Q&A: Peloton coach Matt Wilpers finally has his sights set on the Boston Marathon starting line (2024)

Boston Marathon

An injury and COVID got in the way of the superstar instructor's first two attempts at running Boston.

By Theresa DeFranzo

April 4, 2024

Matt Wilpers has a unique goal for the Boston Marathon. He wants to make it to the starting line.

Wilpers, a Peloton running, cycling, and rowing instructor for nearly eight years, is no stranger to running and no stranger to running marathons. But Boston has eluded Wilpers more than one time. (More on that later.)

Wilpers has quite the following of runners on the massive Peloton platform who look to him for advice on maintaining proper form while running, building consistency into their training, and fueling for long runs. With 290,000 Instagram followers, the Georgia native is one of Peloton’s most popular coaches, combining his affable personality with his professional coaching skills.

He announced he was running Boston during his live 30-minute run on Feb. 9, to huge applause from members who were in the studio taking the class with him that morning.

Wilpers often shares that he is successful as a coach if he helps his clients and Peloton members achieve their goals. Now it’s time for him to achieve one of his. We had a chance to chat with Wilpers over Zoom to discuss all things Boston Marathon.

Boston.com: So I took your Feb. 9 class where you announced to your live audience that you’d be running Boston. I heard you say that you ran 5Ks, 8Ks, and 10Ks [as a Division I runner at Georgia State]. And I think you said something about how at that time, you weren’t quite sure why people ran marathons. When and why did that change for you?

Matt Wilpers: That’s a great question. So after college, I started racing longer races just to challenge myself. Because it was, you know, super comfortable racing 5Ks, 10Ks, and 8Ks.That’s what I raced in college. And it was always about faster, faster, faster. I had this obsession after college with like, “Well, can I do these longer races?” And so you know, I did everything from half marathons and marathons to an Ironman. I did a full Ironman once. And so it was more of a question of answering the question for myself, can I do it?

And then it is like, oh, you learn a lot along the way. There’s different things you learn when you’re racing different distances for different reasons. So the short distances, you can learn a lot about your body by pushing the time on them, like running faster. And the same thing with marathoning. But marathoning is a whole different education, on your body, on your mind, all that stuff.

And so now I do marathons to push myself. You have to train for it. You just can’t walk into a marathon. So that’s motivating. I have to train for it. I think the other thing, too, is that it seems to be something that really excites and inspires people, my community, specifically, and so anything I can do to excite and inspire them to go out and do big things and try something different and be athletic, that’s what I’m here to do.

When did you run your first marathon and why are you running Boston now?

My first marathon was in Long Beach, California. That was a long time ago. That was my first one. And in that race, my mom came out. We flew out to California to race that. My sister and I raced our first marathons together. And my mom ran the half marathon. And they mixed our numbers up. So my mom got my number, I got her number. And so she got one of the top placements for her age group and got a check in the mail. And so she was all flustered. They even wrote an article about her in the local newspapers. It was hilarious.

That’s so funny.

Yeah, it was. So in that race, I did pretty well, but I didn’t qualify for Boston. And then, you know, Boston was just this race that was notoriously hard to get in to. It was challenging to get into. Yeah, you had to be fast. And it was like, for me, the Holy Grail of marathons that I always heard about growing up. And I was like, all right, well, I’m not that far off. Let’s go do this.

So I signed up for the next marathon I could get into, which was in Jacksonville, Florida. And I went down there and banged out a qualifying time for Boston, got into Boston, and then just went crazy with my training and got injured. That was the first time I qualified. And then Boston got away from me.

You were training so hard you got injured?

Yeah, I destroyed my achilles. I just wasn’t a coach then, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had been coached my whole life. And here I was after college going for marathons. And so I just thought it was about running long distances and hard. And my training was crazy. I don’t know how many miles a week I was putting in. And I just injured the living crap out of myself. And so that put me on the sidelines for a while. And then I got into cycling and coaching more because I was injured.

And then later on, I qualified again — I ran the New York City Marathon [and] qualified again for Boston. And then COVID hit, canceled Boston, and I was like, “This is ridiculous.” And so I just lost my ambition to really race Boston. I figured that it just wasn’t meant to be.

And then this year [energy gel company] Maurten Gels reached out and they’re like, “Hey, you want to run with us? You want a bib for the marathon?” And I’m like, “Heck, yeah. All right.” And so my training has been more about making it to the starting line than it has been about setting a PR. I’m like, “Matt, just get to the starting line. Let’s go. Let’s do this race.”

So the third time might be the charm?

I hope so. This is a race that has been on my list for a long time. Right when I started racing marathons, my eye was on Boston immediately. And I was like, one day, one day, you gotta hit that race.

So you just said your goal right now is to get to the starting line. I know you’re half kidding, but do you have a time goal?

Really my goal is number one to get to the starting line. And I often say you get to the starting line and you see the cards you’re dealt, and you see what you got to work with that day. So that’s kind of the approach I’m taking. This race is like, let’s see when I get to the starting line, and it’s more specifically when I get to mile 17. What’s it looking like? Is it going to be a PR race? Or is it going to be a fun run? I’d be perfectly happy with a fun Boston run. No problem. Like a fun, low-three-hour marathon. If my legs are feeling good … Really my lungs are there. My cardiovascular system is there and energy systems are there, but my legs are the ones I’m worried about. Because my body does not like marathons.

How has your training been going? How many live Peloton classes are you teaching a week?

My schedule is a trainwreck. But at the end of the day, the most important run of the week is your long run. And if you hit that, if you get your long runs in, you’ll make it, you’ll make it through the marathon. If you do, obviously you can do a heck of a lot better than that. But for me, I have classes during the week so my schedule is really beholden to a production schedule more than a training schedule. So I work to figure out where there’s pockets of time, where maybe I’ll have a day or two off from my running classes to maybe get one or two quality runs in.

But at minimum every week, I’m getting my long run in, and at minimum, I’m getting strength training in at least once, once to one or two times a week, and working on mobility, and I see a physical therapist once a week because I want to stay in front of any type of injuries before they become big issues. You learn real quick as a runner to listen to your body and get in front of it quickly. So it doesn’t become a big problem.

What have you heard about the course? Obviously, you know Heartbreak Hill. So what are your thoughts going into it?

The first part I’ve heard is a lot of downhill. So you need to be conservative for the first half, and mile 16 is a beast. And then there’s the last part which is downhill. So my quads are going to die on the last part. And the end … I’m sure my quads will be dying. And that’s pretty much it. I mean, I’ve heard some people saying it’s easier than New York City, which is great.

You were saying that you do these bigger races for the people that view you as a coach. Can you just talk a little bit more about that?

At the end of the day, as a coach, number one, your goal is to show people that they’re stronger than they think they are. If you can do that, for an athlete, that’s incredible. But number two, your job is to inspire people, not only to coach people, but also inspire them to get out, and test themselves and push themselves.

Everyone knows that a marathon is really tough, and you have to train for it. I just did a 20-mile run on Sunday. And people that follow me are like, that’s amazing. And it inspires people. This really gets inside people’s heads and inspires them. And if that’s what it takes, like, heck, yeah, let’s do it. Because again, my success is when my athletes are successful, so if I can push them to be stronger, better versions of themselves by going out and leading by example, like, I love this stuff.

I’ll have fun racing a marathon, I’ll have fun racing a 5K. Whatever it is, this is what I do for fun. And so if this is going to get people excited, let’s go do it.