Cody Poskin: Boston Marathoner

By Keaton Silver

IMC Student

“Most people hit the wall during miles 19 to 21. I hit the wall at mile six,” said Cody Poskin, an Ole Miss student from St. Louis. This wasn’t during any casual marathon he was talking about either, but at the world-famous Boston Marathon on April 18, 2022.

The wall in a marathon is described as a sudden loss of energy, which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. For many runners, this causes them either to slow down vastly, walk, or even drop out of a race. But not for Poskin.

Even though Poskin was in immeasurable pain for nearly 20 miles, he kept pushing.

Poskin had run two marathons prior to the Boston Marathon. The Hogeye Marathon located in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in which he placed first overall, and the Nashville Rock & Roll Marathon, in which he placed third overall.

As a double major in finance and insurance at Ole Miss and running an average of 70 miles a week, Poskin has had two priorities in college – education and getting faster. In high school, Poskin varsity lettered in cross country his freshman year, and was his school’s fastest runner by his sophomore year.

Poskin had planned on running in college, but without being given the opportunity to walk on to the Ole Miss cross country team, he changed his plans and decided to be a great marathoner.

The Boston Marathon was supposed to be Poskin’s big race where he would beat his personal best time of two hours and 35 minutes. However, sickness and constant leg problems leading up to Boston altered Poskin’s fate on race day.

Poskin ended up running the marathon in two hours and 38 minutes, but while there was only a three-minute difference between the two times, he was still disappointed.

During the race, Poskin said he felt great for the first six miles, cranking out a nearly five-minute mile pace, and feeling extremely strong. Unfortunately, around the 6.5 mile marker, for the first time ever Poskin experienced what he described as the wall.

“My legs just felt like they had no power in them,” he said.

Poskin dealt with this discomfort for about two hours, but still placed 365th out of more than 25,000 runners and placed in the top two percent of racers from around the world.

Poskin plans to again run the Boston Marathon in the foreseeable future, but he is now focused on training for the Berlin Marathon. After Berlin, Poskin hopes to qualify for the Olympic Trials, and then transition from a marathon runner to an ultra-marathon runner, competing in 50 to 100 mile races.