Nobody promised running all six Abbott World Marathon Majors was going to be easy.
But just to prove that point, Mother Nature decided to make things extra difficult for Yardley’s Morgan Leh in her quest to recently complete the elite challenge.
Leh and her parents, Fred and Colleen, were all set to take off from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport for a flight to Tokyo, Japan back on Feb. 22 when the Blizzard of ’26 arrived.
Morgan had already completed 26.2-milers in New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin (in a PR 3:12) and was looking forward to taking care of Tokyo, for a six-race feat only 5,931 Americans (out of hundreds of thousands of runners) have managed to achieve.
For a few anxious hours, Leh wasn’t sure what the immediate future held.
The race was a week away but with a 14-hour time difference, athletes need time to adjust. When the Lehs’ initial flight was cancelled, there were frowns all around.
Not to be deterred, the family jumped into a car and started a trek which will be told about for years to come.
“I was already a decently stressed person,” Leh said with a sigh during a recent telephone conversation. “We were supposed to fly direct to Tokyo but that ended up being cancelled on Sunday. The next flight American could get us on out of JFK was the day of the marathon (March 1).
“I thought that’s not going to work. It was so crazy. We were on the phone for hours and hours. We ended up changing airlines, having to drive to Baltimore at midnight on Monday to take a flight out of there to fly to Los Angeles. And then fly from LA to Tokyo.”
With the time difference, the Leh clan didn’t land in Tokyo until Wednesday morning.
“I felt I was fine but so exhausted from the mental stress,” Leh said. “And even worse, the fact that for a moment I had to consider that this wasn’t going to happen if we could not get out on a flight. But it made me embrace the experience that much more.”
Then her fortunes began to change.
The night before the marathon, at the race dinner, she got into a conversation with another runner, Margaret Sickle. Turns out they were both shooting to run the race in about 3:20. So Morgan offered her services as a pacer.
“So it ended up we connected at the start the next day,” Leh recalled. “We ran the entire race together. I ended up 3:19.27 and she was like 3:19.28. And we had a negative split. Possibly the first time I’ve ever done that in a marathon.
“I just felt amazing, just flying. So easy, so natural. I could have easily picked it up and tried to push and probably broken 3:15 that day. But I was having such a good time. I’m so happy with the 3:19.”
Rest assured there were plenty of photographs taken of that coveted Abbott six-marathon major medal snapped in the marathon’s aftermath.
In her training leading up to Tokyo, there was one hurdle after another.
She wasn’t satisfied with her performance back at Philly in November and the lousy winter weather didn’t help her long prep runs one bit.
“I went into Tokyo, honestly, with no expectations,” she said. “I ran 3:20 in Philly, which is a respectable time but it just didn’t go how I wanted. I felt horrible and I was in much better shape.
“So I finished Philly feeling very frustrated. I felt like I couldn’t get past this 3:15-3:20 plateau. So I went into Tokyo with a different mindset. I’m just there for my star, for the experience, take all the photos and not try to kill myself eventually for an amazing time.”
Her Abbott challenge actually unofficially began some 10 years ago when she ran Boston and New York and started thinking about it.
“Boston was actually my first major back in 2015,” she said. “When I ran it at the time I had literally no idea what that (Abbott Majors) even meant. That it even was a major. I also ran Chicago and New York in 2015. I thought wait, I’m halfway done.”
The energy from New York is what fueled the charge.
“New York is my favorite marathon in the world,” she said. “This energy from these majors are unlike anything else.”
Her employment as a physician assistant keeps her busy but allows enough time for long training hours. At 32, the best is yet to come.
“I’m just wired in terms of meeting the challenge, running the grind,” she said. “I once ran London and Boston six days apart.”
There’s talk of adding Sydney, Australia; Capetown, South Africa and Shanghai, China to the Abbott list and Leh hasn’t ruled out doing those when they become official.
Looking back, though, she’s already proud of what she’s accomplished.
“Everything has been a hundred-percent earned,” she said. “Like nothing was given to me. It’s cool to look back, see all the medals, the huge six-star medal that almost makes my neck curve the other way. So big, heavy, but I’ll never stop wearing it. Just because I worked so hard for that.”
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Blaze of Glory 5K, 9 a.m., Plumsteadville. Contact www.bucks5series.com
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