Today is December 30th. The Boston Marathon is in April. I read today is the beginning of a training program for runners competing in the Boston Marathon. Even if I wanted to start this program to run in the 2014 Boston Marathon, I wouldn’t be able to compete because you need to qualify. For someone my age – forty-six – to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I’d need to run 26.2 miles faster than 3 hours 25 minutes. That’s fast, and that’s no guarantee. They take the fastest qualifiers first, so the faster you go the more likely you are to be chosen.
So, the thinking goes, perhaps I can run in 2015 – which means qualifying in 2014. But there's a problem with that plan. I ran my first marathon this past October and didn't run fast enough to qualify for an eighty-year old, not to mention someone my own age. Expecting to run a qualifying time in my second marathon is optimistic. And unrealistic. Compounding the “there isn’t enough time to get my fat ass fast enough” issue is an assumption that the qualifying time must be logged before registration opens in September. The last "approved" marathon to qualify for Boston before registration opens is in late June in Duluth, Minnesota. With all due respect to Duluthians, I ain’t using vacation time to run a marathon in Duluth.
That means the soonest realistic date for me to run the Boston Marathon is 2016. I played this mind game yesterday while mapping out the plan on a cool Sunday afternoon in Florida. Then it hit me. BAM! That’s the year before I’ll turn fif-fif-fif. That’s the year before I’ll turn fift-fift-fift . . . That’s the year before I’ll be that age with the 5 in the tens place.
We all get old. We all die. I just don’t like thinking either one will happen to ME. While I haven’t started thinking seriously about the latter, I’m starting to come to terms with the former. Hell, I’m not even ready to put the word “former” in front of the word “athlete” quite yet.
While I vow to make today the last day working on my “before” photo, I now realize I better hurry and get this program started before I shrivel up. Boston 2016 or Bust! Who else is in?
So, the thinking goes, perhaps I can run in 2015 – which means qualifying in 2014. But there's a problem with that plan. I ran my first marathon this past October and didn't run fast enough to qualify for an eighty-year old, not to mention someone my own age. Expecting to run a qualifying time in my second marathon is optimistic. And unrealistic. Compounding the “there isn’t enough time to get my fat ass fast enough” issue is an assumption that the qualifying time must be logged before registration opens in September. The last "approved" marathon to qualify for Boston before registration opens is in late June in Duluth, Minnesota. With all due respect to Duluthians, I ain’t using vacation time to run a marathon in Duluth.
That means the soonest realistic date for me to run the Boston Marathon is 2016. I played this mind game yesterday while mapping out the plan on a cool Sunday afternoon in Florida. Then it hit me. BAM! That’s the year before I’ll turn fif-fif-fif. That’s the year before I’ll turn fift-fift-fift . . . That’s the year before I’ll be that age with the 5 in the tens place.
We all get old. We all die. I just don’t like thinking either one will happen to ME. While I haven’t started thinking seriously about the latter, I’m starting to come to terms with the former. Hell, I’m not even ready to put the word “former” in front of the word “athlete” quite yet.
While I vow to make today the last day working on my “before” photo, I now realize I better hurry and get this program started before I shrivel up. Boston 2016 or Bust! Who else is in?
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