From Leap of Faith to Full Stride: A Conversation with Reed Fischer Ahead of the Trials
This week I spoke with Reed Fischer, a seasoned marathoner on the brink of the Olympic Marathon Trials. As he shares insights into his preparation and mindset, Reed provides a glimpse into the intensity and anticipation surrounding a goal race as he reflects on battling injuries, limited race opportunities, the unique challenges of the Trials, and the mental resilience required to navigate the unforgiving nature of elite-level competition. Beyond the sport, Reed opens up about the leap of faith into professional running, managing a full-time job while pursuing excellence, and the evolving landscape of athlete sponsorship. His story unfolds as a testament to the delicate balance between passion and pragmatism in the pursuit of a dream.
Owen: Hey Reed, hope you’re well. Can you give us a bit of context surrounding where you’re currently at with your training as you prepare for the Olympic Marathon Trials on February 3rd?
Reed: Yeah, the Trials are right around the corner. We’re just about a week out now, so the taper has begun and the race is starting to feel “real.” It’s always an odd feeling to have a goal race you’ve been working toward for four years finally come to fruition. It’s a heightened mix of excitement and nerves, but all of that stems from the stakes and opportunity the Trials present.
Right now I’m capping off the build in Florida with my teammate Connor. We’ll spend two weeks training here leading into the race to get acclimated to the heat and humidity. It’s been a nice change from the cold and dry of Colorado. We’ve had a really solid build overall, and I think we’re both in great shape. It should be fun to mix it up together and see what the day brings.
Owen: How do you keep your wits about you as you go into a race that only comes around once every four years? Is it daunting, do you thrive on it, do you feel a lot of pressure?
Reed: It’s definitely daunting. There’s an inescapable brutality about the Trials. It doesn’t matter who you are, what credentials you have, or how deserving you might be—you either finish top three or you go home empty handed. I think the format sets the US up well to send the three athletes best equipped to handle the stakes and pressure of the Olympic Games, but there’s no denying it’s an intense environment to compete in. For me, I’ve always found I handle pressure well. I’m typically able to keep a level head and remind myself that I’ve done everything in my control to prepare myself for the race.
Owen: Myself and a lot of my audience have full time jobs, and running is a glorified hobby. This often leads to a limited race schedule, and not a ton of data points or opportunities to gain confidence from. You’ve battled some injuries over the course of the last year and haven’t raced a ton. How do you draw confidence heading into the trials with not many results?
Reed: Yeah, it’s been a bit trickier than normal to know exactly what kind of shape I’m in at the moment. I picked up a pretty significant calf strain in my buildup to the World Half Marathon Championships this fall which bled into my training and race for the TCS NYC Marathon. Coming off of NYC with 13 weeks till the Trials, the biggest priority was to hit the start line in Orlando at full health. I seem to be there, which is reassuring. But to your point, I haven’t really raced at max health or effort since June of 2023, so there’s a lot of unknowns there. I think it becomes easier to remain confident when I’m to look back at the years of uninterrupted training I’ve been able to stack together, my experience at the marathon distance, and trusting my intuition and race strategy to make up for a potential lack of fitness.
Owen: I want to go back when you took the leap of faith into professional running. What was that decision to initially move to Boulder like?
Reed: Man, that feels simultaneously like yesterday and a lifetime ago. Coming out of college, I knew I wanted to be somewhere that I could be happy and well-rounded. To me, at the time, that meant finding a setup that allowed me to train well with people I enjoyed, live somewhere with an outdoor lifestyle, and find employment that felt fulfilling. Moving to Boulder and founding Tinman Elite seemed to tick all of those boxes, but there’s always that fear of taking the plunge. I was choosing to forego opportunities to “just” run in favor of an unknown quantity in Boulder. I’ve always been a big believer in trusting your intuition, making a decision, and going all in on that decision without any “what ifs.” I think that mindset, paired with my teammates being on the same page, almost forced us to find success in racing and on the business side of Tinman Elite. But to be honest, I didn’t expect to be running as a full-time pro for a sponsored team that I helped create when I made the move in 2017. It’s a pretty surreal feeling I do my best to never take for granted.
Owen: I know you worked a full time job for at least a year as you pursued running at a high level in parallel, and even now you work a little bit? How was/is that?
Reed: Yeah, I alluded to that above. For the first year and a half I was in Boulder I worked full time as a marketing manager at the Colorado Mountain Club, a local non-profit that focused on education, recreation, and conservation across the state. It was a great setup for me—I was doing work that felt productive and important, I had supportive colleagues, and I had some flexibility with my schedule to still hit the 100+ mile weeks. I moved on from the CMC to pursue running full time in 2019, but I’ve always enjoyed having some intellectually stimulating work outside of training. At the moment, I’m wearing a few different hats. I manage TME’s website and email newsletter, I’m serving as the director of TME’s summer camp, I coach about a half dozen athletes, and am often doing a bunch of odds and ends that nobody “owns” for the team operations. It’s all stuff I love doing, so it very rarely feels like work and still allows me to set my own schedule. Sometimes I’ll be working at 8pm after a shakeout run, lift, and dinner. But other times I don’t do any “real” work all day. It’s huge to have that balance and again, it’s something I know is a huge privilege so I do my best to appreciate it.
Owen: In a sport like running with limited sponsorships, money, and funding, what are some ways you have experienced, or seen, for people to chase their dream while balancing the financial realities?
Reed: I think we’ve seen athletes really shake off the old idea of signing a shoe deal and living off that in the past few years. And it’s great. You see so much more entrepreneurship in the elite running space now. Part of that’s out of necessity—a chunk of funding that used to go to pros goes to influencers or NIL deals now. But I think part of that is athletes understanding the importance of life after sport. None of us will be able to make a living of racing for our lives, so finding ways to make ends meet in other ways sets you up well for the future and makes you so much more “hireable” when it’s time to hang up the racing shoes. I think TME is a great example of this. We’ve built a business model that allows us to pay our athletes for their performance, but also allow them to bolster their resumé through coaching with Hammer & Axe, working on the business or marketing side of things, or pursuing their own interests with the backing and support of the team. I think this hybrid model of being a pro, an influencer/content creator, and a “side hustler” is here to stay, and it’s making athletes who are more marketable, profitable, and well-rounded as people. That’s a win for everyone involved in my book.
Owen: I’ve known you for a while, and you strike me as a very emotionally intelligent, and consistent person. How do you manage the emotions of the sport, and life and keep moving forward in a consistent manner?
Reed: I’ll take the compliment! To be honest, I think that’s just always been my temperament. My nature is pretty even keel, it takes quite a bit to stress me out or shake me off the path I’ve chosen. I think that helps a lot in a sport (and life) that’s inevitably turbulent, but there’s no ‘right way’ to be. I’ve seen that first hand, many of my current and past teammates have the opposite temperament and they’ve also found high levels of success. For me, I find that I perform best, feel most content, and generally enjoy life the most when I’m grounded. I think it’s crucial to figure out what you need to be successful, and then focus on those things. Without getting too cliche, having strong relationships with my wife, my family, my friends, and my teammates creates a really strong foundation that makes weathering the storms of life much easier.
Owen: I’m interested in going somewhat deep on why you’re doing this; what do you come back to in your heart of hearts as your purpose in the sport?
Reed: A nice follow-up to the last question. I’ve always been a primarily intrinsically motivated person. I’m not someone who gets fired up about who I beat, or upset about who beat me. It’s much more about what I feel like I got out of myself and how I represented myself and those who care about me on race day. To that end, I think my purpose is to maximize my impact and potential during this period of my life. If I can help others find a love for running in any capacity, represent myself, my family, my team, and my sponsors well, and if I can walk away at the end of my career feeling like I’ve gotten the most out of myself, I’ll retire from the sport as a happy man.
Owen: What is a major fault that you see committed runners making all the time? This could be something with their training, mindset, process, etc. What would you tell them to help?
Reed: As a coach myself, I work with primarily marathoners. Most of the athletes I work with don’t need someone to get them to work harder. I’ve found runners are often incredibly driven, goal-oriented people who will typically overwork if given the opportunity. Even at the elite level, it’s easy to get caught up in pushing easy runs, overrunning workouts to prove your fitness is there, or stacking big mileage weeks too quickly. 95% of the time, athletes will show up on race day and find success if they can be consistent, put their body before Strava Kudos in training, and feel at peace in their life. So, I guess to summarize that, I’d tell athletes to throw out your GPS watch, your preconceived idea of goal paces, and your comparison to others for a few weeks and get really good at running to perceived effort. Then add the paces and data back in and see where they put you. Knowing your body’s limits and when to push or back off is a huge asset.
Owen: To wrap, I want to know what some traits of an exceptional coach are in your mind. How have the coaches you’ve worked with shaped the way you approach the sport, and perhaps beyond sport?
Reed: I’ve been fortunate to have an incredible string of coaches in my running career. In my mind, I’ve always believed a coach should prioritize you as a person before an athlete. They should get to know what motivates you, where your strengths and weaknesses lay, what makes you laugh, what kind of music you like, and your family’s names just as well as they know your training paces. The human element of coaching is what allows for successful athletes and separates a coach from a training plan. From high school on up, I’ve been grateful to have coaches who have invested in me as a person, fostered a love for all aspects of running, and built a mutual relationship of trust. I think that’s bled into my life as an athlete, a coach, and a person in a lot of ways—big and small. When you have people you can trust to support you through your highs and lows, you’re less afraid of failure and more excited to succeed.
Thank you for taking the time, Reed! And a special thank you Joe Hale for the lovely cover image, see more of his work here.
