First Boston, 24-Minute PR & the DFW Community That Made It Happen — Matthew Kanarr | Ep. 3

DFW Running Talk: Matthew Kanarr
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, so let's get started.

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Today we have something special going on. It's, we're gonna have 10 episodes for 10 days straight Monday through Friday. And we're gonna listen to the, either the running up to Boston Marathon experiences from DFW runners their first time or sometimes their 10th time.

But in this case, we have Matthew Kenar, and it's his first time to ever go to Boston. Matthew, how are you?

Matthew Kanarr: I'm doing good. Really excited to run it in a couple, I guess two weeks now.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, man, that's really excited. So let's dive in, man, like this is your first time. Tell me a little bit about what got you into Boston and leading up to that.

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah I had qualified in 2024 towards the tail end. Just had what the qualification windows worked, but I ran the California International Marathon and so had a phenomenal training block in, I'm sure [00:01:00] you've probably interviewed or met. Fas from Train Pegasus and I've been working with him and so really have to give it to him for helping lay out a plan to help me get here.

That's awesome. It was a pleasure working with him too.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, and the way I got you on was actually from Ray's Track Club.

Matthew Kanarr: Right.

Chris Detzel: So he made that recommendation, I guess you know him pretty well.

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah. Yeah. No, Ray and I, we've ran so many times. They're probably, them and Plano Running Club are probably the two groups I've ran with the most.

And then I did have, I had a good amount of times where I'd go run with trained Pegasus too, especially during that CIM block for those longer runs.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Matthew Kanarr: just a great community overall that I'm, I got to be a part of.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Ray's kind of weird, but hopefully, listen, I'm joking. That's great. So when you ran a CIM, what did you know about Boston and were you trying to qualify for Boston? Was that your goal or?

Matthew Kanarr: Yes. Yeah, that was the goal I had learned about Boston from Plano Run Club. So I've been living in Dallas since 2022. And really, [00:02:00] PRC is kind, the group that got me to start even thinking about marathons

Chris Detzel: so you know Shirley then?

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah, I know Shirley. Yes.

Chris Detzel: She's great.

Matthew Kanarr: It was she, her and so many people were so encouraging and supportive too. They always, actually, it was them that pointed me to raise Track Club. They're like, Matt you're too fast. You need to run with these. I'm like, okay, I'm just here to run some miles and have fun.

So

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Matthew Kanarr: and then I just got plugged into a whole bunch of other people in the community and. It's funny being from Austin, I didn't realize how big the run community is in Dallas.

Chris Detzel: It's huge,

Matthew Kanarr: right?

Chris Detzel: There's probably 50 or 60 different running groups in all of DFW and it continues to grow, which is crazy.

Was that your first marathon at CIM or

Matthew Kanarr: No. So the Austin Marathon in 2023, that was my first marathon that I had ran.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Matthew Kanarr: Really no goals. Just wanted a feel for the the distance.

Chris Detzel: What was your time in the first marathon?

Matthew Kanarr: It was around three hours, 12 minutes in [00:03:00] change.

Chris Detzel: Dang.

Matthew Kanarr: I don't, yeah,

Chris Detzel: That's pretty impressive.

And then what'd you run at CIM to qualify for Boston

Matthew Kanarr: 2 48 in change. I think 2 48. 16 is the time, I believe. Yeah. So it was a big jump. You can

Chris Detzel: buster.

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I guess that's what happens when you run with race track club and run with on a training plan with fs. So that's

Matthew Kanarr: what happens. It was huge.

Just running with way faster people, but also much seasoned runners than me too. Just getting a sense of having that structure and knowing this is the intent of this track. Or maybe long run workout, which that was something I was missing and, but also wasn't really in my, scope at the time for Austin.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. You learn so much from after that first marathon.

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And once you start running with the community of people like, Plano running club and then raise track club and then Pegasus some and things like that, you'll win a lot from a lot of those people.

So that's pretty cool. I always preach community, so that's the reason I love what you're saying, because it just [00:04:00] works, running with faster people than you is always a right. Huge thing.

Matthew Kanarr: No, it was a really great group and they plugged me into so many amazing runners that honestly I look up to, that I hope to even reach that level of talent of them.

And so it's just, even like earlier I was just snooping on Strava and it's all awesome. Just seeing what the, these people are training for and just the work. I always love seeing that.

Chris Detzel: So tell me a little bit about your, you ramp up from CIM now to Boston Marathon?

What has that been like?

Matthew Kanarr: Yeah, so it's been roughly a year and a half since I had qualified. I had done a couple of five in 10 Ks in between then. So I had ran one I love is Dash down, Greenville ran that in 2025. And then the Crescent City Classic 10 K in new Orleans. And then in between that time too, a few pacing gigs with.

Amped in Craig Ranch and then a training block that I had going on for leading into the Dallas half this past December, which. I had [00:05:00] to still ran. It just didn't race due to some injuries that came up towards the end of it. So just wanted to save myself for just to ramp up for Boston Post Dallas.

Chris Detzel: Trying to be careful how, what'd you run in Dallas then?

Matthew Kanarr: Dallas. Half. I was hanging out with James Allen, actually the one 40 Pacer crew. It was a nice, like a victory, nice little victory run for me. And also it was just fun to always because it's such a, it's a fast time already and so there was a lot of people that are really gunning for that one 40 or faster.

And so it was awesome just to help support them. During that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I ran that. I think I ran a 1 37 6 or something. I don't remember. But

Matthew Kanarr: on that course too is really good.

Chris Detzel: It's good enough. That's all I can, I didn't care. Yeah. Like Dallas and Cal Town, I always just enjoy the race itself,

rather than trying to pr 'cause I'm not gonna pr I don't any of those courses. So how are you feeling now up to Boston? Do you get a couple weeks? A little bit

Matthew Kanarr: less. I'm feeling pretty solid towards December, around December or so. I did have a little bit of worries just [00:06:00] 'cause I'm, I was essentially training on a much more compressed block compared to CIMI think.

Yeah. When I had reached out to fas we were working like 16, 18 week block and so this time around it was about a, this is about a nine to 11 week block than I'm working on. So definitely much different. And but it was also a positive mindset shift for me too. The outlook and kind of seeing Boston is more of, I put all the work in at CIM and now this is like the victory lap for me is the, a paradigm shift that I had going in for Boston.

Chris Detzel: What are you looking forward to the most with Boston? What have you heard and what kind of things are you thinking? Just going in, anybody, family, going, anything like.

Matthew Kanarr: I'll have my girlfriend, she'll be joining with me it'll be her first time getting to see Boston. I know she's really excited.

And then parents are gonna try to catch the television since I think they do broadcast Boston. So we'll see if I end up on the TV there. But may, maybe one day I'll run fast enough. No, I'm just joking [00:07:00] to the elite field. Yeah. But really just the whole experience.

Itself, all the way from packet pickup to finish. Yeah. And also just what the area offers. And also it's the, I believe it's the hundred 30th Boston. So I'm expecting in. Anticipating them to go all out in some capacity. So just really just that whole race day or race weekend experience.

And also just getting to be around so many amazing runners too that put in the work and just getting to share that field with them really is probably what I'm most looking forward to.

Chris Detzel: Any friends that are going, that you know of that you're looking forward to hanging with or?

Matthew Kanarr: I would say a lot of the folks over at Plano Run Club.

I think race track club too. We got some folks running Boston and then Pegasus. It'll be good to run into them. Ran into a few of them at McKinney half, I think just last weekend. It was really great to reconnect and then even share some miles with them and just get to celebrate the whole Boston [00:08:00] experience with them.

Chris Detzel: I love it. So one thing that I would tell you is cool is when you go to the expo. The expo is, you certainly gotta do it, but that's not the coolest part. After the expo and going to the different streets where all these popup places are, like Tracksmith and other places, everywhere, everybody has.

Popups within the streets of Boston and you have to go walk the different streets to see all of the popups in the stores and everything else, because a lot of times with Boston, other marathons lately, it's just one sponsor and then a bunch of other bullshit stuff inside of the,

Matthew Kanarr: right.

Chris Detzel: Expo. So going out and that the beauty about Boston is that, these vendors have learned to just do these popups in these different places. So my recommendation is go to the popups, enjoy that piece. Note that you should definitely do the expo and enjoy as much as you can. But if you wanna see what's cool and what's next with some of these vendors, it's outside of, it's on the streets of Boston.

Matthew Kanarr: It should work [00:09:00] out then because we had my girlfriend and I, we had a last minute hotel change. So now we manage to. Through Fit for Adventure. I believe it's at Boston Park Plaza. Yeah. So we should be right next to where everything is. So you'll be Yeah. Perfect. Then

Chris Detzel: My wife's 13th.

Boston is this year, so she'll 13. She's been 13 times. Yeah. And she's, so we get the park plaza now every year, and i'm gonna do quick hit interviews, so make sure you come by and say hello, and just perfect. Gimme a clip or two. Anything that you, that we didn't really talk about that, you just man, I'm looking forward to this, or can't wait to do that, or can't wait to seize this or that, what's the kind of takeaway here, do you think?

Not to put you on.

Matthew Kanarr: Now I guess now you mentioned the popups. I didn't even know. There's so much I feel like I'm gonna be taking in that whole weekend on the day of, honestly. I'm not even sure if I'll I don't know. Maybe I'll cry at the finish. I know I did at CIM after but

Chris Detzel: you will.

Dude, you'll, because being done, like people are just like, [00:10:00] yeah. It's a first. And they don't know if they're ever gonna get there again or whatever, and so you definitely just take it in cry if you want to, man, it doesn't matter. Like it's just enjoy it 'cause it's that spectacular.

I've seen it a lot. I've not run it myself, but, and, but I've been part of the atmosphere. I've get to see runners do it, whether it's the first time or the 12th time, it's still just as magical. Yeah,

Matthew Kanarr: I mean it's gonna be a lot. Just especially with how I guess less of an ideal training cycle.

Just, just being blessed that I'm have a healthy body to do it so that I got here really. And I guess after that, really the rebuild. I definitely wanna hunker down on the half marathon and shorter, similar to what led to my breakthrough in 2024. Really getting back into the woodshed after getting to celebrate Boston is really, and the whole race weekend experience is really what I would say I'm looking forward to.

Chris Detzel: Awesome. How old are you, Matt?

Matthew Kanarr: 26.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Super young man. Still have lots of [00:11:00] umph inside of you, man. I can't wait to continue to watch and see what happens. How long are you staying in Boston? Is it, are you getting there

Matthew Kanarr: Friday and Saturday? Four. We get in Saturday and fly out I believe Tuesday.

So Okay. It should be four ish forest days, I think.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Great. Y'all have plenty of time to soak it up, on Saturday or Sunday, Pegasus does their. They're run. Everybody runs two or three miles, whatever it is. And so that's fun. I did that last year with them.

Hopefully they'll let me do it again and I'll just hang out.

Matthew Kanarr: I'm sure. Isn't that mean? He'll let you in.

Chris Detzel: Jill I think they're amazing, and

Matthew Kanarr: no they're great.

Chris Detzel: Alright. Anything else I don't wanna make, I wanna make sure I didn't miss anything.

Matthew Kanarr: No, I think we got to cover everything it was, it was a pleasure and honor that I got to be here.

Really just wanted to, I don't think I got to say that. Of course. Appreciate Ray nominating. You bringing me on, so

Chris Detzel: of course. I look forward to seeing how you do in Boston. Let's make sure to either say hello, grab a beer or whatever, but good luck [00:12:00] and. Thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk.

I'm Chris Deel. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter at DFW running talk.substack.com. We have a YouTube channel. We also have an Instagram channel. Just follow it, just type in DFW Running Talk. You'll see all of our channels at Matt Kard. Thank you so much for coming off. Of

Matthew Kanarr: course.