to him. He stayed there until about mile 21 when he tried to push past me. We went back and forth over the last few miles multiple times. Once, he slipped on a turn, nearly fell and looked concerne...d - I said to Yuki “you’re okay, you’re good.” The rain and wind picked up and neither of us were running near where our goals were. But, we pushed each other to the best we could on ”off” days. We were both struggling, yet with 300m to go he found another gear and blew me away. There no doubt he found that gear from mental toughness and I’ve learned something from it. Moral of the story: even if you’re day isn’t what you envisioned and trained for, NEVER give up because you’ll gain indispensable experience and inspiration from it!  Editors note: Tyler is sponsored by Altra Running and rabbit.  media@TrackTy

posted Tuesday October 9th
by Tyler McCandless