It’s About Encouragement: How Corey Wallace Stays Positive

Ask Corey Wallace about his goals when he is running a race, and he’ll mention a PR, but there’s one goal that’s always much more important to him: “The goal is to finish, be positive, and have a good time,” he says. 

A Runner’s Journey: From Baseball to Marathons

Whether he’s running one of the World Majors or coaching a fellow runner, Corey maintains a love of the sport and a belief in the power of self-improvement. He’s been an athlete since he was a kid, though if you’d asked him in middle school whether he was a runner, he would have insisted he was more into baseball. Then he started running with his high school cross-country team—and he got hooked. 

After a few years of neglecting his health in early adulthood, he returned to running with the intent of getting back in shape. Plus, he needed an outlet to cope with a bad environment at work. He set his sights on the Philadelphia Marathon, convincing himself that it was a bucket-list ambition and he’d be a one-and-done when it came to marathons.

The First Marathon: Lessons in Resilience

He finished the race with a lot of lessons learned from this first experience. Looking back, he laughs at the way he didn’t take gels or any other kind of fuel during the 26.2 miles. “Every marathon tells a different story—it’s character building,” he says.

As he grew as a runner, he started coaching others as a way of giving back to the running community. “A lot of people need coaching, and it’s not just new runners,” he says.

What sets his coaching strategy apart is his care for runners as people. He emphasizes that he’s not trying to be a life coach, but he does make a point of connecting with runners on a more personal level, and he does that through running. “It’s more about encouragement than it is ‘Just go run 5 miles.’ There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” he says. “I want to help others build better versions of themselves.”

Mind Over Miles: Running as Therapy

He’s seen firsthand how a training session can help people overcome struggles in their life. If they’re dealing with stress or worries, they’re able to put those negative feelings aside to focus on getting the workout done and hitting the goals they have mapped out for the day. “Instead of running just to run, it helps your mind when you know you have a speed workout or fartleks to do,” he says. “It takes your mind off whatever stressors are going on in your life.”

Corey’s positive outlook always seems to be a constant theme in his story as a runner. When he set out to qualify for the Boston Marathon, he trained intensely to achieve a sub-3-hour marathon. He hit that goal time at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2023. But increasingly tight qualifying times for Boston meant he missed the cutoff by 25 seconds.

More Than Numbers: Finding Joy in the Journey

He didn’t let it faze him. “There are things that are more important than numbers,” he says. “I still had a great time, and I knew I would get there eventually.”

He went on to share that story with Poland Springs. The bottled water brand, a sponsor of the Boston Marathon, had a few bibs they were distributing via a giveaway contest. Corey’s story resonated with them, and he then found himself running Boston simply by nature of the inspiring story of how he got there.

Running Together: Pacing with Purpose

He carries that attitude with him to other World Majors as well. This includes the New York City Marathon in fall 2024, when he paced his wife. “Running with my wife was one of the best experiences of my life,” he says. “It’s one of those things where you put everything else aside and you’re running with your people. I think that’s just one of those things I’ll never forget.”

The next World Major he’s headed to? Corey was recently accepted into the London Marathon. He has a time goal—and he has a more important goal in addition to that. “I want to PR, but I’m reminding myself it’s about enjoying the experience,” he says.