For those of you that do not follow running nor the sports pages, today was the 116th running of the Boston Marathon. It was a hot day, with highs in the 80s, but the finishing times were still impressive. In the weather affected race, the men’s winner still posted an impressive time of 2:12:40 and the best woman came in at 2:31:50. It apparently was a very down year as the time of just over two hours and twelve minutes would have only managed a 13th place finish last year.
As much as I roll my eyes at how crazy fast those elite marathoners can run for 26.2 miles, following the race always gives me “the Boston bug.” It makes me yearn to qualify and run the race myself someday. I know that I realistically will not become an elite runner, but I at least have a shot of making my age group qualifying time.
As far as my past marathons go, by best time was 4:06:22. That was done in the fall of 2005 at the Marine Corps Marathon, my first 26.2 miler. To qualify for Boston in the 18-34 age group, I would need to run a marathon under 3:05:00. There’s no doubt, that’s an enormous chunk of time to drop.
Luckily my plan of getting back into running should also work perfectly for eventually qualifying for Boston. As I’ve mentioned a few times now, my short-term goal is to run a 5K under 20 minutes. Not only is that a good starting point as it reaches an old goal of mine, but it also establishes a good running base and good speed. From there I can go onward and upward – or more specifically to running, faster and longer. Doing just that was always in the back of my mind. Working my way up to qualify for Boston though… now that’s a long-term goal.
Spurred on by “the Boston bug,” I sketched out a rough draft of what could be called a “blueprint to Boston.”
1) 5 km ≤ 20:00 (6:26 / mi)
2) 10 km ≤ 40:00 (6:26 / mi)
3) 5 km ≤ 19:00 (6:07 / mi)
4) 10 km ≤ 39:00 (6:16 / mi)
5) 13.1 mi ≤ 1:30:00 (6:51 / mi)
6) 26.2 mi ≤ 3:15:00 (7:26 / mi)*
7) 13.1 mi ≤ 1:25:00 (6:29 / mi)*
8) 26.2 mi ≤ 3:00:00 (6:52 / mi) Boston Qualifier
*These steps could be skipped, depending how steps 4 and 5 go.
At this point, it’s definitely overambitious to plot out the details of such a plan. However, writing this out also makes it seem deceptively easy. There are only eight steps here, but there are sure to be countless races thrown in between these steps, as well as probably stumbling points. This blueprint makes the goal to Boston seem not too far off. It would be awesome if I could qualify in 2015, ten years since doing my first marathon, but I don’t think I’ll progress that quickly. In reality, I’ll be happy if I get this list accomplished in five years time. I’ll just have to see what happens.
Right now I’m simply content to continue toward the goal of step 1. Inching closer and closer to a 20 minute 5K time, will not only cross that goal off the list, but will also prove to me that making this “blueprint to Boston” so early on wasn’t so crazy.
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