My guest for today’s episode is CJ Albertson. Just three weeks after setting a personal best of 2:08:17 at the Chicago Marathon, CJ came into the New York City Marathon and delivered another stellar performance, finishing 10th in 2:10:57.

CJ's year has been nothing short of extraordinary—top American at both the Boston and Chicago Marathons, a 5th-place finish at the Olympic Trials, and now, another top-10 finish in New York. No American had ever run sub-2:11 marathons so close together, but CJ isn't one to shy away from a challenge. We'll talk about his mindset, his breakout year, and his relentless pursuit of faster times.

Plus, CJ also shares a bit about how he was running in memory of Miguel Marin, who was one of his athletes who ran track and cross country at Clovis Community College. The 22-year-old died in a car crash over the weekend. A GoFundMe has been set up to assist with his family’s expenses. You can find the link to it here.

Plus, we do our overrated/underrated segment on training elements with CJ to close out the show.

Host: Chris Chavez | ⁠@chris_j_chavez on Instagram

Guest: CJ Albertson | @cjalbertson on Instagram

Episode highlights: CJ shares about racing the NYC Marathon in honor of Miguel Marin:

“When I heard about it, it was difficult because I was very aware that I was racing the next day and I wanted to do well. We talked about running all the time. We talked about professional running all the time. He was always following every race, everything I would do and talking to me about my training. Just everything. He was a very big supporter of me. It was so heavy, but at the same time I still felt like I needed to do well.”

“Running is so hard because it's not like football. It's not these big kind of emotional sports where someone gives a pump up speech like in the movies… You really just have to be calm and collected, and maybe have some passion, but it’s very controlled in you. He was a very passionate person, very caring, and had a lot of feelings. When we would talk about his racing, that was always such a big thing. Like I know you want to do really well and I know you have all this going on in your life, but we’ve got to just bring everything down. When you're running, when you're racing, we’ve just got to be steady. Be steady, be stable. Especially in the big moments. He really wanted to just show up for his team. For himself, and for his team in the big moments.”

“It was like, ‘I have to do that now.’ — get in the mindset of what’s going to give me the best performance. My overall vibes were definitely lower. That’s still the reality of this being hard and sad, but I felt like in the race I was able to do that. In the difficult moments where there were decisions of, ‘This is a marathon, this is hard and uncomfortable,’ I could think of him and then go back to all the things that I had told him and I tell my athletes in a race.”

“On our team, a lot of guys were really close to him. We’re running our Regional race this Friday and I think it’s the same thing: they want to honor him and run really well for him, because what else can we do? That’s all we can do, really. It’s the same thing in honoring him: just practicing things like getting the most out of ourselves and the situation. There’s still tactics and ways to do that. It’s difficult because it’s not like a fight where you just go all out. You’ve still got to be composed.”

“[Coaching] is fulfilling, but it also sincerely does make me better. It makes me a better athlete. Miguel, just the way that he wanted to get better as a person and as a runner. He was a young person, didn't have life figured out and was still trying to figure himself out. I'm still trying to figure myself out. Just seeing him put the effort into himself that he did. There were so many times that made me be like, ‘I can do this. I can be better and improve upon things about myself and my emotional stability, my mental stability.’ All these things improve just by the relationship that we had.”

Time stamps:

• 3:24 - Reflections on his past year of marathoning
• 8:07 - Which of his marathons was the most satisfying this year
• 10:14 - How he approached racing both the Chicago and NYC marathons
• 13:10 - Factors that led to his improvement
• 15:13 - Hopes for what’s next in his career
• 22:25 - Race breakdown: 1st Ave
• 24:51 - Race breakdown: 5th Ave
• 28:32 - Thoughts on how to close the gap on becoming top American
• 30:24 - How he hopes to continue improving
• 36:30 - Race weight + fueling strategy while racing
• 41:08 - Going after the 2025 World Championships team
• 50:02 - Reflecting on Miguel Marin, his athlete who just passed away
• 56:40 - Answering listener questions
• 1:02:02 - How coaching others makes him a better athlete
• 1:04:24 - Overrated/underrated: training methods

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