Has anyone BQ'ed in their first EVER year of running?

I know tons of women who have, but only a couple of guys.

How do you define first year of running? All children run, and many young people play sports other than track or cross country that require running. Most young people who pick up running as a competitive sport aren't starting from scratch as athletes. The only people who are really starting from scratch are usually adults who have been totally sedentary for years before deciding to make a life change.

For what it's worth, I ran a BQ about a year after I started running. Here's the sequence: I did about 3 months of daily running in order to run a marathon with my friend, which was a very comfortable 3:40. Then I kept it up for a couple more months before college soccer started again in the fall. I only did one run per week outside of practice in season. Then I got hurt. Then another friend wanted to do a marathon and I said okay, even though I was mostly training on the elliptical. I ended up running a hair over three hours with a 10 minute negative split. It was pretty comfortable until I did the mental math to realize I could qualify for Boston, which had not been a goal at that time, so I pushed pretty hard at the end.

I know many, many guys who have run around 3 hours shortly after starting running. But as I said above, all of them were young, already athletes in some form, and all were lean.

Right, that makes sense. I suppose what I meant was more of a "couch to BQ" type of story.

Personally, I've done sports throughout my childhood but always had very below average endurance and didn't excel at any of them, really.

I've taken up weight lifting as my primary means of exercise and avoided cardio like the plague because I was scared I'd lose all my muscle.

For my first ever "run" in a LONG time, I was only able to do 2 miles at 10:30 min/mile pace and that was just under my lactate threshold. I was so taken aback at how out of shape I was for a 24 year old guy despite my abundance of fast twitch fibers.

In March 2017 when I started up until December 2017, I ran 1961 miles (with a strong upward trend near the end) and still, my best "shape" was a 3h30 marathon

Suppose I didn't actually answer the specific questions. I was 21, and I was running about 10-20 plus elliptical because of injury, but 9 months earlier, I had been running about 50-60/week.

I honestly don't have a clue how my paces changed over time. I think there was only one GPS watch on the market at the time, and it was the size of a diving computer. I just wore a Timex and trained by time. Didn't really do workouts, but some days I ran hard because I felt like it. I expect I was usually running around 7:30-8:30 pace. I know that 7-flat pace felt like real work.

Don't take this the wrong way, but in my experience, it's usually fairly novice runners who ask about your pace. There seems to be the fixation with the pace you can hold on daily runs as an indication of what kind of runner you are (eg, he's a 9 minute guy, he's an 8 minute guy). More experienced runners talk about PRs, not "their paces," because they know that people run a wide range of paces. Some days I run 8:45 pace, some days I run 5:45.

so the standards aren't equivalent? well that's depressing

Almost did. I started running at beginning of 2016 (no prior running or sports experience). Did Twin Cities in October that same year, a BQ was 3:05 and I did 3:07. The following year I did manage to BQ with a 2:53.

I know a guy who went from really fat to his marathon day in a year. On marathon day, he got a Boston Qualifier time, but he never ran another marathon again or did any running again as far as I know.

His training was odd too, alternating days a 11 miles and 6 miles almost the whole time until toward the end when he upped one of the 11 milers up 2 miles every ween until he hit 21 for the long run.

This was back in the early 90s. He was in his late 20s at the time, and this was a bucket list thing...just to do one, not to get a Boston Qualifier.

I hear about it from chicks all the time, just sneak inside of 4h at 15 mpw as a chick and you're good. BQ baby.

There was an analytics chart of the data and prep for typical BQers and ladies had like half the mileage requirements

I ran 2:37 off of ZERO running, other than a little basketball and extreme Frisbee.

LargeLarry wrote:

I ran 2:37 off of ZERO running, other than a little basketball and extreme Frisbee.

You finished a marathon without running?

lightng wrote:

What was your age?

MPW for the months leading up to the key race?

How did your paces change over time?

I haven't accomplished this personally. But I'm interested in hearing some anecdotes

Depends how you define "first year of running," but yes. I'm your typical age group hobby jogger. Played basketball, soccer, and tennis through high school, recreational basketball through college and after. Stayed slim and "in shape" after college by working out and jogging about 10 miles a week, but didn't have any aerobic base at all really.

At age 35 I got into running mainly through a co-worker. Ran a 1:47 Half (yes, very slow I know) off of little to no training. Started running more seriously after that. Built mileage from 20mpw to a peak of 70mpw over about 8 months - a lot of slow miles using a HR monitor and the Maffetone method to build the aerobic base. Average 60mpw in the 10 week peak leading up to my fall marathon. I essentially went from running 8:15 pace to about 6:35 pace at the same HR over the 8-9 month period.

Ran 3:01 in my debut after the 1:47 Half 9 months earlier - BQ for me was 3:10 so I had 9 minutes to spare.

I did - but it wasn't a "true BQ"

I ran my first marathon and ran a 3:03:54 - age 29

26.2 is more than zero wrote:

LargeLarry wrote:

I ran 2:37 off of ZERO running, other than a little basketball and extreme Frisbee.

You finished a marathon without running?

Yes. 13.1 miles isn't easy, but it is achievable for most fit people.

There was a guy that ran a 3:11:45 on a warm day without much of a running background.

I went 3:05 within 3 months of starting at age 23. As a total hobby jogger, I researched some training methods ans built up to a peak of 42mpw. My week was 4, 6, 4, 6, 0, 10-20, 0, with the long run starting at 10 and progressing to 20. I did some real training and ran 2:47 2 years later and 5 years later ran 15:38 for 5k.

I started running regularly 18 months ago, on and off with some breaks due to travel, injuries and work... Pretty much running more regularly since Sept. 2017... Just BQ-ed with 21 minutes to spare, 47 yo, 3:04 ... My goal for the next 2 years to get close or below 2:50 by time time I hit 50 yo...

LargeLarry wrote:

26.2 is more than zero wrote:

You finished a marathon without running?

Yes. 13.1 miles isn't easy, but it is achievable for most fit people.

Not without running at least the distance of the race.

A BQ in a first year of running is probably pretty common. A better question might be if anyone has qualified for the marathon trials in their first year of running.

8 weeks. 2:50 back in 1979 when 2:50 was cut off. Was on high school swim team in winter. My coach was doing acspring maratjon so I bet I could beat him. Swim season ended. First run was 6 miles. Trained 8 weeks 35 mikes first week up to 60 miles last week of training. Didn’t run Boston as was too young