26.2 miles. One race. One milestone in life down in the books.
Scotch-Plains Fanwood High School Zoology, Forensic Science and General Biology teacher Matthew Ritter competed in the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 19.
The Fanscotian sat down with Ritter to talk about the major accomplishment.
Can you describe your relationship with running? Have you always enjoyed it?
I actually didn’t always like running. I played basketball and volleyball in high school. I discovered running in college when I was a senior. My roommate was a cross country runner and he got me into it. It was really cool learning how to get from barely doing a mile to up to two miles. I met with teachers from Terrill [Middle School]. We ran 5ks together. Then I did a half marathon, and now I moved up to doing marathons.
What made you decide to run marathons?
It was a bucket list item. With COVID there wasn’t a lot to do except for go run. And I was, yeah, I’m going to do it. Now’s the time to do it. So I did my first marathon in the Spring of 2021.
What new training did you do for this marathon, if any?
I did the same as the last one. I follow the Hal Higdon marathon training plan. So for my first one, I did an online Runner’s World workout plan, and it was 16 weeks of training. And then a colleague here, Ms. Phelps recommended that I check out the 18-week plan. I worked my way from intermediate to intermediate two and this was my first time doing advanced one which incorporated some speed workouts.
How would you describe the overall experience yesterday?
It was really cool. There were over 12,000 runners there to race. I can check the actual numbers with that. The streets of Philly were full of people that have similar interests. It was a really powerful experience. The crowd support was insane and the signs were hilarious. People were cheering you on, [making it] a really good experience.
How were you feeling when you crossed the finish line?
Relieved to be done. I felt accomplished. I had done a marathon three or four weeks ago and I didn’t do as well as I had hoped to. I did better this time, but still didn’t get my final goal. It was still an accomplishment.
There was a former student that ran the race, Max [Ho]. He and his brother were there to support me at the finish line.
Are you going to run another marathon soon? Why or why not?
Yes, probably. I do want to do a marathon in every state. I have to look at my schedule. We’re trying to build the volleyball schedule right now, so I usually choose the marathon around that.
