Marlies Kort
Read My Story. How I got here. How The 9-Mile Marathon is initiated. Unplugged. Check INSTAGRAM to see more of me & my life today.
I KNEW It Was A Lie…
So I Went On A Journey To Figure Out Why.
November 3 2013, I won the 43rd edition of the New York City Marathon overall in the female non-professional category. It was the comeback of NYC's beloved five-borough 26.2 mile race after its previous cancellation in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. My finish time was 2h52, which was even faster than some of the participating elite pro runners who started their race right in front of me. Thanks to my 2h47 pb at Berlin the NYC organizing committee invited me to start the race at the front of the 50.000+ pack, right behind the pro’s. Exciting!
In 2014 my world fell apart..
I found myself in the middle of a divorce working my way through this process and trying to keep my twin daughters Annelot and Karlijn with me as much as possible. A complex exhausting process, not just because we wanted to play it fair to all parties involved.
May 17th, at my mother’s birthday with the entire family united in my parent’s house / home-ground in Zeeland The Netherlands, my father informed us that he was being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Additionally, in that very same year, being a professional with a degree in interior design and architecture, -due to the financial crisis at it’s worst point- I had to find new ways to pay the bills. The real estate development market simply ceased to exist.
I was devastated. In my deep sorrow life started spiraling out of control.
On the following pages I will tell you my story. About my desires. About the struggle, hitting the wall, juggling with the most valuable asset I had; time. Juggling with the most limited resource I had; me. Making a living, being a good mom, living my life with my two daughters, building a new company, learning, building new networks, trying to keep up and doing what I loved most at the same time: running and triathlon. I will tell you about the breakthrough, the epiphany, the experience of my striking realization. The opportunity I discovered. Leading to where I am today. The support I received unexpectedly from this wonderful researcher. The new system it became. The transformation I experienced.
The sudden striking realization I found something new, this breakthrough, was the KEY to picking up my new life again. Today I know training The 9-Miler Way is the ONLY training system available at the market today to allow people like you and me, living a busy life with work, family and friends, finish marathons solid and strong WITHOUT the need to run those endless long and slow 18+ mile, time-consuming training runs.
So, halfway 2014, I realized I HAD to do something. I decided to start my own local fitness/health training and personal coaching business.
In hindsight, I don’t really know exactly how I survived and managed to make all ends meet. It was tough, demanding, stressful. But I knew one thing for sure though. I kept training for a next Ironman 70.3 at the same time. I needed to do this. My motivator. My heartbeat. State-management. Meditation. Energizer. I felt I ‘had’ to do this. I’m sure you know this feeling too. Deep down I KNEW I had to. It kept me ‘alive’.
But there was the risk too. I felt drained. Juggling with every ounce of energy what was left.
Because time was very limited, I decided to do my training different and drastically cut the time I used to put into the long and slow training runs. I decided I was going to run shorter, and to run EVERY ‘long’ run at the anticipated heart rate required for the RACE.
I did this for 5-6 weeks. Feeling good. It felt like less pressure. I didn't feel tired at all. In fact, every week, I felt better. Different from what I used to experience. Because during training periods you get tired and you need to back off to recover for a couple of days (the so called 'taper' periods). But this time, training this way, it was different.
Then it started to happen…
I started to feel stronger. I mean stronger. WAY stronger. Like I never felt before during ‘regular’ marathon training prep periods. It was weird. Although I didn’t train for as long and far as I used to, I started to feel stronger, fitter, empowered, with a clear mind, alert, confident. And the weirdest thing was I started to run quicker at the same heart rate! Which means with the SAME effort I became FASTER!
Later on I will explain to you EXACTLY what I did and what was happening. Because today I understand. I will also explain the SYSTEMS I implicitly developed back then to find the right heart rate and performance levels (today I call them MHR -Marathon Heart Rate definition protocol, AFA- Accumulated Fatigue Avoidance system and ESS- the initiation of the metabolic Energy Supply Switch).
Today’s 9-Mile Marathon Training System is about understanding and how to implement the then ‘secret’ weapons MHR, AFA and ESS.
So, while trusting this process without REALLY knowing what’s was going on..
I WON at the Miami Ironman 70.3 October 2014, and by doing so, qualify for World Championship Ironman 70.3 in 2015.
And then… 9 months later, again following and trusting my new ‘secret’ kind of training, working my butt off at the same time building a new company, raising my 2 beautiful daughters, in the summer of 2015 in Austria..
..I BECAME World Champion Ironman 70.3 Female 40-44 class
One thing I knew for sure. I had reduced the number of hours on training. In a RADICAL way. Like less than 50% of the amount of time I used to. I didn’t run any ‘classic’ long and slow training runs. They were ‘banned’ out of my plans! And I CHANGED THE WAY I was training. MOST of my trainings, I ran EXACTLY at race speed. I reduced the amount of bike- and swim-time -doing exactly the same thing, i.e. skipping the long work.
And it worked!
I created a kind of ‘formula’ to find these specific running/training paces. They formed the basis for the tables and formula’s you’re using today in The 9-Mile Marathon Training Program. This ‘invention’ alone meant I saved TONS of time allowing me to spend more time on the other important things of life I needed to do.
So all ’n all I trained less than 50% of the time on running I used to do, combined with an also DRASTICALLY reduced amount of hours on swimming and biking (in fact ‘cross training’). AND, most of my training, I did at the heart rate I anticipated to be racing at.
Leading to very good finish times. My run splits in the Ironman were better than ever, while my swim and bike splits remained solid.
Striking.
By the time I was about to start sharing my new secret survival training program/experiences with ‘the world’, I stumbled upon this article (I believe it was September 2015) about Dutch medical researcher Stans van der Poel, who had been working for 20 years on capturing and visualizing heart and lung behavior, chronicle fatigue syndrome, recovery processes from severe diseases and diabetes, and translating these principles from the medical world into training guidelines that could work for everybody.
Her findings were compiled by Dutch sportswriter Koen de Jong into a book published in The Netherlands called "Marathonrevolutie” (a marathon revolution). Already that year more than 100 runners used her ideas at the Rotterdam Marathon, of which most of them were able to run with relative ease, showed very stable pacing, and generally finished in the predicted time (you’ll find in my new book the story of 5 runners who ran the Rotterdam marathon her way in 2016).
After reading her book it struck me that all her findings on running and training for marathons where so similar to what I already experienced the past year. From her medical/research-based scientific background she insisted that marathon runners should never train for more than 14 kilometers (which is about 9 miles, even less than the 10 miles I trained in my ‘special Marlies survival training program’).
I was SO HAPPY to read this!
I was so happy to find a virtual “soul mate” who supported my ideas and experiences even with a medical background and proof from a scientific standpoint. I was immediately convinced that this researcher Stans van der Poel and I were at the same level. Stans transposed the findings of her medical research on the recovery processes with her patients, where I had to cope with the ‘practical’ challenges of daily life running and performing at the highest level with limited time. In essence what people like you and me all have to cope with: a busy life with work, family and friends PLUS the desire to run marathons at the big events.
Now the big question was how could this be true?
You will find the answers in the next chapter “The Big Fat Lies About Running.” It was clear that both Stans from a ‘scientific’ background and I -coming from my ‘real life’ coaching, working and running background- had found a ‘new marathon running science’. A new endurance running paradigm, a totally new concept. A fresh new vision on endurance running. Not complex but very simple in essence. And most of all, TOTALLY different from what the traditional coaches have told us for the past 4 decades.
In The Netherlands they called it a marathon revolution. I decided to further develop and fine-tune it from there, according to my own personal beliefs about training, living and running, taking Stans’ findings into account.
I called it The 9-Mile Marathon.
And it all started from there..
I am CONVINCED this is the BEST marathon training program available on the market right now for non-elite ‘age-group’ runners. In this new book I will explain to you how and why, and why the 9-Mile Marathon training system is applicable to half-marathon training as well.
The 9-Mile Marathon is a blueprint for half- and full marathon training in a radical new way.
It is disruptive and a ‘must-read’ for anyone who’s into running.
And most of all, a must-read for anyone who always wanted to run a marathon but simply can’t digest those endless weekly 18+ mile training runs the ‘classic’ training programs and coaches tell us to do in order to be able to run a marathon. With The 9-Mile Marathon we’re changing the rules of marathon running.
Not only is it successful, it’s fun -a lot more fun than the old high mileage training schedules as they are promoted by most traditional running coaches.
That may be the reason why the The 9Mile Marathon caused quite some traditional coaches’ upset,
Creating controversy and skepticism
Mostly by running enthusiasts who are discussing and arguing but not actually testing or implementing the new program for themselves.
At the start I wondered why, but now I know. The 9-Mile Marathon is about the issues in the ‘old’ way of marathon running NOBODY wants to talk about. The injuries, the social stress, the fatigue, the quitting because of training overload.
Nobody’s talking about.. The Running taboos
I’m going to arm you with insights, background information and training secrets that will help you understand why and how you can run the marathon and half marathon in a totally new way. A much better way: faster, stronger, happier and healthier. With less training miles. WAY less.
No special skills are required as long as you are in good physical shape (when you are in doubt always consult your doctor first), you run for more than a year and when you’re able to run 6 miles in less than like 75 minutes, we’re ready to go!
Marlies Kort
Founder and Creator of The 9-Mile Marathon
More info about Marlies Kort:
In 2015 Marlies Kort became World Champion Ironman 70.3 F40-44 in Zell am See, Austria. In 2013 she won the NY Marathon 2013 non-pro female overall class. Her personal best is 2h47 Marathon Berlin. She is Female 40-44 winner of Ironman 70.3 Miami (2014), Puerto Rico (2015), Panama (2016), Cartagena (2016), Aruba (2016), Boulder (2017).
Marlies is winner and track record holder of the Aruba International Half Marathon and the KLM Curacao Marathon 2016. In Cartagena 2016 Marlies again qualified for the 2017 World Championship Ironman 70.3 F40-44 in Tennessee USA. April 2017 Marlies ran the Rotterdam International Marathon and finished 5th Overall Dutch Women including the pro’s.
Marlies runs Free and Focused Inc. her life-coaching 9-Mile Marathon business based on running, dramatically changing the life of marathon runners from all over the world, who still want to run and race marathons at the ‘BIG’ events, living a busy life with work, family and friends. Marlies runs her business together with co-founder, her coach and partner Bastiaan Zwaan, who has a Phd from Tech University, Delft, the Netherlands. Bastiaan who is a consistent Ironman 70.3 Top-10 age-group 55-59 finisher, and, inspired by Marlies’ new insights, ran his first ever marathon in 2017, 100% following The 9-Mile Marathon training program, and finished 4h07, just 2 minutes shy of the time Marlies predicted at the beginning of his 90-Day training program. Later that year he finished another marathon, the KLM Curaçao marathon, in grueling hot conditions on a hilly course, with an even more reduced training program to research the limits of what’s possible within the 9-mile concept. With max 5-mile training runs and cross training (mountainbiking) he still managed to finish in 4h41.
I KNEW It Was A Lie…
So I Went On A Journey To Figure Out Why.
November 3 2013, I won the 43rd edition of the New York City Marathon overall in the female non-professional category. It was the comeback of NYC's beloved five-borough 26.2 mile race after its previous cancellation in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. My finish time was 2h52, which was even faster than some of the participating elite pro runners who started their race right in front of me. Thanks to my 2h47 pb at Berlin the NYC organizing committee invited me to start the race at the front of the 50.000+ pack, right behind the pro’s. Exciting!
In 2014 my world fell apart..
I found myself in the middle of a divorce working my way through this process and trying to keep my twin daughters Annelot and Karlijn with me as much as possible. A complex exhausting process, not just because we wanted to play it fair to all parties involved.
May 17th, at my mother’s birthday with the entire family united in my parent’s house / home-ground in Zeeland The Netherlands, my father informed us that he was being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
Additionally, in that very same year, being a professional with a degree in interior design and architecture, -due to the financial crisis at it’s worst point- I had to find new ways to pay the bills. The real estate development market simply ceased to exist.
I was devastated. In my deep sorrow life started spiraling out of control.
On the following pages I will tell you my story. About my desires. About the struggle, hitting the wall, juggling with the most valuable asset I had; time. Juggling with the most limited resource I had; me. Making a living, being a good mom, living my life with my two daughters, building a new company, learning, building new networks, trying to keep up and doing what I loved most at the same time: running and triathlon. I will tell you about the breakthrough, the epiphany, the experience of my striking realization. The opportunity I discovered. Leading to where I am today. The support I received unexpectedly from this wonderful researcher. The new system it became. The transformation I experienced.
The sudden striking realization I found something new, this breakthrough, was the KEY to picking up my new life again. Today I know training The 9-Miler Way is the ONLY training system available at the market today to allow people like you and me, living a busy life with work, family and friends, finish marathons solid and strong WITHOUT the need to run those endless long and slow 18+ mile, time-consuming training runs.
So, halfway 2014, I realized I HAD to do something. I decided to start my own local fitness/health training and personal coaching business.
In hindsight, I don’t really know exactly how I survived and managed to make all ends meet. It was tough, demanding, stressful. But I knew one thing for sure though. I kept training for a next Ironman 70.3 at the same time. I needed to do this. My motivator. My heartbeat. State-management. Meditation. Energizer. I felt I ‘had’ to do this. I’m sure you know this feeling too. Deep down I KNEW I had to. It kept me ‘alive’.
But there was the risk too. I felt drained. Juggling with every ounce of energy what was left.
Because time was very limited, I decided to do my training different and drastically cut the time I used to put into the long and slow training runs. I decided I was going to run shorter, and to run EVERY ‘long’ run at the anticipated heart rate required for the RACE.
I did this for 5-6 weeks. Feeling good. It felt like less pressure. I didn't feel tired at all. In fact, every week, I felt better. Different from what I used to experience. Because during training periods you get tired and you need to back off to recover for a couple of days (the so called 'taper' periods). But this time, training this way, it was different.
Then it started to happen…
I started to feel stronger. I mean stronger. WAY stronger. Like I never felt before during ‘regular’ marathon training prep periods. It was weird. Although I didn’t train for as long and far as I used to, I started to feel stronger, fitter, empowered, with a clear mind, alert, confident. And the weirdest thing was I started to run quicker at the same heart rate! Which means with the SAME effort I became FASTER!
Later on I will explain to you EXACTLY what I did and what was happening. Because today I understand. I will also explain the SYSTEMS I implicitly developed back then to find the right heart rate and performance levels (today I call them MHR -Marathon Heart Rate definition protocol, AFA- Accumulated Fatigue Avoidance system and ESS- the initiation of the metabolic Energy Supply Switch).
Today’s 9-Mile Marathon Training System is about understanding and how to implement the then ‘secret’ weapons MHR, AFA and ESS.
So, while trusting this process without REALLY knowing what’s was going on..
I WON at the Miami Ironman 70.3 October 2014, and by doing so, qualify for World Championship Ironman 70.3 in 2015.
And then… 9 months later, again following and trusting my new ‘secret’ kind of training, working my butt off at the same time building a new company, raising my 2 beautiful daughters, in the summer of 2015 in Austria..
..I BECAME World Champion Ironman 70.3 Female 40-44 class
One thing I knew for sure. I had reduced the number of hours on training. In a RADICAL way. Like less than 50% of the amount of time I used to. I didn’t run any ‘classic’ long and slow training runs. They were ‘banned’ out of my plans! And I CHANGED THE WAY I was training. MOST of my trainings, I ran EXACTLY at race speed. I reduced the amount of bike- and swim-time -doing exactly the same thing, i.e. skipping the long work.
And it worked!
I created a kind of ‘formula’ to find these specific running/training paces. They formed the basis for the tables and formula’s you’re using today in The 9-Mile Marathon Training Program. This ‘invention’ alone meant I saved TONS of time allowing me to spend more time on the other important things of life I needed to do.
So all ’n all I trained less than 50% of the time on running I used to do, combined with an also DRASTICALLY reduced amount of hours on swimming and biking (in fact ‘cross training’). AND, most of my training, I did at the heart rate I anticipated to be racing at.
Leading to very good finish times. My run splits in the Ironman were better than ever, while my swim and bike splits remained solid.
Striking.
By the time I was about to start sharing my new secret survival training program/experiences with ‘the world’, I stumbled upon this article (I believe it was September 2015) about Dutch medical researcher Stans van der Poel, who had been working for 20 years on capturing and visualizing heart and lung behavior, chronicle fatigue syndrome, recovery processes from severe diseases and diabetes, and translating these principles from the medical world into training guidelines that could work for everybody.
Her findings were compiled by Dutch sportswriter Koen de Jong into a book published in The Netherlands called "Marathonrevolutie” (a marathon revolution). Already that year more than 100 runners used her ideas at the Rotterdam Marathon, of which most of them were able to run with relative ease, showed very stable pacing, and generally finished in the predicted time (you’ll find in my new book the story of 5 runners who ran the Rotterdam marathon her way in 2016).
After reading her book it struck me that all her findings on running and training for marathons where so similar to what I already experienced the past year. From her medical/research-based scientific background she insisted that marathon runners should never train for more than 14 kilometers (which is about 9 miles, even less than the 10 miles I trained in my ‘special Marlies survival training program’).
I was SO HAPPY to read this!
I was so happy to find a virtual “soul mate” who supported my ideas and experiences even with a medical background and proof from a scientific standpoint. I was immediately convinced that this researcher Stans van der Poel and I were at the same level. Stans transposed the findings of her medical research on the recovery processes with her patients, where I had to cope with the ‘practical’ challenges of daily life running and performing at the highest level with limited time. In essence what people like you and me all have to cope with: a busy life with work, family and friends PLUS the desire to run marathons at the big events.
Now the big question was how could this be true?
You will find the answers in the next chapter “The Big Fat Lies About Running.” It was clear that both Stans from a ‘scientific’ background and I -coming from my ‘real life’ coaching, working and running background- had found a ‘new marathon running science’. A new endurance running paradigm, a totally new concept. A fresh new vision on endurance running. Not complex but very simple in essence. And most of all, TOTALLY different from what the traditional coaches have told us for the past 4 decades.
In The Netherlands they called it a marathon revolution. I decided to further develop and fine-tune it from there, according to my own personal beliefs about training, living and running, taking Stans’ findings into account.
I called it The 9-Mile Marathon.
And it all started from there..
I am CONVINCED this is the BEST marathon training program available on the market right now for non-elite ‘age-group’ runners. In this new book I will explain to you how and why, and why the 9-Mile Marathon training system is applicable to half-marathon training as well.
The 9-Mile Marathon is a blueprint for half- and full marathon training in a radical new way.
It is disruptive and a ‘must-read’ for anyone who’s into running.
And most of all, a must-read for anyone who always wanted to run a marathon but simply can’t digest those endless weekly 18+ mile training runs the ‘classic’ training programs and coaches tell us to do in order to be able to run a marathon. With The 9-Mile Marathon we’re changing the rules of marathon running.
Not only is it successful, it’s fun -a lot more fun than the old high mileage training schedules as they are promoted by most traditional running coaches.
That may be the reason why the The 9Mile Marathon caused quite some traditional coaches’ upset,
Creating controversy and skepticism
Mostly by running enthusiasts who are discussing and arguing but not actually testing or implementing the new program for themselves.
At the start I wondered why, but now I know. The 9-Mile Marathon is about the issues in the ‘old’ way of marathon running NOBODY wants to talk about. The injuries, the social stress, the fatigue, the quitting because of training overload.
Nobody’s talking about.. The Running taboos
I’m going to arm you with insights, background information and training secrets that will help you understand why and how you can run the marathon and half marathon in a totally new way. A much better way: faster, stronger, happier and healthier. With less training miles. WAY less.
No special skills are required as long as you are in good physical shape (when you are in doubt always consult your doctor first), you run for more than a year and when you’re able to run 6 miles in less than like 75 minutes, we’re ready to go!
Marlies Kort
Founder and Creator of The 9-Mile Marathon
More info about Marlies Kort:
In 2015 Marlies Kort became World Champion Ironman 70.3 F40-44 in Zell am See, Austria. In 2013 she won the NY Marathon 2013 non-pro female overall class. Her personal best is 2h47 Marathon Berlin. She is Female 40-44 winner of Ironman 70.3 Miami (2014), Puerto Rico (2015), Panama (2016), Cartagena (2016), Aruba (2016), Boulder (2017).
Marlies is winner and track record holder of the Aruba International Half Marathon and the KLM Curacao Marathon 2016. In Cartagena 2016 Marlies again qualified for the 2017 World Championship Ironman 70.3 F40-44 in Tennessee USA. April 2017 Marlies ran the Rotterdam International Marathon and finished 5th Overall Dutch Women including the pro’s.
Marlies runs Free and Focused Inc. her life-coaching 9-Mile Marathon business based on running, dramatically changing the life of marathon runners from all over the world, who still want to run and race marathons at the ‘BIG’ events, living a busy life with work, family and friends. Marlies runs her business together with co-founder, her coach and partner Bastiaan Zwaan, who has a Phd from Tech University, Delft, the Netherlands. Bastiaan who is a consistent Ironman 70.3 Top-10 age-group 55-59 finisher, and, inspired by Marlies’ new insights, ran his first ever marathon in 2017, 100% following The 9-Mile Marathon training program, and finished 4h07, just 2 minutes shy of the time Marlies predicted at the beginning of his 90-Day training program. Later that year he finished another marathon, the KLM Curaçao marathon, in grueling hot conditions on a hilly course, with an even more reduced training program to research the limits of what’s possible within the 9-mile concept. With max 5-mile training runs and cross training (mountainbiking) he still managed to finish in 4h41.
