“I also did Kristin’s run recently at the Fertile Hope 5k, and had a decent time,” he said. “So I’d be ecstatic to break three hours at the New York City Marathon.” Me having almost no knowledge about running showed my ignorance and lack of quick math skills and asked if that was a good time. “Three hours is a 7-minute mile pace – I think that’s hard – I mean a 7-minute mile isn’t that hard, but to do it 26 times – that’s hard, especially at the end.” And now I know…
I have done a little running recently so I can hang with some friends and noted that – differentiating from cycling – it requires a totally different muscle group. “That’s why I’m kind of paying the price right now, I’m trying to adapt to running. Just the jarring – it’s so hilly here in Austin, running uphill is hard, but running downhill is hard on you. So if you’re going up and down and up and down, your quads are just killing you.”
The other big deal about the marathon is that it’s also at the same time as Lance’s 10-year cancer diagnosis anniversary. “The marathon for me is an interesting idea, because you take a 35-year old guy who used to be a pro athlete, he retires, and some think he’d want to do nothing after. But that’s not what the rest of the world does. They’re at that age and they want to be a weekend warrior – run, ride your bike, etc – do something to try and stay fit. So I get to be one of those guys. And then to get to tie it into my 10-year cancer anniversary, that’s a really cool connection.” Can he win? “I am not going there to try and win anything! Breaking three hours would be huge, and if I can get near 2:45 I’ll come out of my skin.” Higgs says a sub 2:45 is his prediction, Lance said he better know some short cuts if that’s what he wants him to do…