020: John Young runs the 2016 Boston Maratahon

John Young is a high school math teacher, a husband, a teacher a runner and a triathlete. He has completed 35 triathlons including 7 half-ironman and is training for a full Ironman at Ironman Maryland.

He has run 6 marathons including 4 Boston Marathons. Most of our interview is about his recent Boston Marathon finish.

If you follow endurance sports online you may recognize John Young. John runs as part of Team Achilles because he has dwarfism. He and his son have coined the hashtag #bethehammer. During the interview we talk about where that came from and what it means. If you are curious about Team Achilles and the amazing work that they do visit www.achillesinternational.com

We talk about how not sleeping well was the first step to getting John involved in endurance sports.

We talk about being inspired by Team Hoyt. If you aren’t familiar with Team Hoyt take a minute and explore their story at www.teamhoyt.com

In 2009 John did his first Aquabike in Lowell Massachusetts. 4- weeks later he did the Witch City Tri. He said after that he was, “absolutely hooked.”

 John works with a coach from Work Live Train for his running coaching. He credits his coaching with helping him make a huge marathon PR. You can find Work Live Train at www.theeverydaytriathlete.com

We chat about how the start of the Boston Marathon is different and what it feels like to be run with the elite runners even if it’s just for a few seconds. 

All runners have their own long course nutrition plan and we talk about what his nutrition plan was this year and the Swedish Fish. Listen to find out what in the world I’m talking about.

John is lucky that he lives near Boston and he’s had the chance to run and train on this course. We chat about some special places of the Boston Marathon course.

Shout outs to John’s friends from Summerville Run Club, Lowellville Run Club and Breakthrough Performance.

We also talk about finding good friends on the course and how running and finishing with good friends Wes and Sarah made a very special race day memory.

John is on a journey to become the first Little Person to complete an Ironman. He’s riding a custom bike from Seven Cycles for his journey. He put the hashtag #bethehammer on his bike.

Give some love to Seven Bikes at www.sevencycles.com and John’s local bike shop Salem Cycles.

We talk about the challenge of having a smaller bike in an Ironman transition which is a frustration that John and I share.

I ask John the same question I ask every other Ironman in training, “what’s the biggest challenge in training. “

John leaves me with what might be my new favorite motivational quote, “Your will has to be stronger than your won’t.” – John Young

You can follow John Young on Twitter and Instagram at @dwarfparatri and he’s also on Facebook as athlete John Young.