Here’s What Selena Samuela Learned About Committing To Her First Marathon

Selena Samuela’s decision to commit to her first marathon stemmed from her deep love of discovery. As someone who’s explored multiple different fitness disciplines, running was always an element in her training and something that she started to love during her days spent boxing. “When I started running a 5K as a warm up before my training, that's when I started to find joy in it,” says Selena. “Some days I'd haul ass and other days I would take it easy, but either way it was super meditational and often the most welcomed part of my training before getting my butt handed to me in the ring.”

Over the years she continued to be inspired by professional runners with motivating stories and eventually decided it was time to tell her own by trying a new challenge. “I'm a very curious person,” says Selena, “I talk about this a lot in my classes: in order to satisfy a curiosity you have to be willing to take on a certain form of risk and it's one thing to read about running a marathon but it's another to experience it in totality.” It’s very natural to be scared of the unfamiliar but this is where Selena says she thrives. “I revel in that experience so that's why I chose to run a marathon,” she says. “I've never been a long distance runner and this is brand new territory for me--I’m learning new things not just about physical mechanics but also about the mental stuff which is equally important to understand and super useful as a running coach.”

One of the things she says she’s learned to appreciate along the way is the amount of time that goes into training for this type of race and if you have your eye on your first marathon, Selena encourages you to reevaluate your calendar. “Make sure that you can make room and time for training,” she says. “If you're someone who is super busy, you might have to make adjustments that are not very comfortable but will accommodate the mileage you need to do during your training.” But before you do anything, Selena suggests digging deep to get curious like she did about the “why” behind this commitment. “Find out if your reason is powerful enough that you will allow you to stick with your program--you have to resist the urge to quit, you have to be relentless and you have to be unforgiving in your pursuit of the goal.”