How Charles Hicks Ran a 2:04 Marathon

An inside look from his coach

Last week, Charles Hicks ran the Boston marathon in a time that was the second-fastest ever run by an American man in his second attempt at the distance. That kind of performance forces people to search for explanations.

Usually, they all want to look at the training log.

What were the workouts? How many miles did he run? How hard?

At his level, training hard is the cost of entry. Plenty of athletes log massive volumes. Some of them are just as physiologically gifted.

Very few run 2:04.

You can find much of Charles’ training online. But what you can’t see are the decisions, the mindset, and the daily habits that made the training work.

As one of his coaches, I’ve had a front row seat to both observe his excellence and occasionally help steer the ship.

Here’s what I saw behind the scenes. Ten lessons I’ve gathered from everything that led to the historic performance in Boston.

Photo Credit: David Hicks

1. Train to gain fitness, not to prove fitness

Elite athletes tend to be insecure overachievers. They chase confidence by trying to win workouts—overrunning paces, extending sessions, and turning the training program into a test they must pass. Charles doesn’t chase that kind of validation from each workout. He shows up, executes the session's intent, and moves on. No ego-driven surges or half-stepping. Just the right dose, delivered consistently. Training isn’t about proving what you can survive. It’s about giving the body a stimulus you can absorb and repeat week after week. Stack enough of those, and the fitness takes care of itself.

2. You can lose the battle but still win the war

People often assume that after a breakthrough race, the build must have been perfect. While it was extremely solid, there were a few blips on the radar. His tune-up half-marathon did not go well. After the USA half-marathon championships, as Charles and I walked from drug testing back to the hotel elevators, I could feel the disappointment. He ran 62:10 for fourth place when the goal was to win. That’s the moment most athletes start searching for answers and questioning everything. Charles didn’t. He remained steadfast in his belief. The next week, he logged 115 miles. He jumped headfirst back into training rather than ruminating. Training has a special way of putting success and failure in their respective places. Neither matters as much as what you do next.

3. When you’re in a training hole, reach for the ladder, not the shovel

Type-A runners believe that hard work solves all problems. The answer to any doubt is more volume or more intensity. In marathon training, you’re constantly negotiating with fatigue. Push too hard at the wrong time, and you’ll bury yourself. Mid-block, Charles had a long run where things unraveled. He was having GI issues and lost control of the pace. Instead of forcing it, he cut it at 10 miles and took 36 hours off. Most runners would have tried to make up for it. He didn’t. He understood that no single day defines the outcome of a race. Each training day is directional, not decisive.

4. If you can stay rational when others are emotional, you have an enormous edge

This might be his biggest advantage. In high-stakes moments when most athletes tighten up or overreact, Charles stays level. He has developed an indifference to problems. In the aftermath of the Atlanta half-marathon, he texted me:

I rely on the confidence that I will navigate my failure points more effectively than my competition. We will encounter similar obstacles, just at different times. They are not setbacks, just part of the job. We all have to “charge it to the game.”

Charles has learned how to dream the right dream. He “prices in difficulty.” Most athletes treat friction as a sign that something is wrong. He treats this as part of the process. When reality collides with expectations, he doesn’t panic. You don’t need to be brilliant in those moments. You just need to be reasonable.

5. Don’t “paddle upstream”

In 2024, at the end of his altitude camp, Charles and I sat down and reflected on his first year as a pro. He had run some decent times (13:09 for 5000m and 27:33 for 10000m), but they were not nearly good enough to make the Paris Olympic team. “I think I’m ready to move up to the roads,” he said. This caught me by surprise. Most athletes stay on the track and try to close the gap. He didn’t want to force it.

He explained that forcing track training to fit his physiology had left him exhausted. Every time he was doing a track workout, he had to wrestle with it. The speed and speed-endurance work didn’t come naturally to him, but the long tempos and cross-country-style workouts did.

We decided to lean into that. We let his own enthusiasm be the compass. Instead of trying to fix his weaknesses on the track indefinitely, we built a program around his strengths. That way, his physiology, mindset, and preferences were all pointing in the same direction.

As Charles said on The Running Effect Podcast: “You’re always going to do the things that you want to do with less resistance and in a way that you’re naturally more consistent.” Find the right path, even if it’s unconventional.

6. Embrace the “I get to do this” mentality

Late in a marathon, the question always comes: Why am I doing this?

You can answer in two ways: “I have to do this,” or “I get to do this.”

Charles chooses the second. He’s talked before about a mindset of “delusional optimism”—a mindset rooted in the fact that this suffering isn’t voluntary. He chose it. That changes everything.

I personally believe that the stress you perceive as meaningful elicits a different physiological response than the stress you perceive as meaningless. The meaningful kind leads to growth. The meaningless kind is suffering for the sake of suffering.

Training and competing are never neutral. They’re filtered through belief, context, and trust. The best programs don’t just work physiologically. They create buy-in when things get hard.

7. You can’t live an ordinary life and expect extraordinary results

Every decision Charles makes is filtered through one lens: will this make me faster? If the answer is “no,” it doesn’t make the cut.

Extreme results come from extreme choices. Charles has turned his lifestyle into an airtight performance incubator. He controls all external influences and ensures that no energy leaks from within. His daily lifestyle might look monastic and utterly undesirable for most, but for him, it’s the cost of doing business. For example, he spends about 16 hours per day in a simulated altitude tent. In preparation for Boston, he shifted his circadian rhythm from Pacific time to Eastern time a month in advance to help his body adjust to a morning race across the country. Within 2 weeks of the race, he eliminated all voluntary contact with the outside world to avoid the likelihood of getting sick. These are only a few examples.

Charles doesn’t approach a race with a “let’s hope I get lucky” mentality. His approach is methodical and intentional. Many people can’t fathom the sacrifices he has made, but I don’t think Charles views it that way. He doesn’t see himself as running away from pleasure—he’s running towards purpose.

8. You won’t always get what you strive for, but you will definitely get what you settle for

On The Running Effect Podcast, Charles dropped a quote that has stuck with me over the past 8 months: “If you’re worried about making teams, you’re not going to be winning medals.” The point he’s trying to make is that expectations shape reality. Most people in life are trying to scrape by with minimal effort. They just want to survive and advance. They aim just high enough to feel successful. Charles is playing a different game entirely. He believes he can be the best American marathoner, and he will only make upward comparisons. He sets a standard that forces growth. You can’t control outcomes, but you can control what you’re willing to accept. Over time, your life ultimately bends towards what you accept as your standard of excellence.

9. Take the next logical step

To make progress, you need to push outside your comfort zone. But the pushes should be incremental.

There’s always a temptation to take massive swings, to “full send” and hope it works, but skipping steps usually costs you more than it gives you. If you can’t eliminate or protect yourself from the downside first, you’re not going to be ready to capitalize on your upside.

A reliable model I like to follow is the ABZ framework. What matters is knowing where you are now (A), where you want to go (Z), and the next step that moves you closer (B). The rest, steps C through Y, will reveal themselves as you progress.

Before Boston, Charles shared this quote in an interview: “With each progressive marathon, I want to take that as the foundation and then be willing to throw the plan out the window a little bit. I want to be a little more aggressive each time. I want to balance the risk-averse way that I raced in New York [my debut], and inject a little more risk tolerance into the model.”

That’s logical progression. It’s not reckless. Just a little more ambitious than before.

10. Own your seat. Trust yourself.

At some point, you have to decide: do I belong here or not? At mile 16 in Boston, after John Korir broke the race open, Charles had a choice: hang back with his familiar competition or charge ahead alone into Heartbreak Hill. In Atlanta during the USATF half-marathon championships, Charles let Wesley Kiptoo and Hillary Bor get away within the first couple of miles. He could not reel them in, leading to a disappointing 4th-place finish. In Boston, he confronted that hesitation directly. He chose to go for it, and that one decision was a large reason why he ran 2:04.

Afterward, he said, “If I know I’m super fit, I have to run like I’m super fit.”

Everyone has imposter syndrome on the starting line. The difference is whether you act in spite of it.