Two hours and 38 seconds, that’s how long it takes Mundelein English teacher Colin Franklin to run a marathon. That’s an average pace of just over six minutes per mile, a pace that helped him place 384th out of the 52, 150 finishers of this year’s Chicago Marathon.
With a time like that it’s easy to think that Franklin has been running all his life, but that’s not the case. Franklin started his athletic career as a baseball and hockey player and played through high school, but not in college.
Franklin said, “I was feeling a bit lost and missed competition, so towards the end of college I started running, I liked that I could be an athlete on my own terms.”
Franklin quickly realized that he needed a goal to work towards and decided to sign up for that year’s Chicago Marathon, a decision that sparked a passion for marathon running; now Franklin has run 20 marathons.
With all the marathons Franklin’s tackled it’s easy to wonder, what keeps him motivated?
Franklin has two motivations saying, “First, I love the process of training-that sense of growth and accomplishment. Second, the people who support me…I feel like I always have an army behind me.”
These marathons have taken him all over the world, he’s raced in Chicago, Boston, New York, London, Berlin, Tokyo, San Francisco, and Sacramento. This list of cities includes all six of what are called “major” marathons (all the listed cities except San Francisco and Sacramento), a feat that has earned him what is called a Six Star Medal for completing all six of them.
When asked about his favorite marathon Franklin said, “Boston for sure…there’s history…there’s a magic to this race that isn’t quite captured in any of the others.”
While Boston is Franklin’s favorite marathon, that certainly doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy the rest of them. Franklin mentioned how loves the creative signs that spectators come up with and enjoys dressing in outfits that are easy for the crowd to point out.
Franklin described the marathon experience as,”Electric. Tens of thousands of runners run in the races I’ve competed in, so each city feels like it’s swarmed by them and their loved ones. The energy is high. Everyone supporting everyone.”
Many marathon runners experience what is called “hitting the wall” in the last ten or so miles of the race. This “wall” is described by a marathon training website as, “exerting the most effort…your legs are complaining…and your head feels cloudy.”
For Franklin, this experience hits him with around six miles to go, not just physically but mentally as well. However, with thoughts of the finish line and people waiting there for him, Franklin can push through.
He said, “There’s a specific deep sense of pride and euphoria I haven’t found in anything else I’ve done. After a few hours, a bit of hunger creeps back in that pushes me to my next goal and to sign up for my next race.”
Franklin’s advice for any runner is, “Just get out and go. It doesn’t matter if you’re fast. Running is like life. It’s hard. But the distance and journey is the reward.”
