Who to Know: Eric Hewell

Photo Credit: Joshua Dwight (@joshua_dwight)

Eric Hewell is an endurance athlete and coach based out of Raleigh, NC. He boasts an impressive resume including completion (and course record) of the Tuna200 solo in 51:28:35, the course record for the Tuna200 relay in 22:49:54, the winner of the 2023 Andy’s Backyard Ultra-marathon where he completed 104 miles over 25 laps, the winner of the 2022 MST 50k in Raleigh, and a top-5 finish at the 2022 UROC 100k.

This guy lives comfortably in a pain cave near you and I have been lucky enough to receive coaching from him (Eric Hewell Coaching) on my first ultra-marathon back in October of 2022. My favorite characteristics about Eric are his consistency in preparation, his passion for the sport, and the kindness he exudes with his clients and friends.

Following our time together, I had a chance to have a Q&A with Eric to find out more about his passion for endurance sports and what drives him as an athlete.

When did you know running had become your ‘thing’?

Honestly, I’m not a natural when it comes to running! I’m not a gifted runner who looks like he is floating down the street effortlessly or someone who excels at this sport without countless hours of consistent hard work. I found out in my college years that endurance sports were my niche, beginning with mountain biking as I recovered from knee surgery (left medial partial meniscectomy for the medical folks out there). I love the process of getting to the point of wanting to quit and learning how to persevere and running puts me in that position the fastest of all sports. We all love the activities that we are naturally good at, but there is something about the ones that take hard work that keeps me coming back for more. 

What is the pain cave and why should runners know about it?

Ooh, the pain cave is a fun one. I’d define the pain cave as the mental arena we venture into when an activity flips from fun to pure grit and determination. Not that fun and determination are mutually exclusive, but there is a space that requires pure willpower to muscle through, teaching you how to disconnect your mental desire to stop from your physical ability to proceed. The beauty of the pain cave is that it’s relative. Everyone has the opportunity to experience it and share in the lessons and growth, regardless of pace, distance, or tenure in a sport. The pain cave is where you truly find out what you are made of, what things are deep within you, and find the lessons that you can carry over from sports into daily life. 

Where do you think new runners should be focusing the most when starting out in the sport?

Two extremely important areas for those just starting out are (1) not beating yourself up over pace so you can simply enjoy running, and (2) learning to love the process. It kills me when folks who start out running essentially shove themselves out of the sport as they compare themselves to faster peers. Everybody is built differently, but everybody is built to move. If you’re new to the sport, learn what parts of running get you excited and lean into it! Lastly, running easy and rest days are your friends. You know the difference between a rest day and just being lazy. Don’t give into being lazy, but do intentionally set aside rest days to recover. Most people are paying their own money and making their own sacrifices to participate in this sport...why not lean into the enjoyable aspects to love what you are doing? 

What is your approach to coaching?

Listen, adapt, execute, reflect, repeat. Each of these pillars holds equal weight in our success from day-to-day training and year-to-year goal setting and performance. I believe that training is a holistic endeavor, knowing that countless factors in our lives feed into our successes and failures. The key to a successful training plan is finding one that you’ll actually stick to, so developing a routine that fits with my athlete’s life is highly important to me. I enjoy taking on the big picture for my athletes, so they can focus on the here and now of their training. 

What is your hope for others to experience through running?

Belonging to an awesome community, self-exploration, longevity, a healthy form of processing and coping in life, a way to accomplish goals and push themselves in ways they never thought they could do. 

What are your long-term goals in the sport?

Be able to run and be active all of my life. Movement is the key to longevity. I’m in this for the long haul.

Make unforgettable and bonding memories with friends

Always find races that push me in various disciplines (distance, elevation, time, etc) 

What basic habits should a runner be focusing on even if they aren’t currently training?

I firmly believe what we put in our mouths has an effect on all areas of life. Developing a nutrition plan that is life-giving provides freedom! If we are bloated, inflamed, achy, lethargic, or any other negative effect certain foods can have, we aren’t living in an optimal state to enjoy life as a whole. Yes, definitely have the balance to allow yourself to consume those indulgent treats every now and then, but understanding how your body reacts to foods and beverages will enable you to have the secret to living a more healthy life! This makes it way easier to jump back into training when you want to because your baseline is set higher. For example, I have hypothyroidism (from Hoshimoto’s), so my body doesn’t process alcohol and dairy very well. I love me some ice cream, beer, wine and charcuterie, and all those indulgent items, but I recognize the impact on my metabolism, sleep, and inflammation when I consume them. For those reasons, I limit those items to enable me to feel better daily, not just for training. 

Why UESCA?

UESCA does a great job uniting sports physiology with coaching dynamics. If we as coaches don’t lean into the biology and kinesiology of running, we are ignoring extremely important training fundamentals. It’s very easy to get sucked into learning new training protocols or the best framework to help athletes adapt to new challenges, but UESCA provides a strong base education of the science that goes into running.

In ultrarunning, what separates an athlete that can make it, from one that can’t?

The one who understands their “why” and is determined to push themselves mentally. This doesn’t just go for race day but for every day of training. The days you feel the most motivated or inspired to crush it aren’t the days that gives you the edge. It’s the days that suck the worst, where you are the least inspired, but you still show up and build a mindset that you can not be taken down. You will succeed if you can truly engrave that “why” or the determination within you to keep pressing forward no matter what.