Junior Luke Helms ran the 26.2 miles of the annual Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9, 2022 after five months of training. He has been a member of the LFHS track and cross country teams since freshman year, and plans to continue running in races and for fun in the future.

Why did you decide to run a marathon?

“I started running at seven, and I have done cross country since middle school. So as a cross country and track runner, the idea was always sort of in my head. My dad is a heart doctor, so one day during sophomore year in the summer, he said he could get me in the Chicago Marathon through a hospital he works for.”

What was your training like in advance? How much did you run before the marathon?

“I did the Hal Higdon’s Novice #1 program, which sets up a training schedule to follow for five months leading up to the marathon. From June 8th to October 8th five days a week I was either running or cross training. The farthest I ran at one time before the marathon was 20 miles. It took me three hours and 40 minutes, so I had to make a really long playlist.”

How did you prepare the week before the marathon?

“How the program works is you run the big 20 miles two weeks before, and then from there you taper off. So you go from running around eight miles a day to running one or two. And then the week leading up to the marathon, the most important thing is fuel. During the actual marathon, I had shorts with like five pockets in them for food.”

How did you stay motivated during training and during the race?

“I would say motivation to a certain extent was a little bit of a problem. When you’re going to bed and you know the next day you have to wake up and run 18 miles, you’re sort of dreading it. But I would say keeping a tight schedule was the number one most important thing that helped me stay on track. My mom would make sure I woke up and stayed disciplined. I would attribute a lot of my success to my mom, who runs as well. She had this whole list for during the marathon that was like three miles in your taking a salt pill, five miles in your doing this. Etc… She was very active in the process. My parents made a whole plan to meet up with me during the marathon and cheer me on, which helped me stay motivated. Throughout training and the marathon I told myself, ‘I didn’t run for three months just to give up now.’ Also originally during the marathon I had a normal, white running shirt on but my mom had made a shirt that said, ‘Go Luke’ and she thought if I put it on then people would probably cheer, ‘go Luke’ for me. So I put it on like 15 miles in and for the next ten miles everyone cheered, ‘Go Luke’ when they saw me.”

How would you describe running the marathon?

“It was one of the most boring and most fulfilling experiences I have ever had. It was really fun because I had never seen so many people cheering in my life. My parents made a ton of different signs for me. The most fulfilling thing was just seeing the turnout of all of those people.”

What were you thinking during the race? Did you have any moments of doubt?

“Right before the race, I had some adrenaline because I didn’t know how it was gonna go. But then once I started it went away. It’s no different than a track race. A big moment of doubt for me was five minutes before the race when I realized one of my headphones was broken. So for the entire marathon I only had one earbud in my ear and the other one was dangling.”

Is running a marathon an experience you would recommend others try?

“The feeling of self accomplishment that comes with running a marathon is great. And the marathon is a nice thing to do because no one is gonna be like, ‘Wow, that’s a bad time for a marathon,’ like you ran an entire 26.2 miles that’s all that matters. But honestly it’s a huge time commitment, so I would recommend some other fun runs, like color races. I think doing something, it doesn’t even have to be a marathon, but something like a triathlon or hitting a great PR when you’re lifting weights are all great experiences where you can say to yourself, ‘Wow, I did this and it was 100% me that did this.'”

Would you run another marathon?

“I’m gonna do the Disney Marathon next January through all of the parks. My younger brother is like, ‘If you don’t do this I will never forgive you, because this means we get to go to Disney.'”