Retired Elite Runner Shalane Flanagan Announces Her Goal to Run 6 World Marathons in 42 Days, All in Under 3 Hours

SELF: When did you decide to take on all six Majors this fall?

Shalane Flanagan: I think I officially decided about February or March that this was my goal, but the closer I got to actually putting in the training and sharing with Nike and my support system, it became more and more real. So, the idea was formulated in January/February, but I didn’t really start to get after it in training and really commit to it until this spring, probably May/June.

SELF: What was the inspiration that sparked this goal?

Flanagan: There are a lot of layers to the inspiration. I think more than anything it’s reuniting with my best friend—running—post-retirement and knee surgery. I felt the need to set some goals again. Realizing this was a once in a lifetime opportunity presenting itself, with six major world marathons in 42 days, I feel like I’m doing it for myself, for my son, and for young women to showcase the connection between mental and physical health and how important of a role athletics can play in your life.

An interesting stat is that by age 17 more than half of girls will have quit playing sports, and that made me really sad. That was a motivator right there. I was a shy young girl, but sports completely transformed my life and gave me confidence and direction. Even just in terms of the people I’ve met through sport, I’ve realized everything has changed for the better because of athletics. I felt this was a great platform to share that message and also connect with each running community within the cities that I’ll be visiting.

SELF: Obviously, the amount of time between each marathon is very tight. How are you preparing for that in training?

Flanagan: I just had one of my biggest weeks of training, where I did a simulator of the Chicago and Boston marathons back-to-back. On Sunday [September 5], I ran 21 miles on a flat course and on Monday, I ran 21 miles on a really hilly course. My goal is to break three hours in all six of the marathons, which is going to be really hard, but I think it’s just about practicing mentally and physically and seeing where I may need to fine tune some things.

The big thing I noticed with that particular simulation was that hydration, fueling, and nutrition is going to be key, as well as getting really good quality sleep as much as possible. I’ve got a great support system. Between my physical therapist, my family, my Nike team, and my other partner InsideTracker, everyone is playing their role, and hopefully that support system allows me to just take care of myself.

I have been coaching myself, but I have been working with the Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL), and they have been a great sounding board for me to bounce ideas off. I’ve also been consulting with Carrie Dimoff and Elliott Heath, who are on the Bowerman Track Club and are Nike employees, and I’ve been doing some training with them, so I use them as a sounding board as well for ideas and then I finetune based on some of their feedback.

SELF: What has been the toughest workout so far? How did you handle it?

Flanagan: The back-to-back simulation of Chicago and Boston was tough. I did the back-to-back simulation, and then I had an easy 8-mile run on Tuesday. Then I met Carrie Dimoff for a really hard grass [workout] session on Wednesday. The grass session was the hardest I’ve worked in a long time. I finished it and said “that was so fun, but I feel terrible.” But I recovered fine, and was actually able to follow up that same week with another really long hard run with Carrie, another 21 miler. She is looking to break 2:30 [in the marathon], so her race pace is about 5:40 per mile, which is way faster than I’ll ever have to run. But I’m just trying to log a lot of extra fitness in the bank to make sure I can accomplish my goal.

https://www.self.com/story/shalane-flanagan-2021-world-majors

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