Meb: 'Winning New York Was a Dream of Mine for Years'

I woke up on September 20, 2009, with vivid recall of a dream—I had won the New York City Marathon. I’d been hoping and working to win New York since my debut marathon there in 2002. I truly never stopped believing that I had what it took to meet my goal. By now I’d so internalized that belief that it was playing out in my subconscious.

Get Yourself a Goal

You’ve probably heard what makes for a good goal. Criteria include:

• It requires you to increase or improve upon what you’re currently capable of.
• It can be quantified or otherwise stated so that you know if you reached it.
• It requires intermediate steps so that you know how you’re progressing toward it.
• It has a date by which you hope to achieve it.
• It is personally meaningful to you.

These elements of a good goal are all important. For long-term goals, or what you might think of as your dreams, the last criterion is key. If you’re going to work for something for many, many months, or years, or maybe even decades, it has to have immense personal meaning to you. Only if your goal is something that really speaks to you will you find a way around all the obstacles and keep moving, however slowly and meanderingly, toward accomplishing it.

New York, New York

One of the best running tips I ever got came from Yordanos before the race. She told me I was too often being too aggressive too early in the race. Past halfway, I was often near the front of the pack. Yordanos convinced me that in marathons, that way of running allowed others to draft off me and conserve energy. This time, she told me, tuck in and be a factor later in the race.

And she was right: Once the race began, the ones who really paid the price for surging were the front-runners. Meanwhile, I still felt strong as a pack of four coalesced after 20 miles. Two lost contact after a 4:56 22nd mile, and it was now just me against Cheruiyot.

I was feeling increasingly confident as we ran by side by side. I was running off his shoulder, still implementing Yordanos’s advice. Cheruiyot gestured for me to move alongside him or take the lead. You’ll see that often in distance races, where the person leading is bothered by the person drafting. The gesture means, “Share the race. Get up here and do some of the work.” I’ve made that gesture to others, and I’ve cooperated when others have made it to me.

Not this time, however. I thought, “Today is the day when I wait and get to the finish line first.” I held back. When the person drafting refuses to cooperate, you’ll often see the leader take off in a spurt of anger. When Cheruiyot didn’t do something similar, I took that as a sign he was hurting. I stayed tucked in and waited to go into the lead when it was best for me.

But it happened sooner than I expected. I couldn’t believe it—on a downhill stretch in the 24th mile, I suddenly had two or three steps on Cheruiyot. This was the moment I’d been dreaming of and working toward for years. It was now up to me to make the most of the opportunity.

My mind was racing as much as my body: I thought, “It’s actually happening! I’m going to win my first marathon!” After all I’d been through the previous two years, to have my dream finally become a reality, to hear the crowd cheering “USA! USA!” and my name, to be on the verge of winning my personal Olympics, it was all just overwhelming. I tapped my USA jersey and motioned to the crowd while thinking, “Pinch me, pinch me.”

This time, I didn’t wake up after dreaming about winning New York. This time, I was living it. Part of me didn’t want the race to end. When it did, I was the first American to win New York in twenty-seven years. I had a new personal best of 2:09:15. I was on top of the running world a year after having almost retired. I was living proof that you should never give up on your dreams.

A Dream Realized

I got attention for medaling in the Athens Olympics. But winning New York made me a star. I would be known around the world for the rest of my career by just three letters: Meb.

I’ve said how winning New York was a dream of mine for years. How do you keep working toward a dram like that when it seems like it’s getting more out of reach, not closer? The key is what I talked about at the beginning of this chapter—setting the right goals. You’ll know when you’ve hit on the right ones. They’re the ones that will still call to you no matter how challenging things get. They’re the ones that make your life better just by chasing them.

After winning New York, I had one more of those lifetime running goals: to win the Boston Marathon. I took my next shot at it the following spring.

This is an excerpt from Meb's book, 26 Marathons: What I've Learned About Faith, Identity, Running, and Life From Each Marathon I've Run, which can be purchased from Amazon. The book is released on Tuesday, March 19.