Almost every runner dreams of being able to run in the Boston Marathon one day. To me, it's kind of like the Super Bowl of running- you can't just sign up and do it, you have to qualify- you have to be a top runner in your Age Group in order to get in. Even non runners seem to know that Boston is special- there have been many times when running will come up in a conversation, and the non runner will ask "have you run the Boston Marathon?"
When I first stared thinking about running marathons, getting to Boston someday was one of my goals. For my first 2 marathons, qualifying wasn't even a consideration. For the 3rd it was a possibility if everything went perfect (it didn't). For my 4th I was very confident that I would qualify, until I hit 32km and the wheels totally came off. Number 5 though was perfect- my training went well, I was injury free, I was well rested, and the weather was perfect. That was the Philadelphia Marathon in Nov 2012. I ran a perfect race- kept the pace under control for the first half, and then picked it up for a 2+ minute negative split, and came in 2:26 under my BQ time. I thought that time would assure me of a spot, until all the interest in the Boston Marathon after the bombings made everyone speculate that 2014 would be a record breaking year. I decided to run a fall marathon this year (see my last blog post) and managed to pick up another 19 seconds.
When my registration window opened on Monday Sep 16, I was on the computer right away and got my registration submitted...... and then I waited..... and waited some more....... until I got this email!
When I first stared thinking about running marathons, getting to Boston someday was one of my goals. For my first 2 marathons, qualifying wasn't even a consideration. For the 3rd it was a possibility if everything went perfect (it didn't). For my 4th I was very confident that I would qualify, until I hit 32km and the wheels totally came off. Number 5 though was perfect- my training went well, I was injury free, I was well rested, and the weather was perfect. That was the Philadelphia Marathon in Nov 2012. I ran a perfect race- kept the pace under control for the first half, and then picked it up for a 2+ minute negative split, and came in 2:26 under my BQ time. I thought that time would assure me of a spot, until all the interest in the Boston Marathon after the bombings made everyone speculate that 2014 would be a record breaking year. I decided to run a fall marathon this year (see my last blog post) and managed to pick up another 19 seconds.
When my registration window opened on Monday Sep 16, I was on the computer right away and got my registration submitted...... and then I waited..... and waited some more....... until I got this email!
To say the least, I'm very excited to be a part of this. I've already counted back the weeks from Marathon Monday and my training will begin over the Christmas holidays.
I'll be posting about my training as I go along, and I look forward to posting how great it was after I've finished.
I'll be posting about my training as I go along, and I look forward to posting how great it was after I've finished.