Three Marathons In A Year

Reed Fischer reflects on a season of risk, resilience, and testing his limits

Author

Rachael Woodruff
November 14, 2025

In Today's Issue:

“One finds limits by pushing them”

~Herbert Simon

For Reed Fischer, this year was all about risk, resilience, and the willingness to push his limits. Three marathons. A seven-week turnaround between two of them. A World Championship in grueling conditions. And a hilly grind to 20th place finish in New York.

While enjoying a well-earned break from a long stretch of racing, Reed sat down with us to reflect on everything he learned this year. From tackling new challenges in training, to navigating the short turnaround between the World Championships and New York, to what’s next in his career as he prepares for fatherhood - Reed offers an honest perspective on the realities of competing at the highest level.

We’re always glad to welcome Reed back to The Hammer, and we hope you enjoy this conversation.

photo: Zach Hunter (@Zachhunter.creative)

Hi Reed! How are you doing? What have you been up to in your downtime since NYC?

Hey! Not too much, to be honest. Christine and I headed from NYC to Georgia for the 20-week appointment for our son, due in March (so that’s ‘new’!). All went well there, and it was nice to have a few days to relax in the mountains north of Atlanta. Since I’ve been home, I’ve mostly just been resting up and doing a bunch of house projects I’d been putting off since training picked up in June.

This year was new for you – three marathons total, including two just seven weeks apart between the World Championships and NYC. Through it all, you stayed healthy, hit new milestones in training, and put together consistent performances across all three – 21st in Boston, 28th at Worlds, and 20th in NYC. As you reflect back, what did you learn most about yourself as an athlete, physically or mentally, from racing three marathons?

Yeah, it’s been a year. I was definitely ready to take some time away from running by the time I hit the finish line in NYC. Honestly, I found the biggest challenge in training to be the mental side. Coming off of Tokyo, I just didn’t really want to go back into the hurt locker and run big weeks and big workouts. I sort of did ‘just enough’ to feel like I could be competitive in NYC, but in hindsight I don’t think it was enough. That led to my biggest challenge in racing: battling up Fifth Ave in NYC on legs that just didn’t have the callousing to handle 26.2 miles of hills. 

I think my big takeaway from this experiment of two marathons in the fall is that I don’t think it’s for me. I’m glad we tried it, and I’m incredibly grateful to have been able to compete at World Champs and NYC, but I think not having one singular goal to go all in on made it tricky for me to really empty the tank in either race. In Tokyo, there was this sense of ‘I can’t wreck myself too bad here, I have NYC right around the corner.’ In NYC, there was this sense of ‘Of course you don’t feel great, you just raced Tokyo a few weeks ago.’ That left me feeling a little disappointed in both races.

My usual standard is to be +/- top 10 in every marathon I compete in. I think this will be the first year since 2021 I won’t have finished inside the top 10 at a marathon in a calendar year. While that’s not a stat I’m pleased with, I think it also points to the increase in depth globally, but certainly here in the U.S. that we’re seeing at the moment. There are more guys racing the marathon, and there are more guys racing the marathon successfully. When that standard rises, I have to elevate as well. So I think 2025 will serve as a good reminder for me that I can’t just go through the motions in training and racing. I have to show up with intention and purpose consistently to continue to improve.

photo: Zach Hunter (@Zachhunter.creative)

That seven-week stretch between Worlds and NYC was uncharted territory for you. What did you expect that period to feel like, and how did it actually play out once you were in it? Any major takeaways from racing two marathons that close together?

I thought that period would play out pretty much how it did: a week or so of rest post-Tokyo, then four weeks of passable training, then a two-ish week taper ahead of NYC. That’s pretty much exactly what we did. I think my biggest mileage week between the two was ~105, as compared to ~125 ahead of Tokyo. My biggest workout was probably ~8 miles of quality, as compared to ~12 miles of quality ahead of Tokyo. Honestly, I’m not sure that I could have or should have done much more than that to make sure I recovered from Tokyo. But I also don’t really think I did enough to be competitive on a course like NYC.

With that in mind, I think if I do stack two marathons within two months in future, it’ll ideally be two courses and domestic marathons. Racing in brutal conditions on the other side of the world, then trying to come back and race on a tactically very challenging course might have been a bit ambitious. But you don’t find out if you don’t try!

You’ve wrapped up a long year of racing. Have you started thinking about where you’ll race next? If so, what excites you most about that next challenge? And if not, what factors will play into that decision?

I’ve definitely been thinking about what’s in store for 2026. I think it was telling for me that my best race this year (from a ‘time on the clock’ perspective and an internal ‘that felt good’ perspective) was Houston Half at the beginning of 2025. All three of my marathons this year were focused more on competition and placing well, rather than gunning for a big PR. By the end of the year, I just wasn’t super excited about grinding anymore. But running fast and feeling speedy sounds enticing.

With our son due in March, 2026 will probably look pretty different from a scheduling standpoint. I’m hoping I can knock out a fast half marathon and full marathon (ideally PRs in both) before he’s born, then play things as they lay until the fall. But we’ll be first-time parents, so who the hell knows?

Instagram Post

You shared that you met Eliud Kipchoge on the start line at NYC. Any insights from meeting one of the most iconic athletes in our sport?

Yeah, that was a special one. I was able to tell him what it meant for me to be on the same course as him for his final competitive marathon and congratulate him on an incredible career. I also (jokingly) told him to be patient, because NYC is a tough course. It’d be fair to say that I taught him everything he knows about the marathon. That clip that Kevin got of him smiling and patting my back is his reaction to me imparting my ‘wisdom’ with him. It was special, being able to run stride for stride with him until the Queensboro, and just to be in the same arena as him. Kind of one of those ‘wow, 18-year-old Reed would never believe we’re here right now’ sort of moments. I’m sure it’ll be a story I still tell in decades when I’m hobbling around after my grandkids trying to tell them about grandpa’s glory days.

How Movement Transforms Performance

This week on The HAX Show, we welcomed on Lawrence van Lingen, a movement specialist and performance coach trusted by some of the world’s best endurance athletes.

Lawrence believes in a fundamental and holistic approach to unlocking peak performance. It starts with mindset, and is transformed through movement. In this conversation, he dives into his experience working with elite runners and triathletes, including Drew Hunter and Taylor Knibb, revealing lessons from the triathlon world, his philosophy on fluid movement and economical running, and practical form drills to help athletes move better and stay healthy.

If you want to learn how to create awareness, connection, and a healthy relationship with your running, be sure to check this one out.

Try This Workout Before Your Next 5K

Once your aerobic base is solid and you’re ready to sharpen pacing and rhythm for an upcoming 5K, give this session a try. It’s a staple: 400s on the track, grouped in sets of four to keep you focused and maintain the quality of each rep.
Tips: Stay patient early. Keep the effort controlled and relaxed.

Workout - 3-4 sets of: 4×400 @5K pace with 100m jog recovery. Rest 3 minutes between sets.

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