My Journey to Boston

Today is 10/11/14.  Approximately one year from now will be the 2015 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.  I made a goal a few months ago that I was going to train and try to make it into the Boston Marathon for 2016.  I’ll be almost 33 at this point (that just sounded and looked scary to type!).  I have no idea if I will be able to do this, but I am sure as hell going to try.

I started running in 2005 (holy cow this was 9 years ago - they say you plateau at 8 years - I hope that’s not true).  It was mainly because I got done with work earlier than most of my friends (this was the summer of my senior year of college), and I didn’t have anything else to do.  It was mostly just casual running, and then in 2007 I ran my first race - a half marathon.  I did it in around 2 hours and 7 minutes.   I had to walk part of it but I finished!  It was a great feeling, and I was hooked!!!  Each running season following I got a little better and better.  I did a half marathon Monster Dash next and improved to 1:52, and my best half marathon has been a 1:48 and some change, around a  8:12/8:13 minute per mile.  My last half marathon was not good at all.  I started walking around mile 8.  I thought because I was in shape I didn’t need to train as much.  I learned my lesson.  If you want to run better, you need to run!

I never thought I wanted to run a marathon.  A half marathon was so hard, why would I want to subject myself to 13.1 MORE miles?  Well, after the Brewer’s Mini Marathon I felt so good that I knew it was time to sign up for the full.  I didn’t want it to be 30 years from now and found that I regretted not doing it, and I’m not getting any younger.  So I ran the 2013 Chicago Marathon for Children’s Oncology Services with Team One Step.  I raised over $1,000 to help children with cancer go to summer camp.  I was running for a good cause and I did a pretty good job! I followed my training schedule that was provided to me through my cause and I ran a 3:57:09, which is around a 9 minute per mile pace.  Not too shabby!!!

The pace I need to make it into the Boston Marathon is an 8:12 minute per mile, which is 3:35:00.  I have to shave a lot of time off my marathon time, but I have done it with my half time (from worst to best I have improved by 19 minutes) and I believe that if I train and put in my miles, it can be done.  Will it be done this year? I don’t know.  But I have set myself a goal, and I’m going to work towards it.  Welcome to the beginning of my journey.  Now, I’m going to go run 9 miles J