Steve Mesler: ‘I missed the grind’

“I’ve been challenging everybody to find me a sport that still involves running but is shorter and more intense than bobsled versus, you know, the opposite… which is a marathon,” laughs Mesler.

He did, indeed, only begin his training for this weekend’s run over the last few months, peaking with a 55-mile-per-week peak that Mesler admitted he didn’t think he could do when they began.

“And then I did it,” he said. “I think the thing I miss the most of being an Olympic athlete is the process: I miss the grind, getting up every day and having a goal and pursuing it and pushing myself. I re-discovered that with marathon training. I was getting up at 5 in the morning for my runs.”

“I just absolutely loved it.”

While Mesler wants to run with a cause for Classroom Champions, he is also participating to raise awareness around athlete mental, having lost two Olympic teammates to suicide, Steve Holcomb and Pavle Jovanovic.

“I think about those guys and what they faced,” Holcomb said. “I want people to understand is for us as a society to deal with our mental health, you have to have a team around you. A counselor, doctor, medication… When I think about the marathon, it’s about everyday people pushing themselves to do something that they’re proud of.

“And that can just be getting off the couch in the morning,” he added. “I’m pushing myself to do something I’ve never done before. And it’s just about going one more kilometer at a time.”

With Classroom Champions, Mesler said they have “taken what it takes to become an Olympic and boiled it down to make it manageable to help young kids succeed.”

“Our goal is to remind kids, yes, things can be really hard… it sucks sometimes,” he said. “And even when it’s hard, I still go. I still get after it. As Olympians, we know that’s actually the time you dig in and you go more because that’s when you can get better.”