How to Qualify for Boston

Nobody needs any tips to qualify for Boston on this site. Maybe the Olympic Trials.

This woman is highly delusional.

I had dreamed about becoming an Olympic athlete since I took up running in junior high school in Yuma, Arizona. I was the oldest of five kids with a career Navy father was an avid runner. Joining the track team was my strategy for getting his attention. The camaraderie with my father turned me into a life long runner. At age forty five, however, I still felt nostalgia for my Olympic aspirations.

In the spring of 2003, I logged onto my computer and plotted out a detailed training and racing strategy. I bought two pairs of Brooks Glycerin's and proceeded to train 50-65 miles a week on the treadmill and in the desert around my home in Arizona. My mission was to resurrect my dreams and qualify for the Boston Marathon, the pinnacle of achievement for serious runners like me.

The Author:

Susan qualified for the Boston Marathon in October 2003 at the St. George Marathon with a time of 3:57:52. She passed the 13 mile mark at around 2 hours and ran the second half faster than the first.

nice - I'm sure we can all learn a lot from a 4 hour marathoner...

the pinnacle of achievement for middle aged recreational joggers like me

Did you think St George was really a faster course considering the altitude? Say, compared to Cal?

(If you're a troll, buzz off.)

I love this line, which I believe is a sentiment shared by most 4 and 5 hour marathoners:

"Marathon training requires preparation and planning unlike a 5k race where you can 'fly by the seat of your pants.'"

I'm running 60 MPW in training for a 5K right now. I wish I would have known that I could have just "flown by the seat of my pants" before I headed down this path.

I suggest that you win the Tour de France 7 times. That should get you in.

LVD wrote:

I love this line, which I believe is a sentiment shared by most 4 and 5 hour marathoners:

"Marathon training requires preparation and planning unlike a 5k race where you can 'fly by the seat of your pants.'"

I'm running 60 MPW in training for a 5K right now. I wish I would have known that I could have just "flown by the seat of my pants" before I headed down this path.

stop with all your training as it looks to be just a big waste of time

Just raise money for charity...cripes a few bucks and you don't even have to train. I've seen it.

any suggestion as to what type of MP3 player works best?

Please tell me the OP is just trolling!

If it's a troll: Good job, pretty cool stuff.

If it's for real: Wowowow. Ri-di-cu-lous.

St. George is the fastest marathon course in North America, maybe on the entire planet. Anyone who doesn't run significantly faster there than on any other course either doesn't know how to prepare properly or doesn't want to.

It would be interesting to compare Boston times with those who qualified at St. George. The person I know was almost and hour slower.

bee que wrote:

LVD wrote:

I love this line, which I believe is a sentiment shared by most 4 and 5 hour marathoners:

"Marathon training requires preparation and planning unlike a 5k race where you can 'fly by the seat of your pants.'"

I'm running 60 MPW in training for a 5K right now. I wish I would have known that I could have just "flown by the seat of my pants" before I headed down this path.

stop with all your training as it looks to be just a big waste of time

Oh, wait -- I just realized that my 5K training may not have been such a waste. If I am doing a 16 mile long run at 7:00 pace now, then all I need to do is somehow train myself to run another 10 miles at 12:30 pace and I too could break the elite 4:00 mark!

I never realized how close I was to greatness. Thanks, OP.

good advice about the garbage bag too...

I wouldn't recommend wearing it for the entire race, however, as plastic doesn't breathe.

If speedracer really is a troll, then she just threw down the gauntlet of trolling on this site. I just hope that the amount of time it would have taken to come up with those tips on a separate webpage paid the dividends she was hoping for.

Apparently she's also trolling (or not) on Running Times:

http://runningtimes.com/rt/forum/showthread.php?t=8301

I suspect that Speedracer is neither speedy nor a racer

................ wrote:

good advice about the garbage bag too...

I wouldn't recommend wearing it for the entire race, however, as plastic doesn't breathe.

Godammit, I wish that I had read her entire post more carefully -- I just spent all of last night sewing 5 plastic garbage bags together to form the greatest garbage bag marathon outfit of all time. I was planning to wear it the entire race, but now I'm reconsidering.

The marathon is here in central Florida in July, so maybe I can get away with just wearing it to the 15 mile marker.