If Meb Keflezighi’s victory at Boston taught us one thing, it is that we shouldn’t limit our belief in ourselves. After winning the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics, Meb was injured in the lead up to the 2008 Olympic trials and was unable to even make the team. Responding from that enormous disappointment, he bounced back in spectacular fashion, becoming the first American to win the New York Marathon in 2009. Despite this superlative triumph, challenges again loomed as he parted with his primary sponsor, Nike, in 2010. Sponsor-less and with a young family, Meb began to build a stable of small partners, some of which were very new to the elite running market. Skechers, for one, known previously for building shoes that they professed would tone the backside, banked on Meb to help their brand translate to the running masses, and became his footwear and uniform sponsor. Meb responded by winning the 2012 marathon trials and finishing just out of the London medals in fourth. Again riding high but facing training challenges leading in, Meb entered New York in 2013 as the favorite son, only to have the type of difficult day that would cause most in his position to drop out rather than post a result much lower than expectations. Instead, he persisted at a much slower pace for the last several miles, even befriending and finishing hand in hand with a local athlete, inspired by the tragedy of Boston. And then, of course, there was Monday.
Entering a half or full marathon can be intimidating when the pictures we see and the stories we follow are often at the front of the pack. However, one of the most positive changes over the past generation has been the way so many millions of people have been able to personalize the challenge of the race to their own level.
At runcoach we train many walkers and first time runners with a simple goal, to finish the race. For many, that accomplishment is the culmination of a lifetime of doubt and the gateway to a new era of self-confidence and belief. Although it may seem like Meb’s performances are as far away as the sea is wide, there are several ways in which his race and career translate directly to our hopes for these athletes.
He is not the fastest, but he gets the most out of himself every time.
One of the many ways in which Meb’s story hits a nerve with many of us is that his times aren’t the fastest of his cohort. Despite his Olympic medal, his New York and Boston victories, his personal best, set Monday, is a full five minutes behind the world record and several minutes slower than many of the competitors he faced on each of those days. In fact, his time on Monday is equivalent to only the 77th best time run in 2013. If he is concerned with this, it hasn’t shown. Meb trains and races to the best of his ability each time out. As his career has shown, that approach is often more than good enough.
He is persistent despite setbacks.
Meb has had bad days (2008 Olympic Trials, 2013 New York Marathon), but he has memorably chosen to finish rather than give up. He has had times when he could have fallen back on his UCLA degree and quit, rather than persist in a running career when he didn’t have a primary sponsor and many felt he was over the hill. Somehow, he found the belief to persist and his persistence has paid off.
He has modified his training to do what is right for him, not the masses.
In recent years, Meb has cross trained by using the ElliptiGO (elliptical bike), moved from altitude Mammoth Lakes to San Diego, and made other adjustments that have allowed him to stretch his world class athletic career to this pinnacle at age 38,. These are not the changes that would have been dictated by conventional wisdom on world class distance running. Many of our athletes are tempted to chase arbitrary standards about how much a person should run per week, what pace is “really running,” and more. Our plans are personalized to you for a reason – we want you to be healthy and successful on race day. We don’t believe in templates, because we know each athlete has different strengths and challenges in their schedule, injury history, and athletic experience (or maybe they have none at all). Our plans intend to help you progress toward your goals, and then help set new ones. These are personal to you, just like Meb has been able to find a successful formula specific to him.
His goals are to get to the starting line healthy, THEN run his best time. In that order. Sound familiar?
Reflecting on the events of the last week, it is amazing to take a look at his blog from last year at this time. One little known aspect of this story is that Meb was actually forced to withdraw from last year’s race due to a freak injury sustained when encountering a dog on a run. We can all relate to that type of inadvertent event in our own lives, and like us, he knows it is not always subject to his control whether or not he is successful in that first goal. His second goal is to set a personal best. Setting a personal best means doing something you have not done in the past. For many of us, that is no different than making it farther than we have before. “Personal best” does not necessarily mean running fast – it means doing your best. It also requires the confidence to do it at the right time, not pushing so hard every day leading up to the big one that you have nothing left to give. Your plan is crafted to set you up the same way.
Of course, one significant difference from most of us is that Meb’s third goal was to WIN the race, a goal made probably so much more resonant in its accomplishment when he had to miss last year, not to mention for all the other reasons mentioned above. Completing a race for a world class athlete can have reverberations felt far beyond themselves, and they know it. Their families benefit, their communities may benefit, others like ourselves may be inspired to do something audacious. Like these athletes, even as walkers and first-timers, our efforts make a difference. While we may not have a platform affecting millions, our efforts to persist, do our best, and accomplish new challenges can reverberate to those we care about, and to those they care about. Meb’s win at Boston sprung from a series of challenging times and goals set and stuck to. His victory, while amazing, is also just a simple testament to the power of belief and commitment to continue getting out the door each day. Like all of us, there have been days where that was more difficult than others, days when those around him thought he didn’t have the ability to be successful in his task, days when he may have even doubted it himself. We may not be able to run as fast as Meb, but we should never discount the power of that belief in ourselves, and regardless of the finishing time, the elation of passing under the finishing banner.
Recovery doesn’t begin when you finally tuck into bed the night following your workout. Recovery begins as you unwind your body from the hard work just accomplished minutes before. Busy schedules may tempt us to skip a cool down jog, but it’s important to reserve some time for this last piece of your workout. Even a couple easy laps after your last hard interval or pace run can help unwind your body and your mind.
The cool down provides an often crucial transition period for your body and mind as it goes from high intensity requirements to preparedness for the next activity of your day. The cool down does not have a huge amount of science proving its necessity, but it’s important that you don’t stop completely and immediately after long, hard exercise,or take your heart rate from extremely high to extremely low in moments (this is why many marathons and half marathons automatically build in lengthy post-finish straightaways to walk and collect fuel). Let your body temperature drop gradually instead of getting straight into the car sopping wet with sweat. Giving yourself a moment to jog, roll, and stretch before getting into that same car can prepare your tired muscles for the commute and prevent the onset of post-workout tightness. A week later, that post-workout tightness can resurface as IT band or low back tightness, from which it may be just a stone’s throw to an injury as workout loads increase.
Stretching has been discussed in the running media a great deal lately, with the once familiar pre and post-run routines now discarded as outdated and not a necessary precursor to injury prevention or better performance. While we encourage dynamic exercise as a part of our Active Warm-up, we also encourage athletes to be knowledgeable about post-run foam (or other tool) rolling and stretching (even if you only have those precious few minutes). Even if you don’t practice both or each every single day, it is wise to keep those tools in your arsenal. They help the body transition from the tension of the hard workout to post-run life.
Another key aspect of recovery is rehydration and refueling. If running longer than an hour, consuming about 1/3 of your calories burned per hour through sports drink or food can help ensure success. Making sure to get at least that much food down the hatch in the first 15-30 minutes after working out (even if you don’t feel hungry), can make a significant difference in how quickly your body will begin to prepare itself for the next hard task. Waiting 2 hours and then eating a huge meal or a pitcher of beer is an absolute no-no! This will delay your recovery and adaptation for your next workout. Bring a snack and a low sugar sports drink to your workout and consume them when you are done. You’ll take the edge off the hunger (and avoid a need for a ridiculously huge meal later). You will feel stronger for the rest of the day and more importantly for your running, eliminate needless time where you body is hunting around for fuel sources in vain.
When you do get to hit the hay, an evening workout may leave you wide awake. While this may be unavoidable, morning or midday runners should feel nice and tired when bedtime comes. Resist the temptation to let a post-hard workout or race day act as a reward to not worry about sleep. In fact, those nights are most crucial. This is your body’s time to repair and prepare for the running ahead. Do your level best to get good sleep the night after a hard day and give yourself the best chance possible for future success and injury free running.
Human nature, the demands of every day life, and other unpredictable aspects of modern living may intervene and prevent you from always executing a perfect recovery routine. Do your best, try to chalk up small wins each day, and integrate good habits as much as you can. Your body will respond with more good days, and hopefully your future successes will encourage you to continue treating yourself well post-run.
Your weekly schedule has just appeared in your email inbox and it is time to sit down to consider the week’s training tasks. What track workout or tempo run is planned? When and where will that workout take place?
We know that the actual intervals of the workout will require our greatest expenditure of energy, so naturally we psych ourselves up for those. Far less often do we consider the importance of the warm up. This month, we will shed some light on this crucial aspect of your training and give the warm up its due.
Most workouts include varying amounts and variations on four very important aspects: Easy running, LIGHT stretching, running drills, and strides.
Easy running
It is not uncommon for an easy warm-up jog to be described as a way to “get the blood flowing.” Although that phrase is often uttered with a figurative meaning, the reality is, the easy jogging at the beginning of your warm up does exactly that. Easy running provides a bridge for your body to move from a static situation (sleeping in bed, driving the car, watching TV), to a place where your core body temperature has been raised. This prepares your muscles to accommodate increased blood flow, allows for more strenuous contractions as required by a hard workout, and starts the processes you’ll need to use your body’s stored energy effectively throughout the session.
Light stretching
The purpose of the warm up is to execute a string of activities that will conclude when your body is prepared to begin the hard work at hand. Taking a timeout to stretch for 20 minutes will certainly disrupt the progression of that process. However, taking a few moments to check in with the major muscle groups after (and only after) you have been able to light the fire with easy running can provide a helpful transition to the increasingly dynamic activities in the warm up routine. Hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, glutes, and iliotibial (IT) bands can be lightly stretched (finding a cozy position for 2x8-10 seconds without any strain or hint of pain) from a standing or supine position without taking more than 5-7 minutes away from the remainder of activities on tap.
Running drills
Running drills are exercises that mimic or closely resemble some of the types of repetitive demands harder running will make on your body. The intention of running drills are to help ensure your body has been prepared to handle these, and to also reinforce the type of angles and form habits practiced by efficient runners. Runcoach has outlined and created short videos for a basic canon of seven running drills. Each drill is meant to be practiced for the distance indicated immediately after which the athlete should run with good form at 1500 meter pace effort for the balance of 100 meters.
Strides
Consider the last time you observed the start line of a competitive road race or track race. Many times the athletes involved take complete repeated short running bouts of 30, 50, or even 100 meters just before the competition begins. These final preparations are called strides. These strides listed on your warm up are most definitely related (as their lower-key cousin) to these pre race sprints. A chance to concentrate on good form for 20-30 seconds and provide the body a few more sustained efforts that keep the body warm and prepared to work hard are the final touches on your warm up routine. If you have ever done a workout with a short warm up and felt rusty on the first effort, only to find yourself feeling markedly better on the second bout, then you know firsthand the importance of strides. Please see our video description of strides here.
While warm up is a crucial physical preparation process, it can also be an invaluable time to review the mental elements you’ll need to employ during the workout and distance yourself from the everyday cares that will be waiting when you return through your front door. Let your warm up free you of the world’s gravity and transport you to the weightless state of focus on your workout. Complete each step with care and you’ll find your workouts will benefit.
At runcoach, we love celebrating the great race results that roll in after each weekend. Although sensible training and belief can ensure that many race days proceed well, occasionally an off day or an unexpected turn of events affects us all.
One of the best ways to recover from a tough race is to have a short memory. In every race, there are many things a runner can control: clothing choices, food choices, pacing choices, fueling choices, and more. Likewise, there are several factors that are beyond the control of the athlete: the weather that may prove those clothing choices to be wise, the digestive system that may repudiate those food choices, the topography or wind that may prove those pacing choices to be miscalculated and events like an unexpected bathroom need or unseasonably humid weather which may show the fueling choices to be inadequate. Because we really do not control quite as much on race day as we believe we do, it is unproductive to dwell on a disappointing result when it was significantly affected by one of these factors.
Certainly, we also know there are times when we weren’t quite as tough as we had envisioned, when the effort given seemed monumental at the time, but retrospect asks the question, “Was there more in the tank?” In these times just as well, we need to avoid miring ourselves in what could have been and focus on what we plan to do next time out.
Because running is a singular pursuit, requires such strong task commitment both over the long training cycle as well as during a race effort, and the sense of accomplishment is so great when done well, runners often have a hard time divorcing our overall confidence from one or two tough days out of many. But, we should. Difficult things by definition would be easy if everyone could do them, and running long distance is most definitely a difficult thing. Without minimizing the value of finishing a large goal or glamorizing the somewhat sanitized notion that the victory is only in attempting to begin, if you have trained well for a goal race, you have should have satisfaction for what you have learned about yourself along that journey. A race completed, but not as fast as expected, is a race where the spirit of perseverance yielded a finishing result, which on a better day would be the type of commitment that will indeed lead to a PR. If Murphy’s Law prevailed on a particular day, you have a great story and a lesson of resilience in the face of a gauntlet of unexpected difficulties.
Sometimes, the tough day has definite antecedents in choices we have made or training that trended less positively than we would have hoped leading in. This is where the running log enters into the conversation. When the dust is settled, an examination of any correctable factors is well in order, but always in the context of fact versus feelings. Beating oneself up over situations that can neither be redone nor controlled next time is not productive. Preparing to do battle with more training, a mellowed sense of humor, and a renewed sense of hope is crucial. Carrying the burdens of a previous tough race is a heavy load. If you are able to leave that load and focus on the opportunity ahead rather than the unrealized promise of a previous race, you have the opportunity for a much more positive experience. Running toward a goal is always more productive than running away from a fear. Daily, practice focusing on the run at hand, the potential of the present day, and the joy or challenge of the experience presently underway. Have a short memory, and in doing so, you’ll leave more room for new ones!
When post-goal race elation subsides and the physical recovery period is well underway, many runners have a difficult time turning the corner toward the next horizon. Some athletes come away from a goal race so hungry for the next one that they over-enthusiastically barrel down the road toward the next goal without giving their bodies ample time to rest. Instead, for many runners, a huge bucket list item is a hard act to follow, even if we know that goal setting has finally allowed us to move the needle on long sought hopes.
The knowledge that the physical challenge of a long race can be described as a “how” rather than the “if” it was the first time is a powerful tool. Addressing the “how” requires a bit of work above the shoulders, both before and during the races ahead. We’ve written about a few of these topics on the blog, including the areas listed below:
At runcoach, we love to see runners break through and achieve their goals week after week, but we know sometimes the immediate road ahead has a focus on general fitness rather than a big goal race. We are here for you either way, and your individualized program can adjust to meet your needs for the run tomorrow as well as your destination goal race in 2014!
Running can be a life-changing activity, a passion, an outlet, sometimes (hopefully not often), it can even feel like a chore. As many long-time runners can attest, running can also teach many lessons that are readily transferable to a wide array of life situations. Some of these examples are encapsulated in the encouragement runcoach (like many other running coaches through history) gives you along your training journey.
Run through the Line
Running, belief, commitment, and a willingness to see the task to completion are crucial components to success. Many times a premature decision to evaluate a project or a race midway through eliminates the chance to enjoy the fruits of your labor, or a change of fortune in the late stages of the race. Marathoners go through rough patches, and can weather them and find success if belief and commitment are strong. Many a start-up or a long term project has also gone through a dark season or two before things finally look up. Commit to running the race until completion, and earn yourself the chance to enjoy the good that might still be possible.
Plan your rest days into the schedule
Although not every runner keeps the same schedule of rest vs. training days, every runner has a better chance of avoiding injury and training interruptions when they are able to plan regular rest into their schedule. Try to push through when rundown, or ignore a nagging sore spot, and an unplanned, and much less convenient rest period might be just around the corner. Similarly, a non-stop schedule of work and stress can often adversely affect our health. Although we don’t always have control over our schedules, most would agree a balanced life includes times of planned relaxation and recharging for the next challenge.
A positive attitude makes an enormous difference
Life and running have their fair share of challenges and unanticipated roadblocks. Depending on your perspective, many of these are temporary, and loom frighteningly large or completely manageable. When you retain a fundamental belief that a viable path exists out of your current bind, and when you attack a problem with the belief that the problem has a knowable and doable solution, you have a much greater chance of success than when a defeatist attitude emerges first. Get through that mid-race rough patch by reminding yourself of your training and the strength it has given you. Pick your way through a tricky professional patch by relying on the skills that have brought you to that point. Stay positive, and it will soon take the idea of giving up off the table.
Pace yourself
Life is a marathon, and not a sprint. We say this because we understand that a marathon takes a great deal of patience, training, and learning to succeed. We also understand that if you start out with a pace that throws caution to the wind, then your end result might be a bit unpleasant. A life a thousand miles begins with a single step. Stick to your plan, keep a steady, confident tempo, and arrive on time and in one piece, both in life and in the race.
Practice Makes Perfect
This saying, along with its cousin, “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect,” reminds us that it pays to consider our goals and to make sure we have rehearsed the requirements of the day as much as is possible beforehand. Just like that important presentation or pitch, rehearsing your fueling patterns during your long run or embarking on routes similar in topography to your goal race will teach you how to flesh out the tricky parts and handle them more confidently. We perform better when we can eliminate unknowns and focus on executing our plan. Running long distances can be a great incubator for us to reinforce that habit.
There are many other sayings and phrases out there that encapsulate the similar challenges and successes we go through as runners in and out of our training shoes. As runners, we are fortunate to have a great laboratory every day, and hopefully our lives are better for it even after we slip off our shoes.
Day Before
Whenever possible, pick up your bib number, timing chip, and goody bag the day before the race. This way, you won't have to worry about rushing to get it on the morning of the race. (Added bonus - you will be more likely to get your desired race T-shirt size if you pick it up early!)
Once you have your bib number, pin it to the front of the shirt you will wear on race day. (Don't pin it to the back). Most races will have boxes of safety pins for your use. Take four so that you can fasten all 4 corners.
Dressing The Part
For race attire, consider some "throw away" warmups for the start. These will protect you from the elements if it is cold or rainy. Old socks can come in handy for keeping your hands warm. Some runners will even wear the t-shirt for the first couple miles of the race until they warm up and then pull it off and throw it away. This is a good strategy to prepare for all temperatures.
Once the race starts, you WILL warm up. Be prepared by wearing lighter clothes underneath your "thow away" sweats. A good rule of thumb: Dress as if the weather is 15 degrees warmer than it is. That's how much you'll warm up once you start running.
Hydration
Drink Gatorade (or any sports drink that doesn’t include protein) and/or water frequently to assure you are hydrated before the race. Clear urine is a good sign. At some point (usually 10-20 minutes) prior to the race stop drinking so you can empty your bladder before the start.
Breakfast
We always recommend eating breakfast and an essential, light breakfast is important on race day. 2-3 hours before the race, try to consume 200-400 calories of food you are accustomed to and can easily digest. Your body will need that fuel in the latter stages of the race.
Don't try a new food the morning of the race. Instead, experiment with different foods beforehand or stick to things that have worked for you in the past. The best breakfast foods contain both complex and simple carbohydrates and high-quality protein (in small amounts). Your breakfast should include some healthy fats, but also in small amounts.
Heading to the Start Line
There will often be race day traffic so allow plenty of time to get to the starting area. You will need time to stretch out, do a warm up jog, and use the bathroom. (Warning: The lines for the bathrooms at road races are always long. Don't wait until the last minute to go!)
Pace
Remember this is an endurance race and the key to success is pace. As soon as the gun goes off remind yourself that you have a long race ahead of you. Check your breathing, body tension and other physical markers to gauge your pace. If you are running faster than a pace you can maintain throughout the whole distance, slow down immediately. The goal of any successful race is to run every mile within 10% of your average pace.
Remember the 3 ‘C’s’
Confidence: Have confidence in your ability and your training. Remember all those hard workouts you did. Remember those early mornings, late nights, sore calves, tight hamstrings etc. - they weren’t in jest.
Control: Feel comfortable with the pace for the first 1-2 miles. Stay relaxed and controlled.
Collection: Keep your thoughts collected and on your objective. In the typical big city race there will be thousands of distractions along the way. The further you get in this race the more you need to focus on yourself, goals and race strategy. Don’t let the fans and competitors into your zone.
You Always Have One Cup Left
That’s right – you always have one cup of energy left. The difference is that some people find it and some don’t. Remember what normal, untrained people do when they feel discomfort – they slow down and feel better. You are not a normal un-trained person.
You are a running machine!
As a machine you will have to dig down at the end to determine if you will have a good effort that you can be satisfied with or not.
Go get that last cup!
In July, many athletes begin training in earnest for a fall goal race. We’re glad that this year, more runners than ever are doing so with runcoach.
A runner announces their new training cycle with a fresh pair of shoes brought home from the running store, or an acknowledgement they are about to embark on their first official long training run. Then, he or she often gets the fun questions to answer – Wow! When / how did you decide to run a marathon? Why did you choose that race? What time do you want to run? In contrast, runcoach wants you to be able to answer the questions no one will ask – Wow! What is your predicted half marathon time? Do you have access to a treadmill? Can you run on Thursdays?
In short, one of the significant ways runcoach is different than almost any other training solution is the amount of focus we place on you and your current profile, rather than your hypothetical goals and hypothetical self. Don’t get us wrong – we are completely invested in providing a path to progress your running as far as you can go. However, instead of taking a random target and working back from it, we take your actual current profile / performances (or if there are no current or relevant races, we instruct you how to produce a hard effort to approximate a race). From this, we forge an appropriate, sustainable path forward. Achieve mastery at your present level, then recover, adapt, and perform at peak productivity.
What if your goal was to break 4:00 hours for the marathon, but in 20 weeks, it turns out you might be actually better prepared to run 3:45? What if you had in mind a 1:35 half marathon time, but forgot to factor in the crazy hills and stiff headwinds notorious on that course. Goal setting is an important motivational cornerstone, but we know at runcoach that each person begins at a different spot – in their experience level, in their current fitness, in their weekly schedules, and in their natural strengths and weaknesses. Our system provides our athletes with a program that is unique to each person, because each person is indeed unique.
As with any new coach/ athlete relationship, initially an athlete might be skeptical if the assigned workouts differ from what is expected. Often we hear from runners who are used to a “go until you can’t go any more” approach to workouts, or a pattern of going hard everyday out on the roads. Other athletes have never followed a structured plan before and maybe sell themselves short on what they can do over various distances. Hundreds of thousands of workouts and successful goal races have reinforced for us that an approach including proper stress based on your current fitness profile, followed by sensible recovery, will lead to racing at peak performance.
Today, an aggressive approach and an ASAP mentality are present in many of the products we buy. It is easy to be antsy over a five-minute wait when you are used to getting your Starbucks latté made in two. Remember when traveling across the continent or the ocean meant a risky wagon or boat ride and the very real possibility that waving goodbye to home was forever? Now, we are grumpy when a five hour plane ride is delayed one hour. Patience is in short supply. At runcoach, we want you have fun answering the enjoyable questions from friends and family, but we also want you to be knowledgeable and confident enough about your present fitness to answer the tough questions as well. We’re ok being the ones with the answers to the unpopular questions, and we’re excited that as our athletes achieve these goals, these unpopular questions are becoming much less so.
At runcoach, we love the enthusiasm of runners fired up after a successful first marathon or long goal race. Many athletes find the cycle of goal setting, progressive workouts, and solid race performance to be an enticing combination, one which quickly beckons them again. As a runner becomes more confident in the ability to complete the training cycle, execute the race, and recover, he or she may begin to look further down the road and plan two or three goal races ahead. But, how many marathons are too many?
Each athlete comes equipped with an experience level, injury history (or lack thereof), and other daily commitments specific to them. Each race also has its challenges and advantages – course difficulty, transportation set-up, weather, etc. A tough combination of these factors might produce a decision to take things one goal race at a time, but if things are aligning well, we suggest taking about three-four months between marathons. At most we recommend 4 marathons per year.
Many avid marathoners have found a rhythm with an annual fall or spring marathon, or maybe two marathons per year with plenty of time to recycle and train between each. Other runners prefer to include goal races of different lengths interspersed between marathon attempts. That could mean a target half marathon in the spring and a big marathon goal for the fall, or a season of running shorter races such as 5Ks and 10Ks to work on speed, while leaving a longer distance race for later in a particular year. There is no “one size fits all” answer for these race choices, except our desire to make sure you leave enough time to train properly and arrive at race day ready to do your best.
It is not uncommon for runners to go through a period of time where enthusiasm is high and things are coming together so nicely a successful string of narrowly scheduled races can come off well. However, it is also not uncommon for runners to change that pattern by necessity only after something has not gone well or nagging soreness has turned into an injury. Your runcoach schedule is designed to progress you toward your short-term goals but also keep you healthy so that you can keep striving toward other long-term goals. It is far better to have six excellent experiences over the course of two years with more to look forward to, than three experiences followed by a long string of injury and uncertainty.
Yes, there are those that can manage a spectacular workload and race frequency, but there are also those who must take the greatest of care to arrive intact at one goal race per year. Most of us are between the two, and are hoping to continue our running and racing for years and decades to come. Stay patient, and keep a sane race schedule. We’ll help you train well, and together we can plan for many congratulations and “high-fives” ahead.
