Zach Jalteco
2-10-2024
Reimagine What You Can Achieve
Zach Jalteco - Pentel Sr. Marketing Associate
Reimagine What You Can Achieve
Pentel’s Senior Marketing Associate, Zach Jalteco thought he was done with running 10 years ago. Zach ran for his high school track team, but stopped once in college. A great organization, inspiring stories, and an authentic match brought running back into his life.
Road to NYC Marathon: Ep. 1 "Origins"
Eight years after his high school running days, in his marketing role for Pentel, Zach became the liaison between Pentel and Students Run LA (SRLA), a local organization that supports kids setting a big goal – to run the Los Angeles Marathon. Pentel regularly supports local running events for SRLA with a booth, staff, and Markathon Pump markers - which parents and supporters use to make signs cheering on their favorite runner. The Pentel-SRLA relationship was already a few years in the making, when Pentel learned of Zach’s running past. Running a marathon had always been on Zach’s bucket list so it made perfect sense to establish him as the main point of contact, given his authentic connection to running and his understanding of what the SRLA student runners were experiencing.
Over the next year, Zach thought of new and inspirational ways to involve Pentel with SRLA, including jogging alongside some of the students to get their perspective while actually running a race! After participating in the SRLA Friendship Run 30k with zero training, Zach was both enlightened and humbled by the difficulty of running for nearly 19 miles. That was the farthest he had ever run in his life, and he couldn’t shake the fact that he had to walk the final 4 miles of the 30k. Despite the late race struggles, Zach (decrepitly) walked away inspired and absolutely certain of what he must now do. In 6 weeks’ time, he too would run the full LA Marathon alongside over 3,000 SRLA students.
Zach ran the 2023 LA Marathon well (finishing in 3:49:39 (1,647th overall), but he had also unexpectedly discovered a renewed sense of purpose on the streets of Los Angeles that day. During the marathon Zach was reminded of how much he used to love running, and how much he had actually missed this competitive side of himself. He promised to give competitive running one more honest go, and challenged himself to see how fast he could run next year’s LA Marathon if he wholeheartedly committed to training. Zach was a runner, once again.
After a year of rigorous training, Zach ran the 2024 LA Marathon and dropped a whopping 61 minutes off his previous time after finishing in 2:48:12. Even more impressive was that he finished 40th overall (yes, four zero, fortieth) out of more than 20,000 runners from around the world! This qualified Zach to participate in an elite group of runners at the New York City Marathon this November.
Pentel has always been a brand that focused on self-expression, community, hope, and inspiration. Now it had a first-hand experience of these brand equities in Zach, who was inspired by the SRLA community to take up running again. Community, inspiration, and the mystique of the marathon brought Zach to that first start line in 2023. Passion, commitment, and a newfound ability to dream again is what will now bring Zach to the 2024 start line in New York City.
In celebration of this inspiring story, we wanted to document Zach’s journey to the 2024 New York City Marathon. We think his tale is one of inspiration, tenacity, and reimagination – that old goals can be reignited and realized. We hope you follow along.
The Rigors of Marathon Training
With marathon training firmly underway Zach commits to preparing his mind and body for the audacious goal he has set for this endeavor - Top 100 overall at the NYC Marathon. To even have a shot, he’ll need to transform into a better, faster, version of himself. Find time that he doesn’t have. And accept all the uncertainty that lies ahead of chasing something near his outer limits.
Road to NYC Marathon: Ep. 2 "Uncharted Territory"
In Episode 2, we dive deeper into Zach’s marathon journey as he tackles his marathon simulation workout and other key sessions from his peak training weeks. With 6 weeks of good training already banked, and the NYC Marathon still over 5-6 weeks away, Zach continues to build confidence around what kind of performances are possible for him.
While the mileage (60-75 miles per week) and amount of work needed to achieve his goal all make sense on paper, the reality of staying disciplined enough to keep showing up amdist a 9-5 job, family & friends, 3 pets, and day-to-day life is not met without fraught.
As the weeks roll by, so too do the peaks and valleys of marathon training: 22 mile long runs around the local lake with friends biking alongside. Not so easy runs through record heat waves and local wildfires. Solo, yet blissful, recovery runs in the quiet twilight hours of the night. 16 mile speed workouts near his upper physical limits before work.
Discomfort, intentionality, perserverance, and unplanned turberlance all lie at the crux of most good marathon training plans. Three out of four of these things are what have allowed Zach to get into the best shape of his life over the last 6 weeks. To this point Zach's build up has been mostly smooth. He's logged some of his best workouts ever, run weekly mileage personal highs, and has managed to stay healthy. Although a very encouraging sign to be here, 5 weeks to go until race day is both a lifetime and a blink of an eye away. One thing continues to remain abundantly clear - nothing is guaranteed.
Episode 3: "Trusting the Training"
On the heels of Zach's peak training week (75 miles), an unexpected injury scare threatens to derail his lofty goals at the NYC Marathon. With the race fast approaching, we follow Zach while he navigates this critical juncture both mentally and physically as his final month of training comes to a close.
4 weeks out from the NYC Marathon, Zach was forced to make the unfortunate decision to withdraw from the Long Beach Half Marathon due to early signs of overtraining. The thought that Zach had ruined his race after dedicating hundreds of hours of training was starting to become a very real possibility.
How could he expect himself to run 6 minute miles for an entire marathon when he could no longer run 3 warm up miles without having to stop from pain?
To give himself the best chance at making it to the start line healthy, he'd need to stop running for the next week, and completely reimagine what his marathon training would look like on the fly.
A hilly 20 mile long run transformed into a 2.5 hour stationary bike ride in his dimly lit living room. Weight lifting sessions became physical therapy sessions filled with every recovery modality he could think of. 5am speed workout wake up calls gave way to extra sleep.
After a week of rehabbing and cycling, Zach set out to test things out on his final long run of the training block - 18 miles.
What would have normally been just a low stakes easy long run spent practicing fueling and getting some extra time on feet, turned into a huge mental and emotional win after Zach was able to complete it pain free.
He was going to make it to the start line in one piece.
With no more fitness to build it was time to trust the training, and believe that the hundreds of hours of work that he'd put in over the last few months had prepared him well enough to the leap of faith marathon morning.
You May Also Like
Carrie Walker
Carrie Walker is a content creator passionate about journaling and productivity. She began her journaling journey at the young age of 6 in 2008. She has been committed to daily journaling since January 1st, 2017, marking nearly 8 years of consistent practice.
Inkshift
JJ, better known as Inkshift, is a Dutch illustrator living in Portland, Oregon. A former animator for Disney, Marvel and Cartoon Network
Chris Koehler
Chris Koehler is an award-winning illustrator and artist from San Francisco specializing in movie posters, editorial illustration, and comics.
Jai The Sketch Guy
Jai Ollennu is an artist, illustrator and animator based in Los Angeles. He started his creative journey in 2013, transitioning from doing web design to live informative illustrations called “sketchnotes”...
Subscribe for more!
Get a 20% Off Coupon for your first purchase, plus you'll get access to exclusive offers, product news, creative resources, and more!