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Thank you New York. Today we're reminded of the power of community and the power of coming together. Athletes, on your mark.
The first woman to finish for the second straight year here in the New York City Marathon is Miki Gorman, a smiling Miki Gorman, and why not. 2: 29:30 the time for Gorman.
Look at the emotion of Shalane Flanagan as she comes to the line.
Pointing to his chest, pointing to the USA he so proudly wears across his chest. A great day for Matt Kapowski.
Hey everybody, it's Rob Simmelkjaer and welcome to a special episode of Set the Pace, the official podcast of New York road runners presented by Peloton, and of course it is Marathon Week here in New York City. We are so excited. We are so busy. We are all running around as we know you are getting ready for the big day on Sunday, the 2024 TCS New York City
Marathon. Because it's such a special time, we're going to actually release Set the Pace in three different parts today. First up on this mini episode, you're going to hear the great Meb Keflezighi with this week's member moment. A few weeks ago, Meb was able to catch up with
Courtney Knights, a member of our 2024 team, Inspire. Feeling that motherhood was overtaking her identity, Courtney decided to reclaim her sense of self by signing up for the TCS New York City Marathon. At the same time, having discovered that she carries the BRCA2 gene, Courtney has chosen to undergo a prophylactic surgery shortly after the race in order to reduce her cancer risk and to use her run
to raise money for the Susan G. Coleman Foundation for breast cancer. By confronting these life hurdles and turning them into an opportunity to create good, Courtney is showing her young sons and all of us that we can face tough decisions head on and step- by- step we can
meet challenging goals. Following this interview with Courtney, Meb will be back with today's Meb Minute, which features his final words of wisdom for all you marathoners out there who are just days away from heading to the starting line on Staten Island. Then you can check your feed later on in the day for not one but two interviews which we're going to record later today from the citizen
stage at the TCS New York City Marathon Expo, presented by New Balance. We're going to have both the legendary chairman of the New York Rooters Board of Directors, George Hirsch, and five- Time Olympic medalist, three- time gold medalist in Paris and the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon Grand Marshal, my friend, Gabby Thomas. Can't wait to have
Gabby joining us here on Set the Pace. Not every day you get a gold medalist on Set the Pace. But for now, let's get on with today's member moment featuring team inspires Courtney Knights on this mini episode of Set The Pace. Meb, take it Away.
Thanks Rob. Courtney, welcome to the Set the Pace podcast. How are you doing today?
Good. It's so nice to be here with you. Thanks for having me, Meb.
Nice to meet you. After having your two boys, you felt you were losing your identity to motherhood. How has training for the marathon helped you to redefine yourself and what have you learned about yourself through this journey into running?
Yeah, so I have two little boys. They're two and five years old, and parenthood is a really magical thing, but it can be all encompassing. Working full time, being there for my boys, I was really struggling to make time for myself. Before I had kids I exercised a lot. Thinking of myself as an athletic person was a big part of my identity, although I was a very
casual runner, I have to admit. But my husband kept encouraging me to refine that part of myself, and so my running journey really started about six months ago when I received an email from New York Road Runners saying that I had not been selected in the drawing for the 2024 New York City Marathon. I'd entered the lottery
a few times before. Every year after watching the marathon it's really inspiring, but when I'd gotten that email about the lottery, I felt a lot of relief because I'm not really a runner. I'm like, how was I going to run the marathon? But this year I felt something new. I felt disappointment and I thought, well, if I really want to run the marathon let's find a way
to do it. I think the disappointment stemmed from realizing that what I needed to do to make time for myself and to find myself was to do something really hard, to really challenge myself, to find the courage to do a hard thing. There was also this little voice in the back of my head, and that was the voice of my son, Teddy, who last year when we were watching my friend Jamie run had asked me, mom,
why aren't you running the marathon? So I went out, I laced up some old running shoes and I ran a mile and it felt okay. It didn't feel great, but I was like, let's do this. Let's find a way to run the marathon. I researched charity partners, I applied to a few, and I was really fortunate to be selected to be part of Team Komen, to raise
money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Training for the Marathon has really given me my sense of self back. I've made new friends, I've strengthened friendships, and I've learned I can do hard things. When I run, I visualize seeing my family around Mile 25 in Central Park and seeing how proud they are of me, and that gives me a huge sense of pride in myself already.
Well Courtney, parenthood is hard, but motherhood it extremely, extremely difficult, and marathon hopefully will heal that pain. Not that it is easy. You discovered you inherited BRCA2 genes. You must have been pivotal moment in your life. Can you share with us how the knowledge has shaped your decision and what it means for you to take control of your own health?
Yeah, so finding out I had a BRCA2 mutation was really hard, but it wasn't a big surprise. My grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer at 34 and she lost her battle to breast cancer at 38 years old, and so I knew there was a high likelihood that she had had the BRCA2 mutation and that I had inherited that. It's scary to face information like that, but it's
also really empowering. I have a great team of doctors, I have choices, and I thought for a long time I was just going to go down the surveillance route, which is a lot of mammograms, MRIs, ultrasounds, blood work,
but there's also a lot of anxiety with that. I have predicted 85% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer, and so now that I'm a mom, I really felt like I needed to do whatever I could so that I never had to tell my kids I have cancer, I never had to miss a day of their life because
of cancer. I have to believe that my grandmother, if she had the information that I have now, would have made the same choice to have spent just one more day with my dad, so I'm going to do whatever it takes to be in control of my health.
Well, thank you for being inspiring and hopefully other women's will take your lead in doing mammograms and things like that to protect themselves. But how does running on behalf of Susan G. Komen in honor of your grandmother connect you to her legacy and what does you hope to achieve through the fundraising efforts?
Yeah, so I'm really honored to be running on behalf of Susan G. Komen. One in eight women and also men are affected by breast cancer in their lifetime and they're working really hard to change that. I never knew my grandmother Carol, but I'm named for her. She was
immensely important to my dad. 37 was her last full year of life and it feels really fitting to me to be taking back control of our genetics at 37 and to be running for Susan G. Komen in her honor. I've raised over $ 11,000 so far and I'm really grateful to everyone who's donated and joined me in the mission to find a cure for breast cancer.
I'm a father of three daughters and my cousin had breast cancer. She succeeded it.
Sorry.
But my cousin who's a male passed away of breast cancer and in Eritrea which unfortunately has no medical attention there. So your work is taken into depth and educating people to be the best version. Especially in the U. S. you have those knowledge to prolong it or protect it and things like that. But early awareness is very important so congratulations on being a spokesperson and I'm pretty
sure your little boys inspire you. As Teddy said, when you're running the marathon at the TCS New York City Marathon 2024, those words are going to come out, the proud I going to feel. Hey, my son initiated this, hey mom, why aren't you running? Can you give us the little bit of what you might be feeling going through the challenges of that running for a cause, but also the words of your son?
Yeah, my boys really inspire me. The whole running community really inspires me and running has given me a really organic way to tell my story. I'm usually a very private person. I don't like to talk about my health. Most people, I think until I started fundraising, didn't know that I had a BRCA mutation in my life, that I was doing all this monitoring and going through this decision.
It's been a difficult decision- making process and journey, but having my kids see me put the hard work in to train for the marathon and make these decisions means a lot to me. I'm having my first surgery shortly after running the marathon, four days later, and instead of ruminating on that surgery, I mean I think about it a lot because I'm talking about my fundraising, but I
don't have that anxiety around it. I know that I'll be okay because I'll have just cross the finish line for the marathon and that gives me a lot of strength realizing that.
You have a very strong home base with your boys and husband to help you and support you, but they're going to be 50, 000 plus people encouraging you to be able to come to the finish line as you look at the glass as half full instead of half empty, to be able to celebrate you and what you are
doing is an example for others. We appreciate you coming and sharing the story because it takes a village to raise a child, but also takes somebody individual who wants to be able to educate others, so we are just grateful for you to be a member of Moment and be able to be on the Set the Pace podcast.
Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to share my story.
Now it's time for our final Meb Minute of this 16 week marathon training block. Meb, take it away.
Final week, rest, hydrate, and relax. In the final weeks before the marathon, I'll focus on resting and staying hydrated, light workouts and relaxation help me feel fresh and ready. Trust in your training, stay relaxed and prepare to give
your very best on race day. This is important. You are almost getting to the starting line and you've done all the work and you're having fun, and this is where you need to just relax, enjoy the friendship, enjoy the camaraderie that running has, especially when you're running the TCS New York City Marathon because the United Nations is there where people come from all walks of life. I
always tell people, run to win. It doesn't necessarily mean to win a foot race, but it does mean to make the effort to win in whatever situation you face. It means to get the best out of yourself. Now you are there. You are going to run to win.
You're going to get the best out of yourself. Trust in the training, have fun, and guess what, you're going to go through the five boroughs from Staten Island all the way to Central Park in 26. 2 on your feet, which is a magical place as some people refer to it as the biggest block party. Have fun among the 50 plus thousand people that are with you, in front of you, behind you, on the side of you. It's time
to enjoy the journey. Wish you all the best.
Thanks everybody for joining us for this special edition of Set The Pace. There's more to come today so you can come back, check in your feed, and we'll have George Hirsch and then Gabby Thomas in separate episodes coming up, dropping later on this Thursday before the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon. We'll see you all down the road and everybody out there getting ready we wish you the
best of luck. See you at the starting line.