Podcast: Episode 170 with Noah Droddy

Mario Fraioli | August 2, 2021

“I think it’s because we’re always measuring ourselves—everything we do is measured. You go out for an easy run, you see your pace, you compare it to how fast you ran yesterday. You go to a race, you finish 10th, or you’re a minute off your PB—or you PB by a minute and you’re ecstatic. You’re always comparing yourself to who you were yesterday and who you want to be in the future. And then while you’re comparing yourself to you, you’re also comparing yourself to other people who are doing the same things that you do. You see so and so run amazing and say, ‘Oh, that’s great,’ but [then] you ask yourself, ‘Why am I not running amazing?’ You’re just always asking yourself these questions and I think measuring yourself in that way really leads you to…yeah, it’s not to prescribe too much self worth to the numbers. And just being like, ‘OK, if I could just run 2:10 in the marathon I’ll be happier,” and it doesn’t feel that way because then you run 2:10 and you were fifth and somebody else ran 2:09 or whatever, so it’s hard—it’s just the nature of our sport is that we’re always measuring ourselves against each other and ourselves, and if you’re not in a good place with that you can kind of go down a rabbit hole.”

Noah Droddy is one of my favorite people in the sport and it was a treat to have him back on the podcast. Our last conversation was almost exactly 3 years ago on Episode 23 so be sure to give that one a listen if you haven’t already.

Noah is a blue-collar as they come and that’s part of what I love about him. The Division 3 alum from Depauw University in Indiana ran 2:09:09 at The Marathon Project last December, making him the ninth-fastest American marathoner of all-time. He lives and trains in Boulder, Colorado with the Roots Running Project, which, as we talked about in this episode, has done more with less than any other elite level training group in the U.S.

In addition to being a great athlete, Noah is also a big fan of the sport! We recorded this episode just a few days ago on Friday and spent the first few minutes of the show talking about the first day of action at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. From there, Noah told me why he’s at an interesting point of his professional running career right now, what it was like to lose sponsorship after having a breakthrough race last fall, how he’s thinking about the place competitive running holds in his life right now and moving forward, and a lot more.

Noah Droddy: Instagram | Twitter | Strava

the morning shakeout: Instagram | Twitter

Mario Fraioli: Website | Strava

This episode is brought to you by:

— New Balance. The new FuelCell Rebel v2 is my new favorite running shoe. It’s super super light, it’s incredibly responsive, and offers good protection underfoot. I think it’s the perfect workout shoe and I’ll be using it all the time. Check it out today at newbalance.com and consider adding a pair to your rotation today.

— Goodr. If you want to support the podcast and treat yourself to a pair of goodr sunglasses, head over to goodr.com/MARIO or enter the code MARIO at checkout for 15% off your order. Look good, run goodr!

Music and editing for this episode of the morning shakeout podcast by John Summerford.