hi my name is Mike Porter I’m 48 years
old I’m an English teacher here at
Watchung Hills and I like to run a lot
in the sense of I really really enjoy it
very very very much and also in the
sense of very very long distances how
long well in 2016 I signed up for a 12
hour ultra marathon the race started at
9 o’clock at night and we ran loops a
one-mile loop around the Sussex County
Fairgrounds and the race ended at 9 a.m.
the following morning and the winner was
whoever did the most laps of the
fairgrounds in that 12 hour period and
at the end of the race I was in first
place I had run 64 miles in one night
now you may be hearing that story in
thinking wow this guy must be a really
special athlete but I’m here to convince
you I’m actually nothing special I’m not
that good and honestly most people if
you really wanted to do it and you were
interested in it and you put enough time
into it you could probably do what I’m
doing – let me explain let me start with
my where I started running as a 15 year
old freshman at Shawnee high school I
was not a County champion I was not a
gifted talented runner as a matter of
fact I didn’t make the varsity as a
freshman I didn’t make the varsity as a
sophomore or even as a junior but I kept
coming back I kept working hard and I
kept improving and when I was a senior I
finally made the varsity barely a
cross-country team is seven guys
I was the number seven runner I was the
slowest runner on the cross-country team
that year but what happened to me that
season you see that
picture of me on the trail there the
little guy behind me his name was Ben he
was a freshman he was a gifted talented
runner and what happens to gifted
talented freshmen is they improve an
awful lot very quickly by the end of the
season he was not only beating me he was
beating the number-6 guy the number-5
guy so right before state sectionals the
coach came to me and said Mike I
appreciate how hard you’ve worked and
how much you’ve improved but I can’t
leave Ben off the line at States so
you’re not running at States I was very
very disappointed but I understood the
coach’s decision but I kept going to
practice anyway well what happened was I
think the number three runner on the
team a junior by the name of Tim he kind
of flaked out and cut practice a few
times and the coach kicked him off the
team and the coach turned to me and said
Mike get your racing shoes out of
retirement you’re running varsity at
state’s on Saturday so I got my chance
to run varsity at state’s not because I
was a great runner but just because I
hung around long enough and kept working
and eventually I got my shot now my
running as an adult kind of follows the
same pattern I decided I’d like to try
to run some marathons so I signed up for
my first marathon in 1997 and what
happened to me was a pretty typical
story for first-time marathoners I tried
to do too much too fast
I got injured I had to take a couple of
weeks off a training I got back into it
and then oh my goodness it was time to
run the marathon I wasn’t really
prepared but I gave it a try anyway I
ran pretty well for about the first 20
miles and then I hit the wall and I
basically walked a whole lot more than I
ran over the final 6.2 miles but I
finished and I really enjoyed the
experience so I I did it again I met up
with some friends one who was a lot more
experienced than I was one who was a lot
faster than I was
I listen to their advice and I kept
training and I did a lot better for my
second marathon and I started thinking
hey maybe I can qualify for the Boston
Marathon see the Boston Marathon is
really special for runners because you
can’t just sign up for Boston you have
to run another race first and you have
to run it fast enough to qualify so I
had run a 322 and I was 29 years old but
when you’re 18 to 34 you’ve got to run
three hours and five minutes to qualify
for Boston so I was still about 17
minutes too slow and I thought well it’s
probably not gonna happen I’m probably
not gonna be able to qualify for Boston
but I enjoyed it
so I kept doing it I kept running
marathons I kept training and when I was
41
I ran the Scranton marathon and I
finished in 3 hours and 29 minutes and I
looked back at the Boston Marathon
qualifying times and I realized as you
get older the qualifying times get
slower and I saw that well for a 40 year
old I would have to run 3 hours and 15
minutes I was still about 15 minutes too
slow but at 45 I only have to run 3
hours and 25 minutes I was pretty close
to that and as a matter of fact I had
done that once before so I took a 4-year
plan and I kept training and trying to
make little bits of improvements and
finally at age 45 I went down to the
Ocean Drive marathon in Cape May and I
qualified for Boston in other words it
took me 30 years and eight tries in
order to run fast enough to qualify for
the Boston Marathon okay so let me tell
you a little bit about what I’ve learned
from all this running and marathoning
and ultra marathon all right the number
one rule I think is do the things that
you enjoy do the things that you’re
passionate about even if you’re not very
good at them
because if you really love it and you
really have a passion for it you’re
gonna stick with it and what I found is
that most people overestimate what they
can accomplish in one year but they
totally underestimate what they might be
able to accomplish in like five years
in other words if I told you to qualify
for the Boston Marathon now this year
probably what would happen to you is
exactly what happened to me you try to
do too much too fast you get injured you
probably wouldn’t do it but if I told
you to take a nice long five-year
approach to it or a 30-year approach to
it who knows what you’d be able to
accomplish over that long term the other
thing I’ve learned from marathoning and
ultramarathon is you’ve got to be
prepared for the moment of doubts in a
marathon it usually comes about the
three quarter mark right around 20 miles
you’ve been at it for a really long time
you’re tired it hurts the finish line is
nowhere in sight and you start thinking
to yourself I can’t do it this happens
during the training cycle too if I’m
training for 18 weeks to prepare for a
marathon somewhere around the 3/4 mark I
start feeling tired and beat up and I
think this isn’t worth it this is no
good I shouldn’t do it when I was
running that 12-hour ultra marathon I
knew the moment of doubt was gonna hit
me around 4:30 a.m. 5:00 a.m.
around the 3/4 mark where I still had
hours to go before the finish line but
you got it if you go into it with a
strategy to get you through that moment
of doubt you’re gonna be ok my strategy
I’m also an English teacher so I’m a
huge Shakespeare fan my strategy at that
12 hour ultra marathon I memorized this
long long speech from Henry the fifth in
Henry v they’re attacking the French
town of har Fleur they’ve been at it for
a long long time and they’ve just opened
up a breach in the walls and henry v
needs to encourage his troops to make
one more assault and conquer the city
and he turns to his troops and he says
once more unto the breach
friends once more or close the wall up
with our English dead and the speech
goes on for about another 30 lines okay
I memorized that speech and every time I
started to feel tired or like I couldn’t
do it
I would recite that speech to me again
to myself again every time I came
through the starting line I would say
once more into the breach dear friends
once more every time I felt low
I probably recited if I ran 64 laps I
probably recited that speech to myself
about 80 times but that was my strategy
to get myself through the moment of
doubt now when I tell people that I run
ultra marathons and marathons the
question is usually why would you why do
you do this and I’ll tell you why it’s a
quest I’m trying to find out about
myself you see I know that I have limits
but I honestly have no idea what they
are because every time I’ve gone out and
tested those limits I found out they
just weren’t there or at least they
weren’t where I thought they were
there’s someplace way beyond us now I’ve
been talking about running and
marathoning because that’s what I have
experience in but what I’m really
talking about is what’s possible you
honestly have no idea what your limits
are whether it’s academically or
artistically whatever your passion is if
you really test those limits you’re
gonna find out that you are capable of
accomplishing way more than you ever
thought possible
so I’m gonna encourage you to get out
there follow your passions test your
limits and find out something new about
yourself and really just enjoy your
quest thank you very much [Applause]
old I’m an English teacher here at
Watchung Hills and I like to run a lot
in the sense of I really really enjoy it
very very very much and also in the
sense of very very long distances how
long well in 2016 I signed up for a 12
hour ultra marathon the race started at
9 o’clock at night and we ran loops a
one-mile loop around the Sussex County
Fairgrounds and the race ended at 9 a.m.
the following morning and the winner was
whoever did the most laps of the
fairgrounds in that 12 hour period and
at the end of the race I was in first
place I had run 64 miles in one night
now you may be hearing that story in
thinking wow this guy must be a really
special athlete but I’m here to convince
you I’m actually nothing special I’m not
that good and honestly most people if
you really wanted to do it and you were
interested in it and you put enough time
into it you could probably do what I’m
doing – let me explain let me start with
my where I started running as a 15 year
old freshman at Shawnee high school I
was not a County champion I was not a
gifted talented runner as a matter of
fact I didn’t make the varsity as a
freshman I didn’t make the varsity as a
sophomore or even as a junior but I kept
coming back I kept working hard and I
kept improving and when I was a senior I
finally made the varsity barely a
cross-country team is seven guys
I was the number seven runner I was the
slowest runner on the cross-country team
that year but what happened to me that
season you see that
picture of me on the trail there the
little guy behind me his name was Ben he
was a freshman he was a gifted talented
runner and what happens to gifted
talented freshmen is they improve an
awful lot very quickly by the end of the
season he was not only beating me he was
beating the number-6 guy the number-5
guy so right before state sectionals the
coach came to me and said Mike I
appreciate how hard you’ve worked and
how much you’ve improved but I can’t
leave Ben off the line at States so
you’re not running at States I was very
very disappointed but I understood the
coach’s decision but I kept going to
practice anyway well what happened was I
think the number three runner on the
team a junior by the name of Tim he kind
of flaked out and cut practice a few
times and the coach kicked him off the
team and the coach turned to me and said
Mike get your racing shoes out of
retirement you’re running varsity at
state’s on Saturday so I got my chance
to run varsity at state’s not because I
was a great runner but just because I
hung around long enough and kept working
and eventually I got my shot now my
running as an adult kind of follows the
same pattern I decided I’d like to try
to run some marathons so I signed up for
my first marathon in 1997 and what
happened to me was a pretty typical
story for first-time marathoners I tried
to do too much too fast
I got injured I had to take a couple of
weeks off a training I got back into it
and then oh my goodness it was time to
run the marathon I wasn’t really
prepared but I gave it a try anyway I
ran pretty well for about the first 20
miles and then I hit the wall and I
basically walked a whole lot more than I
ran over the final 6.2 miles but I
finished and I really enjoyed the
experience so I I did it again I met up
with some friends one who was a lot more
experienced than I was one who was a lot
faster than I was
I listen to their advice and I kept
training and I did a lot better for my
second marathon and I started thinking
hey maybe I can qualify for the Boston
Marathon see the Boston Marathon is
really special for runners because you
can’t just sign up for Boston you have
to run another race first and you have
to run it fast enough to qualify so I
had run a 322 and I was 29 years old but
when you’re 18 to 34 you’ve got to run
three hours and five minutes to qualify
for Boston so I was still about 17
minutes too slow and I thought well it’s
probably not gonna happen I’m probably
not gonna be able to qualify for Boston
but I enjoyed it
so I kept doing it I kept running
marathons I kept training and when I was
41
I ran the Scranton marathon and I
finished in 3 hours and 29 minutes and I
looked back at the Boston Marathon
qualifying times and I realized as you
get older the qualifying times get
slower and I saw that well for a 40 year
old I would have to run 3 hours and 15
minutes I was still about 15 minutes too
slow but at 45 I only have to run 3
hours and 25 minutes I was pretty close
to that and as a matter of fact I had
done that once before so I took a 4-year
plan and I kept training and trying to
make little bits of improvements and
finally at age 45 I went down to the
Ocean Drive marathon in Cape May and I
qualified for Boston in other words it
took me 30 years and eight tries in
order to run fast enough to qualify for
the Boston Marathon okay so let me tell
you a little bit about what I’ve learned
from all this running and marathoning
and ultra marathon all right the number
one rule I think is do the things that
you enjoy do the things that you’re
passionate about even if you’re not very
good at them
because if you really love it and you
really have a passion for it you’re
gonna stick with it and what I found is
that most people overestimate what they
can accomplish in one year but they
totally underestimate what they might be
able to accomplish in like five years
in other words if I told you to qualify
for the Boston Marathon now this year
probably what would happen to you is
exactly what happened to me you try to
do too much too fast you get injured you
probably wouldn’t do it but if I told
you to take a nice long five-year
approach to it or a 30-year approach to
it who knows what you’d be able to
accomplish over that long term the other
thing I’ve learned from marathoning and
ultramarathon is you’ve got to be
prepared for the moment of doubts in a
marathon it usually comes about the
three quarter mark right around 20 miles
you’ve been at it for a really long time
you’re tired it hurts the finish line is
nowhere in sight and you start thinking
to yourself I can’t do it this happens
during the training cycle too if I’m
training for 18 weeks to prepare for a
marathon somewhere around the 3/4 mark I
start feeling tired and beat up and I
think this isn’t worth it this is no
good I shouldn’t do it when I was
running that 12-hour ultra marathon I
knew the moment of doubt was gonna hit
me around 4:30 a.m. 5:00 a.m.
around the 3/4 mark where I still had
hours to go before the finish line but
you got it if you go into it with a
strategy to get you through that moment
of doubt you’re gonna be ok my strategy
I’m also an English teacher so I’m a
huge Shakespeare fan my strategy at that
12 hour ultra marathon I memorized this
long long speech from Henry the fifth in
Henry v they’re attacking the French
town of har Fleur they’ve been at it for
a long long time and they’ve just opened
up a breach in the walls and henry v
needs to encourage his troops to make
one more assault and conquer the city
and he turns to his troops and he says
once more unto the breach
friends once more or close the wall up
with our English dead and the speech
goes on for about another 30 lines okay
I memorized that speech and every time I
started to feel tired or like I couldn’t
do it
I would recite that speech to me again
to myself again every time I came
through the starting line I would say
once more into the breach dear friends
once more every time I felt low
I probably recited if I ran 64 laps I
probably recited that speech to myself
about 80 times but that was my strategy
to get myself through the moment of
doubt now when I tell people that I run
ultra marathons and marathons the
question is usually why would you why do
you do this and I’ll tell you why it’s a
quest I’m trying to find out about
myself you see I know that I have limits
but I honestly have no idea what they
are because every time I’ve gone out and
tested those limits I found out they
just weren’t there or at least they
weren’t where I thought they were
there’s someplace way beyond us now I’ve
been talking about running and
marathoning because that’s what I have
experience in but what I’m really
talking about is what’s possible you
honestly have no idea what your limits
are whether it’s academically or
artistically whatever your passion is if
you really test those limits you’re
gonna find out that you are capable of
accomplishing way more than you ever
thought possible
so I’m gonna encourage you to get out
there follow your passions test your
limits and find out something new about
yourself and really just enjoy your
quest thank you very much [Applause]
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