The Pacer, The Coach, The Community: Fonz Gonzales on 10 Boston Marathons and What Keeps Him Going

DFW Running Talk: Fonz Gonzales
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[00:00:00] All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Tetzel and we have Alfonzo Gonzalez. Fonz. How are you doing? Good. How about yourself, Chris? Good. I appreciate you coming back on. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I feel like it's been a little while. Yeah, it's been a while. Over a year. I think you were one of my first guests, but today we're in Boston.

We're at the Plaza. Scott saying, what, where are we at? The Hilton Plaza in Boston. Something like that. I've been saying this 20 times today. Park Plaza. Park Plaza, that's right. And you are running Boston. How many times have you done it so far? This'll be number 10. Number 10? Okay. So you've done 10, but man, you're running, you've run London.

Have you run all the main? No, actually I need London and Tokyo, which I'm looking at running next year most likely. Okay. That's what I we're looking at. You got some kind of cool this year you're running Japan, the half marathon? Yes. I'm doing Sendai half marathon next month on May 10th, representing the city of Dallas.

Got it. So something I wanna go back to is your very first Boston Marathon. Because, you're a very consistent runner at about a 2 4, 2 40 fives. Where you're running on a very [00:01:00] consistent basis. Tell me about that and just what that meant. I first one that was my goal.

That's really what pushed me to drive me to the next level that I, I kept very, I kept hearing runners talk about Boston, so I kept, trying at it. Once I got here, of course I heard all the good runners were here. Yeah. So that was my goal. It was something to shoot for.

So that's what Boston meant to me. Just running with some of the best runners here. Of course, my first Boston was I can't remember my time, but I know it's very difficult. Yeah. The crowd just sucks you in right off the. Off to start. I'm pretty sure I did some walking and running my first marathon, but I enjoy the crowd.

The atmosphere was amazing when it was. Do you remember when that year was when you first ran? 2014. 2014. It was my first boss. Do you remember which, so before train Pegasus, by the way, f kinda runs up, train Pegasus. Was there any, group that you ran with? I've heard people talk. No absolutely.

We, we were running with Dallas running projects at the time. That's right. That was the running group that's changed names over the year. Yeah. But Dallas running projects is where I saw a lot of the runners always talking about Boston Marathon. A lot of 'em had run Boston, so I wanted to, join them on [00:02:00] the trip.

And that was my goal. Just when you're with around, around a bunch of group. Great runners, you just wanna do what they're doing. And what's crazy is over the years you've created this atmosphere around T trained Pegasus of people running these really cool marathons like Boston Marathon.

I'm here today. And you literally t trained Pegasus has probably what. 20 or 30 people here. Yes. About 20 or 30 or so. Maybe a little bit more. Yes. That's crazy. Yeah. So it's it's great. We definitely love the Dallas running community. So it's not always just tramp exists. A lot of these runners run with different run clubs.

Yeah. People that have coach from different run clubs, but it's just a place that running community where you can come out and run whenever you need to do workouts and such. Yeah. Or if you miss a day, you wanna come join us, just come join us. Absolutely I've joined y'all a few times and my hope is to join you guys a little bit more over this next year.

As you kinda look at Boston Marathon, you've done it 10 times. What is the reason you keep coming back? Part of it was in the beginning was the best of the best. Now you have a whole group of people that you know very well, that are part of the best, age group, that kind of stuff.

Talk to me about Boston. The [00:03:00] reasons that you keep coming back over and over, and. The reason I keep coming back is all the first timers. So as I coach the runners, they come out here for the first time and work, some of 'em, it took 'em like two or three years. So this is like their first time.

Yeah. Each Boston, it's a different person. First time. That took 'em a long time and I wanna be there, 'cause it's a long journey. They struggle A lot of people who, ran so many marathons to get here that struggle or didn't hit their times and they're finally here and I just wanna be here for their first time.

So I really would. Drives me to come each year. It's just my athletes and a lot of the first even friends, coworkers. Yeah. They come out here for run for the first time. So it really it's special to them and it's special to me especially throughout their journey. I love that. And so what are you looking forward to the most for this 2026 tomorrow?

Marathon. How are you gonna run it? How are you thinking about it? What does that look like for you? It's I got sent, I May 10th, so that's my priority right now. So tomorrow it's gonna be more of a workout. So we're gonna do a progression run. The first five FPA is gonna be anywhere from six 40 6 45 to six 40.

Base. Yeah, to start off and then work my way down and then see what I have in the last 10 K to try to do half [00:04:00] marathon pace as part of my training for next five. Daniel, I think you mentioned so. I just wanna be, clear on what that means is a potential 2 45 is about what you're thinking.

Yeah, that's really what I'm thinking because I do have some people in my group that kind of wanna follow my progression run. Oh, okay. It's just what we'll be. This is what I've been doing in my training runs. So if I can help some people out there doing my progression, they know what I'm doing, they know my game plan, and that's what we plan to do.

So that's what I'm gonna stick to tomorrow. So the people that are running with you tomorrow that are gonna do that, are they. First time marathoners, are they just doing the same thing you're doing? What's, I have some first timers, yes, I do have some first timers, some veterans who just, you know, they kinda like their shape.

It's kinda like I'm a pacer in reality doing a a workout. It's gotta be fun to have people. What's great about it, what I really enjoy most, what I'm looking forward to is that we're gonna have a lot of people hop on. Hop onto what we're doing as you're there. Everybody's asking you what are you gonna do, what are you gonna do, what are you gonna do asking questions.

So I think our group is read pretty good every year. It is. It always is. We always make friends. Yeah. I was telling [00:05:00] telling you earlier, or I was talking to you earlier about. This year you have quite a bit of first timers, but next year man is a ton of first timers that's gonna happen, I was talking to Dan from a fi from a Fifth Fit for Ventures, Chris.

Yeah. There's gonna be a lot of first timers next year. I'm really excited for next year. I think it's gonna be a bigger group than it is this year. For sure. I agree. I agree. And any advice for people that you know that are doing it either for the first time or maybe even the 10th time, but just your thoughts around.

The overall experience, how to take the race and that kind of stuff. Yes. So my biggest advice is the beginning. There's just so much crowd out there. It's a major, the cheers. They push you, feels like you're winning the race. I think you just gotta stay calm. I think the best strategy is just to do a progression run.

Once you get to 15 to 21 after heartbreak is really when you pick it up. But I think when you get to 15 with all the rollers new and healed you need to go back about 30 seconds during that time. I know it's hard when you've been rolling, but if you scale back, you'll have energy. Right after heartbreak, you could start, picking up the speed again.

It's hard, but you have to be very disciplined [00:06:00] to slow down during that time, during the Newton Hills and heartbreak. But after heartbreak, you can go back at it. One of the things that, and I just know this firsthand. I was running the Dallas Half Marathon and one of your runners that you coach, her name is Jira, and you gave her a plan, and part of that plan was to.

Kind of start off slower. A progressive run like you're talking about. And she was doing it like I was running like a seven 15 pace in the first two or three miles. And she's this woman's 20 years old, by the way. So you don't, one, you don't get many runners that run their first marathon and do exactly what their coach says.

Very true. It's a very hard thing to do with the crowd and everything else. But she did I was like. The first two or three miles, I was like, JIRA, you're gonna succeed. You are playing this smart as well. F's told me to do this, so I'm gonna do this. And cheers to you, brother. People are doing what you're saying like, that's a rare thing.

No, that's something I always tell people. Our bodies every time we do a workout, we always do a two mile warmup. You gotta get your legs underneath you before you just do it now. All right, go. One of the things I always tell my [00:07:00] runners this, like every time we train for every run that's over six miles, you.

Do it to my warmup. Yep. So in a race, your body already knows, Hey, I need to get my legs underneath me. So I always tell people, make sure we do a warmup. Make sure you get your legs underneath. The goal for the first few miles is never to run goal pace. It's all about getting your legs underneath, keep your heart rate down, and then just build up from there.

And then that's when we start to, build the plan from there. And that's very hard for people to do that because their mindset is race racing, we gotta go right at goal pace and that's not the way it works. And Jared, or did that and executed very well. She did and. I assume a lot of your runners have been doing that.

There's this one runner I just spoke to and No, absolutely. He, I think his first, his marathon was 2 44 U coaching and I love what you're doing and so anything that we missed that you wish that we would've talked about, or at least some quick hits? No.

I think you covered all the topics here, font. It's been great. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me again. Yeah, of course. Anytime to see here. Boston too. Yeah. Good to see you. And thanks for everyone for tuning in to these quick hits. I'm Chris Dessel. Go to DFW running [00:08:00] talk.substack.com to tune into the newsletter.

Until then, take care.