In November 2013, I ran my first marathon.
I was 44 years old.
It wasn’t fast. I ran a 4:37, but it was the NYC Marathon, and it was amazing.
The next year I ran the Hartford Marathon in October, and then two weeks later, I surprised my friend and ran the Cape Cod Marathon with her. Neither of those were particularly fast either.
This year, in April I ran the Boston Marathon for Swim Across America.
While I still didn’t beat the time I did in my very first marathon, that was one of the best experiences of my whole life. It was so awesome that I wanted to run it again next year. Since I am nowhere near the qualifying time, I had to try and get in on a charity team. A couple weeks ago I applied to run for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. It takes a while for them to get back to you.
I heard back today.
And they didn’t accept my application.
I’m bummed. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.
Now that I’ve had a couple days to think about it, I think it’s a good thing that I didn’t get accepted.
Because it’s lit a fire under my ass.
I have always had a goal to break 4 hours in a marathon, and I haven’t come close yet. Mostly because I decide on a whim to run a marathon and then give myself a couple months to train. That’s not really enough. Especially when you have like a million kids and no treadmill and then the winter from hell where it snows like fifty thousand inches.
But the kids are getting older. And a friend gave me a treadmill she wasn’t using anymore. I’m in a better position to train now.
The qualifying time for the Boston Marathon for my age group (45 – 49) is a 3:55.
I am going to qualify for that mothereffer. I want to legit run the Boston Marathon. Not as a charity runner.
As a qualifier.
But just qualifying doesn’t guarantee entry. You need to be like 5 minutes faster than the qualifying time in order to definitely get in. And you have to do that by the beginning of September.
The chances of me running a marathon under 4 hours before September to qualify for the 2017 Boston Marathon are pretty much zero, because there are three marathons where I have the best chance of qualifying. One is in April and that’s just too soon. The other two are in October, and those are too late.
So I’m putting it out there.
And I hope you don’t mind, but to keep me on track, for the next (at least) year, I’m going to be writing about my marathon training.
Kind of like when I did that Biggest Loser thing a few years ago and posted weekly updates.
Because I need some accountability. And some support. This is going to be really hard for me.
Right now I am struggling to run under a ten minute mile for like three miles.
And to run a 3:50 marathon, I’ll need to hold under 9 minutes per mile. For 26 miles.
I will need to finish 47 minutes faster than my best time.
This is not going to be easy. At all.
Training isn’t going to be easy.
Staying motivated isn’t going to be easy.
But I really, really, REALLY want to do this.
Like, A LOT.
Because I want to prove to myself I can do it. And I want to show my kids that they can do anything they set their minds to.
So I’m gonna.
I am going to break 4 hours in a marathon.
Even better, I’m going to break 3:50 to guarantee my entry. And I’m going to run the 2018 Boston Marathon. As a fucking qualifier.
I guess I better get some sleep. I’ve got some training to do.
Setting a goal is the best way to keep yourself on track and accountable! You can do it and it will be AWESOME.