Matthew Barron: From 3:25 Plateau to 2:38 Marathon Through Consistency and Community

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

Alright, welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel and today's special guest is Matt Baron. Matt, how are you? I'm doing great today, Chris. Excited to be here. Yeah, man. We finally got to connect. We've been trying to connect for a little bit and you're here. So I think the thing I'm learning is that, a lot of people just, they have families and kids and work and midnight.

Matt Barron: Yep. Yep. This is the best time for me, so I appreciate you being flexible with it.

Chris Detzel: Of course. So today, I love doing the running journeys because the stories are really, and sometimes you don't hear things that you might not know. And look, we get to know you a little bit. We did have you on several months ago, right before Boston Marathon, and you were telling us a little bit about, your goals and what you wanted to accomplish.

There was four or five others on, it was a lot of fun. And but now I wanna go a little bit deeper talking to you. So let's start with, you started running when did you get the love for it?

Matt Barron: Yeah, so my running journey goes back quite a [00:01:00] way. So when I, one of my earliest memories was when I, and this will get a little heavy so I'll preempt the audience, but one of my earliest memories was when I was four years old.

Unfortunately my mom's sister and my aunt got hit by a car damn while she was running 'cause she was an avid runner. Loved it. And so that memory was yeah, ingrained, very traumatic at the time. And my aunt was just a wonderful person. A ton of passion, just for life, for energy, for everything.

And so she became, even though, a horrible event, she became a big. Big year throughout my life as a motivator to, be as happy as I can be, bring as much energy as I can be. And then I think subtly some of the running in her love of running carried on, both my parents are pretty active and my mom would always do the Race for the Cure in Pittsburgh, which is where I grew up, which was about a 5K there.

It was huge. And so I do that, for my earliest days, whether I was [00:02:00] walking, jogging, and and that sort of evolved into, I did track in high school and then my junior, junior year and then walked onto the track team at MIT, which is where my undergrad. And so that, that's the origin of the running story.

And then let's go a little deeper.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. We don't do so high level. So you ran in high school a little bit, you said?

Matt Barron: Yep. I ran in high school a little bit. I was a football player that was too skinny and small to make the field, and so it took me a while to grow. Actually my sophomore year I was like the slowest dude on the team.

Had to do the lapse before the two a days. Yeah. Cut flow. And then I eventually grew into it and, and took on track, but all short distance stuff like, okay, four by one, 400 type stuff. And I threw the javelin on the,

Chris Detzel: it's funny how that just trans, it feels like it translates or it can translate short distance to long distance.

You're. Because you're really fast. Yeah. [00:03:00] In the long distance too. So it's just interesting. So you went to college and you get on to what team was that?

Matt Barron: I ran the, I ran track in just my freshman and sophomore year. And then I just, I wasn't really good enough to make the time investment worth it.

And I quit after my sophomore year. Always did some light running throughout college, but always because I went to school in Boston.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Matt Barron: The Boston Marathon was like the best day of the year, right? Yeah. Like we're just out there celebrating with all the other runners. And and my parents are both from Bo Boston originally as well, and I made it a goal to eventually run Boston.

I just knew that was not gonna be when I was

Chris Detzel: Yeah. A lot of people don't do Boston or even marathons during college. Yeah. As a matter of fact, in their twenties, I've seen several times where. Think about the races today. You are starting to see younger people come in and I think that's a good thing.

And you start seeing them train, you're gonna see faster and faster times, I think. Yeah. So it isn't already interesting to see, but sorry, you done [00:04:00] with college and you're like, you wanna just start running or what?

Matt Barron: Yeah, so I moved out to LA my first year out. And I started, I just did Wait,

Chris Detzel: you went from Boston to la that's

Matt Barron: yeah.

I went from, yeah, I went from Boston to LA so my brother, my brother was in New York. My sister was in la. My parents, they were in Pittsburgh and they said everywhere, you gotta pick a lane. Yeah. LA was a little bit more my vibe. At the time. And so I moved out there and started work in LA that only left here.

'cause my girlfriend at the time got into dental school in Dallas, okay. So that's what brought you to Dallas. That's

Chris Detzel: what, okay, girl. Got it. So

Matt Barron: you came to Dallas and then came to Dallas for a girl then? Yeah. So I ran, I run just I don't know, maybe 15 miles. When I was, and then and then when I moved to Dallas, I decided New City, I should try this marathon thing.

I wanna do Boston at some point. Yeah. They'll let me just see what I can do. And so I ran Dallas Marathon for the first time in 2014.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty early. So did you just pick a plan [00:05:00] or what did you do?

Matt Barron: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I Google to train. Like how you

Matt Barron: just Googled it. I Googled running training plans.

As many of your listeners may know that one of the first hits is, at least at that time, was Hal Higdon. I don't know if you've ever seen his stuff. Yeah. Which is honestly, really good fundamentals for getting into it. And they have different levels and talks you through the basics, which is essentially.

80% chill run. You don't, I didn't know it at the time, but 80% like recovery, running and then a couple workouts a week. Chose kind of his basic plan and tried to did it by yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I was totally by myself at that. You had

Chris Detzel: no friends.

Matt Barron: Yeah, I to do I, I had coworkers. Okay. But not many coworkers that were running at the time.

Okay. And I also used it at that time in my life. It was very much a outlet from work and being able to just think and so it was great outta curiosity, what kinda work do you do? I'm a consultant at Got it. I was there you make a bunch

Chris Detzel: of PowerPoints and then hand it to 'em and charge 'em a lot of money and be like, [00:06:00] there's, you go we try to do more.

Matt Barron: I know what you do, but Yeah. No, I started there and I've been there ever since. Okay. And I love, but it can be busy and there's, it's great to have kind of an outlet. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: So you ran your first marathon. Did you run any halves or anything before that?

Matt Barron: Yeah, so I did. I did a half in high school, did an Alaskan cruise with my family.

Nice. It happened to be on the longest day of the year, which Anchorage does a half on that day. So my sister and I, just decided, oh, did it kick your ass

Chris Detzel: or,

Matt Barron: yeah, that I did off of like random training in my basement and I was doing sprint at the time in high school. So

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Matt Barron: it was good. Like it was decent, but yeah, lot of opportunities.

Chris Detzel: Just think of what you know now, what you could have been then. Yeah. All right you really haven't done it half in a long time, so you just jump into marathon training.

Matt Barron: Yeah. So just jump into Marathon right off the cab

Chris Detzel: and you did a. 2014 Dallas, you said?

Matt Barron: I did 2014 [00:07:00] Dallas. In that commenced kind of an era of my running career, which I would call couch to Dallas with an aspiration or try to Boston qualify, which for anyone listening is not the best strategy.

Overall I would essentially 20 14, 20 15, 20 16, 20 17, I would. Start, it would be September. I would say I really gotta go start training for this thing. I, it a couple months. That'd be hard for a few months. And then I'd run Dallas and then I'd disappear off the tracker. Like I'd have a good 20 miles and then disappear off the track or cramp up, run a couple 15 minute miles at the end and get back.

That's

Chris Detzel: interesting knowing what you can do today. Yeah. This is very interesting. So obviously it was a lack of training. Yeah, for long term anyways,

Matt Barron: it was a lack of a lot of things. I think it was most importantly a lack of consistency, which I think, I think [00:08:00] people underrate the ability to go from one cycle to the next cycle of people of steady gain improvement.

And when you interrupt that just it, it takes time to come back and then,

Chris Detzel: I think that one of, one of the things that you said is, you basically went from cows to, a marathon and then is Hey, I wanna try to qualify for Boston. I

Matt Barron: think for sure,

We can stay, look,

Chris Detzel: there's people that have done it.

I've have people on this podcast, a few that, that have done it, right? Yeah. Like the last guy I talked to or the last. Podcast that came up. But with Kevin, his first marathon, he did it, but he was doing a lot of training. Like it wasn't like he was just went from couch. He's done halves, but he put a whole year worth of marathon training.

Yeah. And he has a lot of talent. But in general, my thought is just go run your first marathon. Don't have any goals necessarily. Just, I'm not saying you shouldn't have a goal, but just.

Matt Barron: For sure. And that was honestly my first, I did that, but then after the first I was like, all right, I can do this one now what do I do?

And [00:09:00] I think I just set myself for such an arbitrary and bold aspiration for the training

Chris Detzel: time. And I think we all do that to some degree, and we don't know what we don't know. So what kind of changed? So for the next three or four years, you struggle to. Get the Boston Marathon time.

Yeah,

Matt Barron: no, it was almost like, it was really seven years. So I I was six, so I I did that kind of couched to Boston for four years. Then got into business school and so when I got into business school, I made a goal while I was gonna be in school on a couple of things in life.

One of them was to. Become more dedicated to my running and more consistent. And so I was probably doing 30 to 40 miles a week in my training cycles. Which I already talked about were pretty inconsistent. Yeah. In those first four years. And then when I got to business school I picked up to almost 70.

[00:10:00] And then that's when I ended up qualifying for Boston the first time in April.

Chris Detzel: Question. So

Matt Barron: I want to kinda

Chris Detzel: go back to the very first thing you said is it your aunt?

Matt Barron: Yeah, my aunt.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Your aunt dies running and just kinda hit by car, not to get too, yeah, no. Yeah, just don't have, I may, I've heard of runners doing that.

Saddest thing I've ever heard. Whenever you were going through some of this running, did you think about her? Did you I. Yeah, was that on your mind? Was there a specific issue

Matt Barron: All the time and none of the time, if that makes sense, Chris. In some ways it's there are so many parts of my life where her you know the symbol of her and what I remember of her come into play.

For example, my college essay was a, was about her in that situation, how it shaped my life and for my fashion. Got me to MIT, which created a lot of other opportunities for me. And so he's been a consistent part of it. Definitely something that I commonly think about. And I know it's in, in some ways it's a small way, but it's a nice [00:11:00] way to just carry forward her,

Chris Detzel: like Yeah, I love that.

You mentioned it in the beginning, so that's why I brought it up, but it's interesting how you kept onto that, like it was just four years old. You're so young. I know. So it's traumatic, right? So whatever memories you have are probably very slim, but that memory certainly has stuck out.

So I, I love that you've done that and you've, you said you wrote a whole paper to get in Yeah. About it. And so it's pretty cool. Yeah. It's a paper about just her and the running partner.

Matt Barron: Yeah. It was just kinda a, it was a creative. Writing about because I, I think she had at least my memory of her and the others that knew her, she just had such a passion and energy.

Yeah. Enthusiasm for life. And so I think I've tried to carry forward some of that. Like I. And I think that has actually been something I try to do outside running. But then in the running,

Chris Detzel: so you go to business school and you get a little bit more serious about running. So did you just run more miles or what was the serious part?

Matt Barron: Yeah so it was quite a few things. So it was more miles, [00:12:00] it was better miles. And so I still to this day, probably my easy run are I've gone substantially faster than I was 10 years ago, but my easy runs are probably lower now than they were when I first started training. Yeah, that makes sense.

Chris Detzel: I've heard of a lot of people do that.

Matt Barron: Very common. And so my variation of like my tented boat pace was a 6 45. My easy run day was a seven. It and so that was a big deal. I also got much longer. Tempo efforts in which, which I think was Ally very helpful. And then honestly I was just far more consistent.

Chris Detzel: That sounds like that's all you need. So did you, how long was business school? Two years. Three. Two years. Two years, okay. So did you run like a marathon during that time or did you

Matt Barron: Yeah so I did New Jersey, I did two. So I did my previous, my first Dallas Marathon was a three 40. Just a context of the evolution.

Yeah. First marathon. Was a 3 45, which is great, great for a first effort. Yeah. Whittled that down to [00:13:00] essentially 3 20, 3 25 Okay. For a few years. And that was always though, like probably on track for 3.05, pace through 20, and then losing a lot of time in the back six. And then and then Dallas of 20 17, I ran, I.

Just under Route 10, I think. Okay. Around there. So you're still

Chris Detzel: not hitting the qualifying top? Not hitting but closer.

Matt Barron: Or maybe it was 3 0 5. I can't remember. It was close to what the at that time the window was 3 0 5 and so I might have been just within it. Yeah. But I knew you needed the, you needed a bit of a gap under, buffer under, so then I did a 2 59 for sub three in April

Chris Detzel: 29.

Matt Barron: 2018. Oh, okay. New Jersey. And then, that's quite the, that qualified me from Boston in 2019. Okay. So my first Boston was 2019.

Chris Detzel: Dude, look, I we're not even done yet, and I already know what you've run. Actually you've gained a while. It's pretty, [00:14:00] yes. But it's good. But it took you a

Matt Barron: while.

It took a while. There's a lot more years behind the improvement than any themes, than it is cert as we'll go through. It is absurdly non-linear, right? Yeah. So three years I was running 3 25, right? Yeah. Almost no improvement. And then I get a big chunk down to the load.

Chris Detzel: I've seen that a lot though, is.

Is that people are stuck at a certain thing. Yeah. And sometimes that could be, sometimes it's the body. I think, sometimes I think it's the training or there's a lot of things it could be, but a lot of times it's mental. I'm a 3 25 or that's about what I can do. Maybe I can do a few minutes, but and then certainly trying to think about all the ones you did and thinking I gotta get under a 3 0 5.

As a matter of fact, I need to get a couple minutes under 3 0 5. Yeah. Was it 3 0 5, right?

Matt Barron: 3 0 5 at the time? Yeah. Yeah. Three.

Chris Detzel: That probably seemed pretty daunting. Yeah,

Matt Barron: I felt like there was more, luckily, and we talked about I, the benefit I've had is that I know I have the short feed, so [00:15:00] it's about I need to build more endurance.

So that's always been So you're smart enough to know that. Then ki it. It's more of a hubris though, but that it's given me the idea that like, okay, I put the time, maybe I can. Yeah. Closer. Because if you look at equivalent, you look at them equivalent, be cable to be more about building that.

Chris Detzel: Is there ever a marathon that, just from what we were talking about so far, that just that any crazy story like, oh my God.

Like you, you mentioned that you had to run like, oh

Matt Barron: yeah. I was just, if you, if anyone knows the old Dallas Marathon course. Yeah. You come down it's like Maine and Commerce area, beum like. If you showed up, you would see me in the middle, crawl out full body cramping for three strings.

That was just, that's what I thought that's what it took to run the marathon and that's what happened to the body. But I didn't know that was from lack of training and lack of nutrition maybe. Nutrition. Yeah. Yeah. You, I, it took me, even when [00:16:00] I first qualified for Boston, I,

Chris Detzel: so in 2018, was it Dallas?

You said you get the. Or was it some other

Matt Barron: New Jersey?

Chris Detzel: New Jersey? You get the two A 59 and then what I'm curious what changed? 'cause before that you ran a 3, 3

Matt Barron: 0 5. Oh, you ran a 3 0 5 before. Okay. Yeah. I did a 3 0 5, 3 10 in Dallas. Okay. Earlier that year. But that just close down from a 3 25, which was like, I just really added consistency on that one.

That sounds

Chris Detzel: if you're going in the right direction. That was really good. Going in the right

Matt Barron: direction.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Weren't anyways, but not as, you weren't bringing that time way down. No,

Matt Barron: that's on the right track. Okay. So did you go to Boston after that or what? I did. So then I didn't do, I don't think I did another marathon until Boston the following year.

Makes sense. I did a lot of training and so I felt I felt much fitter, but I got hurt a couple months before Boston. I ran through it. And I had for me a parable day and so [00:17:00] I actually ran that marathon. I ran Boston, I think, slower than my first Dallas. Like really? 3, 3, 5.

Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Matt Barron: I was the, what was the pain?

Chris Detzel: Was it just because you were injured or did you just go Yeah,

Matt Barron: it was a mix of injury slash it took me a while to figure out the. The nutrition and one of the big parts of the nutrition for majors that start later in the day is you need to eat far more even than a normal marathon.

And so I think that just made me even more successful, the cramping. And so I started cramping at like mild head and then excellent. And then there's, at that point you've been building this thing up for, six years of your life. You too. You one day goes miserable and you know that at mile 10, and that is a dark place to.

And mile 10 and you're in that

Chris Detzel: place.

Matt Barron: Yeah. I

Chris Detzel: can't

Matt Barron: imagine so I, and that risk, I thought I was gonna my family, I thought they were gonna be a mile 14 didn't show traffic, some other stuff. It didn't work out. And so if they had been there, I would've gone off [00:18:00] the border, but I didn't end up seeing them until 21.

And so by then I was like, I'm close enough,

Chris Detzel: I might as well finish. Yeah.

Matt Barron: And I'm

glad

Chris Detzel: they didn't show up then.

Matt Barron: I'm glad I, no, honestly, I am, I'm glad it did.

Chris Detzel: Wow. Okay. So you had to regroup. What'd you do after?

Matt Barron: Yeah, so I, I took a it took about two months to get the injury away. And

Chris Detzel: were you

Matt Barron: mentally wiped?

Chris Detzel: Were you just so down afterwards or did you get back up and stage?

Matt Barron: Yeah, I was just dis yeah, I was just disappointed that I put in so much effort and built this up, but I think it's another lesson, it's a good lesson. In there that I should have felt like the training was a win and the shape I was in was a win at the time.

Sometimes it feels like the analogy I used is you're in the forest chopping trees and you want every ax hit to go directly to the tree coming down. But sometimes it's just like you gotta just keep going and going and then eventually you get a big kind of windfall. But it was not, it's why need to use a chainsaw.

Chris Detzel: My front.

Matt Barron: Yeah. I know. If I had one for running, I'd love it. [00:19:00] But yeah,

Chris Detzel: exactly. No, I think it's a great analogy. All right you get back at it a couple months and what was your plan then?

Matt Barron: Yeah, so I was coming back to my job and I got put on a project. So I actually ran, I ran to floor at the quarter marathon there.

I was like, I'm coming back to Dallas, and so I wanna be part of the running community. I met a guy. That was part of train Pegasus, his name's. And he and he introduced me and I was like, awesome, I'm gonna start to come to these things.

Chris Detzel: Okay. You, your first community to do this first time you started to run with people?

Matt Barron: Yeah, this was, it was like something I wanted to intentionally do when I was coming back. Okay. Coming back to Dallas, built a community, but then and that was in 2019, the very early days of. Put pond in the older building, but I then, no, not COVID. I got put on a travel project first. And so my Kate, but the project I was on was in Boston at the time, so I was like can't join can't make these runs.

On [00:20:00] the days in. So then, and then COVID hit, and then it. Took me a while to ingrain myself and me. I started to show up to some train ps to stop in maybe 21 or 20. Okay.

Chris Detzel: Okay. So you start 21, 22, you start running with train ps

Matt Barron: Yeah, and I was I was there but, and I ran a, another Dallas, but I never got past three again.

I was hoping to get back under that at some point. And then in 20. In 2023, my wife and I were gonna have our second kid and my job created a five month paternity leave. They extended the paternity leave. Amazing for you. Yeah. So it's for men. Fantastic. Okay. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it was great for both s yeah.

And so I knew that in my son was due in September. I knew that was coming up. I ran a half one of the Irving Race series. Yeah. March. I felt super outta shape and I was like, man, I cannot [00:21:00] this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to have this much time off. Yeah. Work. I want to, one, use it to, refocus and and be a great dad and support my family.

But then two, I wanted it to use that as an intentional time to. Get fit again. And I didn't want to spending the first three months of it trying to get my miles back up and get back into shape. So I bowed to myself that I would be more consistent through the spring and summer that year, so that I could like really, truly advantage of that time off.

And so that was the that, that was the fall of 2023 when my son was born. And that's where I really I really. Started to see my time after a sort event.

Chris Detzel: Were you running, you were running with the community though, or with some people? I was

Matt Barron: running, yeah. I started to that one and it allowed me to show up very consistently.

So starting from kind of March, April that year, I started to show up much more consistently. At the I just run me Smith, who I know you've had come on the podcast. She moved Dallas in September, so I started [00:22:00] running with her then. And that sort of. Unlocked the possibility of what I thought I could do.

'cause I would just try to keep up on some of the runs, which is great. Oh, and then I also did crazy training volume at that time. So I average about 90 miles a week for kind of the September through December of that year in lead up to in lead up to Houston. And then that's when I ran at two 40, I think it's 2 49.

Chris Detzel: All so what was your fastest before that? The 2 49.

Matt Barron: 2 59. 2 58

Chris Detzel: 9 or 2 59. So what made you like during the race? So I understand you're running 90 miles a week, so maybe that gives you the confidence of headphones easy now, 'cause you're running a lot of miles you can easily run a marathon no matter what it takes.

Yep. Was it, so was it like, okay, I'm running this marathon, did you think I'm running good, I'm gonna run at this pace knowing that you're gonna hit under a two 50? Or did you start it out as. Yeah, I just wanna try to hit out to three. What was your thinking going in?

Matt Barron: No, I started, I think I was going for 2 45 [00:23:00] or 2 47 ish.

Okay, so you already

Chris Detzel: were

Matt Barron: I was even, yeah. I was pretty impressed. More rep than I probably should have been. I don't think so, but I just went, yeah. I went off of, and I've started to do this more as just, whatever. I'll do a staple long run. I do a lot of g Daniel style workout.

Okay. And usually, yeah. Kind of 12, 15 mile long run and Aon paid somewhere in it. Yep. So I did that. I felt okay after. And so I carried at it.

Chris Detzel: Alright. So you went in there knowing that you wanted to go to that speed. I. Sure. Actually you wanna go faster, but

Matt Barron: for sure. Okay. It was far, it was far faster than I would've expected.

I could go if you had asked me kind of year before that, but I felt like that's where,

Chris Detzel: did you run a half marathon at that speed or faster or something before? Yeah,

Matt Barron: I ran the Fort Worth half and that was, I ran like A one eight B Okay. One E at the time. And so that also was helpful if you put that in some of the equivalency.

Tables that get you if you around or the two 40 somewhere in the twenties. And then and that [00:24:00] was, but that was the seven minute pr. Yeah, when I read

Chris Detzel: that for half. Yeah. Half.

Matt Barron: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: No, it is like you went all out on that half and that gave you a lot of confidence for that fool. So I guess my lesson there is, or a lesson there I think is thinking it is probably really good to do, like a hard half, do a race before your marathon, like a month or so before to, I don't know, whatever the recommended thing is to see where your fitness is.

Yeah. And go a little faster than you think you can. Yeah. Especially if you have a lot of fitness there.

Matt Barron: Yeah, for sure. And I think you, I. I think go as fast as your training would say you could. Yeah. And though I'd done, even for the half, I do, six or seven mile run at tempo effort before should feel comfortable at that half pace and that, that sort of has given me some of the confidence.

And then I think the only other lesson is just I think there is so much of the community that I am grateful and thankful for and has changed. Yeah. Just my general happiness in life and in running that I think also just, also selfishly make me a lot faster than I thought. If

Chris Detzel: [00:25:00] you had to pick one person you liked the best, who would it be?

No, I'm just joking.

Matt Barron: Yeah. That gimme a good one. Cue strong. Other than my wife. I'll take first my kid's next, and then the runners, I can't run.

Chris Detzel: The runners are all equal, they're

Matt Barron: all, all equal.

Chris Detzel: No, I'm just messing with you. I like what you said about that and and I talk about this all the time is, so for years I ran with DRC and built a community around that, and that helped take me to another level, right? I'm not necessarily the fastest or whatever, but it just helped me stay consistent and run things that I didn't think I could run and do.

And I love that you said that because look, you were running pretty fast at times. Yep. But you aren't consistent all the time. You weren't hitting your. Potential ever. No. And now you know, you're starting to run with Mimi and Pegasus and other things that really just sent you to an next level because one, you're more consistent.

Two, you ran more miles and. You're just became smarter and you're running with people to keep you accountable.

Matt Barron: Yeah. I think the [00:26:00] last part is honestly the, it's so big, Chris is the morning, I don't, maybe there'll be some amazing people out there, but the first two minutes of every morning I'm sort like, don't talk to, no.

Just there's that inch to be like I could just sleep a little longer. Oh, yeah. I'll make this a mile day, a four mile day or whatever, but like if, you know you're meeting people at a certain time at a certain place, it is just hard to disappoint them by being like, oh, couldn't figure out my life.

Sorry, can't make it today. Or like any it just, it makes it that much harder to break the habit and I think there is so much to habit forming and create percent that,

Chris Detzel: and I love that you did that. So you finally, hit pr. You've hit two really good, you've hit it several good times, by the way.

Yeah, that's, yeah. But two that are under three hours, one was way under. Yeah. So what happened next? Houston, by the way, I love Houston.

Matt Barron: Yeah. Houston's great. One of my one of my favorite. So well done. And easy. Easy. But, so I had a long term, the ambition of being able to qualify for kind of all [00:27:00] my majors, which two 40, Tokyo's a crap shoot, but Berlin is like the high watermark of 2 45, so I I was still hungry to see I could get under that, and so that.

Spring. I did not do one. I I did the Pittsburgh half 'cause it happened to be on my mom's birthday and

Chris Detzel: Awesome.

Matt Barron: And then I hear

Chris Detzel: Pittsburgh's amazing, by the way.

Matt Barron: Amazing city. Fantastic.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's grown a lot, become very beautiful.

Matt Barron: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: When I was growing up I was thinking Pittsburgh's a dump, but now I don't think that's true at all.

Matt Barron: No, it never has been. It's had that reputation, but it's not, it's good and it's got the hard work vibes to it, but yeah. So then I did the Dallas half in that winter, and then I did Houston again. Okay. Actually, sorry, I'm skipping one. I did New York in the fall and that did not go well.

Marathon. Yeah, the marathon. I went back, is this

Chris Detzel: 23 or 24?

Matt Barron: This would've been 23. Okay. And so I ran like at three Oh 3 0 7 at three. Oh. [00:28:00] So good. Good time. But for what I was shooting for, yep. I wasn't there. And then but I decided to that really motivated me to go back to Houston and have a good time.

And so then in Houston and I was training a lot with with the plot. I get the, between those two. And then in Houston I ran eight. So two straight here is a 10 minute,

Chris Detzel: yeah. Yeah.

Matt Barron: Wow. These

Chris Detzel: dude. Yeah. These are like 10 minute prs. Yes. This is insane. Yeah. Wow.

What'd you do different? Just the train just stayed consist in the training or I

Matt Barron: just stayed. Yeah. I felt like New York was a race again. I hadn't figured out the nutrition at that point. It's a later in the day major. I forgot my breakfast that morning with a big to get out there. I felt like training wise, I was in a good spot and in the Dallas half that year, I ran I ran Wells gave me confident that I could try to do something.

Yeah. You

Chris Detzel: weren't Okay. Would you okay. In my mind I'm thinking all right, if I was thinking I was gonna try to hit a 2 45, 'cause that was your goal, right? Yeah. To [00:29:00] hit under a 2 45, but you hit at 2 38, so you're going quite a bit faster. Yeah. Was it again, the training, like you said, okay, I ran half marathon and it was this, I'm gonna, yeah.

Go fast again. I'm gonna start it out this fast at a 2 38 pace.

Matt Barron: Yeah. Essentially I did about, I did a one 14 and a half in Dallas. Oh,

Chris Detzel: okay. That's quite a bit Awesome. Yeah.

Matt Barron: That made me feel, and then we did this trade crazy training thing where we did Dallas half and then we did.

Three, like massive workouts after the half and like a 10 day span. And so it doesn't make sense, would not recommend to anyone, but it did give me confidence those went well. And so it gave me confidence that I could try for a fast time at Houston. What are your

Chris Detzel: slots doing anyways? What's the, it sounds pretty hardcore sometimes what you guys are being putting yourself through,

Matt Barron: yeah. And some of it's self-driven. Honestly it's just doing what the body's capable of. And I don hate it. A lot of it's also that. And this has all come, I think what we haven't talked about is I, [00:30:00] at this point I've started to be really consistent. And so I had about two, 3000 mile a year, so 60 plus a week every week average.

And I also think you can do some big workouts when you have a huge. A it update you?

Chris Detzel: No it's a very good point. Look I run 40, about 40 miles, 35 to 40 miles a week, and I just it's awesome. Keep it at that, and yeah, and I'm good. What was my, I had a good question.

Now I forgot it, but, all so you run a 2 38, you must be feeling good. Qualify for Yeah, that was

Matt Barron: great. That was great. And so now, we're past what I thought I was capable of. What are you capable of? I don't even know. But I think that's been fun because that, that finally took that time like goal there.

I don't have a big time goal anymore, which I think is actually a, at least for where I am in life, like three kids got a pretty busy golf, that it helps me take the training I like, yeah, where am I at before the race? I'm gonna try to run the race. I'm gonna try to be consistent and show up, and [00:31:00] I know one of these cycles I'll have another.

A big improvement or I'm hoping it will, but but I don't have, I don't have a long-term aspiration. I've been very lucky to be at a play.

Chris Detzel: So Houston was 24 then?

Matt Barron: Yeah, 20. Did you? And I did again in 25. I did it this past.

Chris Detzel: You did Houston again?

Matt Barron: Yeah, I did Houston again. How'd you do there?

I prd. And just got right under, but. Not by as much as the previous two years, but I just under people,

Chris Detzel: So 2 37 something, so to speak.

Matt Barron: Seven,

Chris Detzel: eight. No, but you're going back to your 3 25 days, remember, you're very consistent there. And now maybe you're at the 2 38 kind of maybe. Yeah. So you do your second Boston.

And by the way, that was amazing. I don't know what, so I get to go to Boston every year. I don't run it. My wife does. She's done it for 12 years straight. Yeah. And so I get to go. But this year for some reason, maybe it's 'cause I've tried to push to get to know people better this last year or so.

In, in the community. Very great community. Yeah. And I, and to me it was way more fun just [00:32:00] being there, just taking it all in was at the finish line, cheering for people. Tell me about your experience there, because everybody seems to love it. You've been there a lot. You used to live there.

Matt Barron: Yeah. No, I love this city. It was, great memories for me, but. My training cycle leading up to it was not very good. So I know I, I think I talked about this a little bit when I was on previously, but I had essentially, I had a minor sprain ankle in February. I was like just getting back to consistency when we talked and then I got a real bad stomach bug.

So it was out another week in March. I went in without any huge expectations on the day I was gonna go out, somewhere hoping for somewhere under 2 35. And just go by feel and by, by heart rate. It had an awesome day. It was like you did, gave her it had fun. I ran a two 40 in engaged and super consistent.

The first half of the back half were within a minute, which in Boston. Pretty great. And thought I was, I

Chris Detzel: think the slots in general had a great [00:33:00] day that day.

Matt Barron: Yeah. All of

Chris Detzel: them, so yeah. What do you get? What do you do when you go to Boston now? Like it, so it is only your second marathon there, but Yeah, did you get to, go to the stores or, it was like

Matt Barron: a vacation.

It was a

Chris Detzel: vacation. Okay. Wife and

Matt Barron: I. So we didn't take,

Chris Detzel: you took your wife.

Matt Barron: Okay. Yeah, I took my wife. We didn't take, we have a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old we didn't take, that'd be tough. Yeah, that would be tough. And I stayed with a really close college friend of mine that still lives there.

My wife has two college friends that live there. So we treated it. It was like a weekend to visit friends with a marathon in between, which I think was another good, just levels that point. I just wasn't, it wasn't like the pinnacle Yeah. Race for me. And that actually helped with my mindset.

Chris Detzel: Still pretty good race. It's your third test race. Seven.

Matt Barron: No. I meant more from like a milestone or goal. Yeah. That, I was happy to be there, honestly. And That's awesome. To be on the line. And so anything that. It was a little bit better than my previous narrow time doing it.

Chris Detzel: You kicked that in the ass, so that was [00:34:00] awesome. Does your wife run at all, or

Matt Barron: no? She does she does like high intensity interval. Nice. She makes fun of me for not strength training enough for college volleyball. But we'll run every while. MO mostly.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. It's hard to do everything. If you're running 60 or 70 miles a week, when do you have time?

You have a high intensity job. You have three kids. Yeah. But you travel. Yeah. You gotta, yeah. It's a lot. So what's next for

Matt Barron: you? Yeah, so I'll do Dallas this winter, which I'm really excited for. 'cause I just haven't done the marathon in a bit.

Chris Detzel: You have a chance to, I don't know if you have a chance to win it, but you get close top five at least.

Yeah. I'm,

Matt Barron: yeah, I'm hoping to run a good time. And, we'll see what the podium, the positioning in a race is so hard to control and it's mostly about. Who shows up and I won't know that. Yeah. So I'll do I'm gonna do Dallas Bull and then I'll do the Houston half in January and then I'll go back to Boston and then I hope to go back to New [00:35:00] York next fall.

But that's a crack shoot because the qualified times are, they're cut off crazy. Non-resident

Chris Detzel: and your tune ups gonna be Toyota. And that's in Irving, right?

Matt Barron: Yeah, for Dallas. Yeah, I think so. I'd love to do a November half. Like I said, I think that helps a lot to just gain some confident to where you are.

Chris Detzel: So I'll definitely see you in Irving and Houston. Awesome. I'm doing the halves. I'm gonna sign up for the yeah. Houston, and I'll see you in Boston as well. I just won't be, I'll be running the 5K. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Been awesome. That's awesome, man. Did, is there something I should have asked that, you were like, man, I really wanted to say these things that I just didn't ask.

Matt Barron: No there, there aren't there aren't too many, that you talked about. I think as I as I take a step back on just my whole journey, I think about what have I learned Yeah. Through this and what would I recommend to other runners. It's number one. Patience I, and I think everybody looks at other runners and sees their time and says, man, that must have happened so quick.

As we talked through our mind, it was like a long [00:36:00] journey and bumpy roads and not always linear. So I think just getting out there and showing up is huge. So patient consistency matters, matters a ton. And I think building a community helps create that. I think. And I think just finding kind of happiness and peace in the process has been huge from done.

Just happy to be out there, happy to continue training.

Chris Detzel: I love that man. And then that's some sound advice. And I think especially if you're doing the marathon and running in general, but certainly the marathon, you've gotta be patient, you've gotta be consistent and

Matt Barron: that implies to the long training as well as like on race day of patients.

That's right.

Chris Detzel: Matt, thank you so much for coming on. Really do appreciate it. Love your journey and story and just like most people, it's up and down. Yeah. And, you're still kicking ass and doing an amazing stuff, man. You have a great story. And I really appreciate you sharing.

So

Matt Barron: yeah, I feel very lucky and grateful, so I appreciate you having me on.

Chris Detzel: Of course. All right thanks everyone for tuning in to another DFW Runny Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Don't forget to subscribe to [00:37:00] our newsletter on DFW Runny Talk, dot sub stat.com. We're also on Instagram. We're on YouTube, and of course we're on Apple and other places that you can listen to.

So thanks everyone for coming, and again, thanks to Matt Baron for coming on. Thanks, Chris.