How The Peloton Tread Got This Man To The Boston Marathon

Matt Freitas became a runner the moment he watched his father cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon. “I’ve always had it in the back of my head like, ‘Man, I want to do what dad did,’” says Matt. While in college, Matt joined the swim team but decided to make the goal of running a marathon a reality and used his offseason to train for his first races. “I ran Chicago and then eventually Boston for the first time but then life got so busy with dental school, getting married and adopting 3 children,” says Matt.

After a few years, Matt’s best friend sparked his interest in distance running with an invitation to run the Iceland Marathon in August of 2017, and since then, he’s been putting in miles regularly. With a finish time of 3 hours and 55 minutes in Iceland, he knew he had a ton of work ahead to qualify for Boston again, which required cutting 50 minutes off his time. “For the last two years, I’ve been running 6 days a week and trying to do strength training too, but it’s so difficult to fit in everything: work full-time, take care of 3 children and get through the winter. I knew I needed to simplify my life somehow and consolidate all the training I was doing, which spanned two separate gym memberships and a running coach.” Matt did his research and made a trip to his local Peloton showroom in Boston to test out the Peloton Tread. “I was totally hooked,” says Matt.

With an extremely busy lifestyle outside of the 70-80 miles a week he needed to run, the Peloton Tread helped him fit in that crucial training time exactly when he needed it. “I used to come home, have no daylight and I would have to get the kids to bed so I wouldn’t have options,” says Matt, “but now with the Tread, I could crank out my miles.” Tread classes which incorporate strength training simplified yet another element. “It would take me two hours to do additional strength training between getting to the gym and putting together a routine, but now it can be worked into the class I’m already doing, and it makes a world of difference,” says Matt. After six months of hard work on the Peloton Tread, Matt qualified for the Boston marathon once again. “It happened during my last marathon in Houston this past January,” says Matt. “Throughout my training, I’ve found so many built in motivators--whether it’s me competing against myself or my husband’s previous workout or Members of the community on the Leaderboard, there was always a little competitive edge that kept my training interesting and fun.”

Matt’s certainly feeling the excitement to get to the starting line on Marathon Monday. “My metrics right now are predicting that I could break 3 hours, which is sort of a dream of mine,” he says. But even if he doesn’t hit his goal, it will be a really special day in so many other ways. “I’ll still just be incredibly happy to be able to race with all of these people,” says Matt. “My dad who spends half the year in Costa Rica will be here to cheer, along with 50 friends and family members including my 7 year old son, so I just feel like it’s going to be this amazing day.” Matt hopes that he can be the same kind of role model for his son that his own father was for him--his son’s already been joining him for some warm-up and cooldown runs during his training. “I think the Boston Marathon will be a special moment to inspire him, and it will also be really special because he’ll be there with my dad as well.”

After his race, Matt filled us in on his 26.2 mile journey through Boston:

"The Boston marathon was a dream come true. Racing 26.2 with my father and son cheering from the sidelines on the Boston course, will always be one of the best memories of my life. The last few miles were emotional. It was so exciting turning right on Hereford and left on Boylston. The cheers were incredible. I picked up the pace for the Boylston stretch. With tears in my eyes, I crossed the finish in 3:08:09! Thank you Peloton for helping me get to Boston. I know sub 3 hours will happen soon #keepshowingup #onepeloton"