Nicholas Thompson

Two years later, I come back and I run the New York City Marathon again.

And I run it in exactly the same time, 243.

Okay.

Then the next 10 years for when I'm basically 33 to 43, every marathon is almost exactly the same.

Like I literally go 243, 242, 243, 244, 245, 248.

I have it like nickname Mr. 243.

which is a little annoying, but still kind of, it's cool.

Like, it's a good time, right?

For runners out there, like, that's a good time.

And then when I'm in my mid-40s, I start training differently.

And I run a 229, right, in one year and go down to 229.

So suddenly I'm like, now I'm, whatever I was, second in the world in my age group, right, for the marathon.

So then I started to think, but how did that happen, right?

Like, what happened?

And I had this realization, which is what triggered the book, you know,

I hadn't gone faster than 243 in my 30s, not because I didn't have the talent, but because in some deep level, I didn't want to, right?

All I had wanted to do was to be as fast as I was before I got sick.

And so for that reason, I had stayed at 243 forever, right?

I had like a mental block or I like, it wasn't as though

It never occurred to me that I could go fast.