What It's Like to Be a Marathon Winner

The competition at the GO! St. Louis Marathon might be 15 times the size of Karl Gilpin’s hometown, but it doesn’t faze the 29-year-old marathon runner. Having set a new record last year—running the annual marathon in 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 51 seconds while defending his title in back-to-back years—the personal trainer returns April 19 to try for a three-peat. Gilpin, who was born in St. Louis and moved all over Missouri before ending up in Russellville, a town just west of Jefferson City, considers the St. Louis marathon a homecoming of sorts. “Since there isn’t a marathon in Jeff City, it’s almost like a hometown race,” he says. Having competed in races from Florida to Minnesota, Gilpin talked about the road ahead—and what he’s learned along the way.

In His Words

I’ve always liked being able to do things that are not easy, per se. I can’t really explain it—it’s just a feeling you get from it.
You can’t be too aggressive… You go out too fast on a course like St. Louis, and you’re absolutely going to pay later.
Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, it comes back and bites you… It can humble you right when you think you’ve mastered it.
When you’ve been doing it awhile, you can tell how far you’ve gone based on the pace.
I don’t listen to music when I’m running outside… It just seems like a recipe for disaster.
Race day feels a lot easier than training. You set yourself up mentally and physically to do the best you can, and then you flip the switch.
The only thing I absolutely have to have is a cup of coffee. That’s a prerequisite.
With a marathon, you don’t warm up quite as much. The first 15 miles are the warm-up.
At some point, you have to accept it’s going to hurt like hell. It’s a gradual wearing down.
You break it up into little pieces. You say, “OK, we’re going to that next mile marker.” Then you get there and go to the next.
The first year I lose the St. Louis marathon, I’ll probably run the Boston Marathon. Hopefully, that won’t be next year.

95: Average miles per week Gilpin runs while training