If so, what was your PR progression, training, did you make it, etc.
I'm a 1:10 guy after only racing three half marathons (first one was 1:22 three years ago). Still need to do a full but I'm young. Not in any rush to do one though.
If so, what was your PR progression, training, did you make it, etc.
I'm a 1:10 guy after only racing three half marathons (first one was 1:22 three years ago). Still need to do a full but I'm young. Not in any rush to do one though.
I'm female and was not so young when I qualified, but perhaps still relevant.
I had a brief fling with track/xc as a college sophomore, almost immediately got injured and quit. Didn't take up running seriously again until nearly age 30. Cleaned up my diet, dropped 25 pounds, and started piling on the miles. Ran a couple of marathons in the 3:30 range, then started getting fast. My marathon progression:
October 1990, 3:08
January 1991, 2:53
May 1991, 2:45:17 (needed 2:45 to qualify for women's OTs that year...set out only trying to break 2:50 but had the race of my life up until then)
June 1991, 2:47:xx (too soon)
October 1991, 2:42:50 to qualify for OTs
During April through October of 1991 I also ran all of my other lifetime PRs of 18:10 for 5K, 36:44 for 10K, and 1:18:59 for HM. I was running about 80 mpw including, usually, one double (intervals as the second workout) and one long run (16-24 miles) per week.
I got injured during my OT qualifying race and had to take a few weeks off. Started running again in November, got injured worse just before Christmas. Went to the OTs anyway (late January) hoping a miracle would occur, but it didn't. I was the first woman to drop out of the 1992 Trials marathon, making it only about a mile.
I never broke 2:50 again, and just gradually got slower from that point onward.
Yes, I have and I honestly felt like it wasn't going to happen, but with enough hard work it did. If you put in the work and don't give up anything is possible in my opinion.
I finished a disappointing senior track season and I knew running wasn't done for me so I started competing in local 5k's/10k's and half marathons for fun, but in the back of my mind my goal was to qualify.
Fall 2013- ran a 1:22 half marathon on a hot day ( did not qualify, I was 7 minutes off the half marathon standard.)
Spring- 2014 1:21 half marathon, not much improvement.
Spring 2014( Hurt my knee doing plyo's and rested a month.) re-built my mileage and started training again.)
Winter- 2014 had a big breakthrough race in December and ran 1:17(This made my goal seem much more doable)
Spring 2015- Ran 1:16:35. still 1:35 off I knew I needed to increase my long run. I started adding more 16-18 mile runs.
Winter 2015- 1:14:53. Nailed it by the skin of my teeth! I ran 5k,10k and 10 mile pr's all during that build up.
I qualified with a hm so the marathon was a big wake up call. I had a disappointing race but I finished with a 2:53 in LA. I may or may not try to qualify again. It really depends on where my life takes me as the 2020 trials gets closer.
The 1980 Trials had a 2:22 qualifier. Boston 1979 was the first day to put up a time. I hit 1:11 at half way. Figuring I should pick it up if was to get under 2:22, I ran from the half to 16 in 15 minutes. Hello hills. It was a death march from there.
As I was struggling down the last mile, I heard this massive wall of sound behind me getting closer. I realized it was the first woman. I managed to beat Joan Benoit by 6 seconds. I was the last man in before her first American record.
If I had just slowed up a little, I could have been in the photos. The next day, she was on the front page everywhere.
After that, I was in med school and couldn't put in the miles.
I got my marathon from 4:34:30 in May of 1972 to 2:41:35 in December of 1975. You needed 2:23 to get into the '76 Trial and I was hoping the standard for the '80 Trial would be about the same. So I thought that if I could drop an hour fifty three in three and a half years maybe I could drop another nineteen minutes if not in a few more weeks at least in the next four years.
That became the goal. It did not go well. I had 2-3 races where I carried a low to mid 2:20s time late into the race but always came unravelled in some way or other, blisters, diarrhea, etc. In the next two years I got no new PRs at all at any distances and in early '78 decided that I was done "training" and would just run, meaning I'd do what I liked without concern for how it would play out in races. Jack Foster's line about not training but just going for a run each day became my new motto. This actually lead to a resurgence of sorts and in '78 and '79 I eked out a few more PRs by not very big margins and got another six fourteen off my marathon best. From there things got even uglier. Better luck to you.
Thank you all so much for your responses. Lots of great stories and advice.
Yes I also beat Joan Benoit Samuelson in the 1984 Boston Marathon.
Shure shure
First half was 1:11 during the base phase of winter my junior year in college. Ran 1:09 and high 51 for 10 miles the next year. Ran first marathon in 2:30. Next one 2:26. Had some bad luck with weather. My best shot hit Santa Anna headwinds at the point to point Vegas marathon. (They should have run it backwards. Even uphill it would have been faster). My last real try I was on pace through half was but strained my calves and that was it.
Standard was 2:22 and had a shot but ended up 2:26.
It's hard. If you aren't sub 15 for 5k or sub 30:30 in college you'll need to be a late bloomer for it to happen. Especially with today's tougher standards.
So cool to hear all these stories. Back in college our XC and distance coach qualified for the 96 Trials. He was a good D3 runner - not even an All American. He just got better as he aged and racked up the miles. I was too young to get really wrapped up in his qualifying and training regimen but now I would be fascinated. He finished in the top 30.
CWRP wrote:
It's hard. If you aren't sub 15 for 5k or sub 30:30 in college you'll need to be a late bloomer for it to happen. Especially with today's tougher standards.
Even then you have to be a better marathoner than track guy. I've hit both those times but have been struggling on the roads in my early 30s.....
Injuries suuuuuck! Nice story and achievement.
Male, 56, ran 2:30 in 1990 and hoped to make the trials based on that. I never made it. Ran 1:08 half, and was told that translated to a 2:24 full. Sometimes, I wonder "what if". I never ran in HS or college, so I wonder what if. I never took up running until I was 24. I might have made it to the OT's but I'm certain, I would not have made it any further. So, no great loss. I enjoyed my moderate success, winning almost $3k in 5 years. Yes, not much, but $5k more than I ever thought I would make as an athlete my entire life.
I took up running for exercise as an adult. I think I was 28 or 29, running laps around the block. I enjoyed that, so I just kept building mileage until I was running 30-40 miles per week. When I was 31, I ran my first race in 3:54 (I'm a woman). I didn't do speed training, though, because I didn't know what it was and was just running for fun. I wasn't all that into racing, so I didn't run another race until 2010.
In late 2009, I started dating a guy who ran in college, and he suggested I run some local 5ks, 10ks, etc. He also started writing training plans for me with speed work. I went from a 19:30 5k to a 18:10 in about a year.
Here's my progression of longer distance stuff:
(33-34 years old)
2010 HM: 1:27
2011 HM: 1:22
2011 M: 3:00 (I was very disappointed and didn't run another for a few years)
In 2011, I peaked at about 60 mpw and averaged about 50 mpw. This was around the time that I started to think about going for a trials qualifier in the future. My 2011 marathon Gallowalk was frustrating, though, so I focused on shorter distances for the next year or so. I was working on breaking 18 in the 5k.
(36 years old)
2013 10M: 59:32
2013: M 2:48 (averaging about 70 mpw)
At 70 mpw, I started to feel like I was trained for the marathon distance.
(37 years old)
2014 spring 2:52 (80 mpw; rough/warm day)
2014 fall 2:45 (85-90 mpw)
(37-38 years old)
2015 spring 2:43 (retroactive qualifier after standard was changed)
2015 fall 2:45
2015 fall 2:42 (OTQ)
(I averaged about 85 mpw at peak training in 2015)
In a nutshell: I was just running for fun but realized that I had some potential to be pretty good. I learned how competitive runners train and slowly increased my mileage from 2010 to 2015. I focused on getting faster, not necessarily going for a specific time until about 2014. That's when the standard standard felt within reach.
In 2015, I finished just off the B Standard at Buffalo (NY) Marathon. One of the most frustrating days of my running life and the subsequent days were filled with playing the "woulda coulda shoulda" in my mind.
My time was 4:14:07. I knew if I had a great day I could have gotten the standard, but alas it didn't happen. Given it was my first marathon, I was pretty bummed but knowing I was so close has led me to work harder to get there.
Would love to see the men's standard back at 2:22.
Awesome story!
It was a dream but too little too late. Was a pretty mediocre college runner but kept on running. A couple years later ran a debut half marathon in 1:11 off of 60 miles a week, and 6 months later 2:31 for the full, doing about 75 mpw. Qualifying was 2:19. Plan was to build to 90s in my next couple of attempts. I got sick just before my next attempt (2:29) and injured during the recovery phase. It took forever to get over that injury so I backed off on marathons. Still running as a masters though.
fdfsdfsdf wrote:
CWRP wrote:It's hard. If you aren't sub 15 for 5k or sub 30:30 in college you'll need to be a late bloomer for it to happen. Especially with today's tougher standards.
Even then you have to be a better marathoner than track guy. I've hit both those times but have been struggling on the roads in my early 30s.....
I'm 14:45/30:15 and recent put one just over 2:31 in the marathon in my first "real" attempt, though training was brutal (never broke 50 miles/week). Despite all that, I don't think it's realistic I ever go below 2:25. The difference between a 2:30 and 2:20 marathoner is astronomically different from a 2:40 and a 2:30.
Lots of inspiring and informative stories. Good stuff
As an early 90's D3 guy, I am curious who your coach was.
The Runn3rgirl and especially amkelley progressions are really pretty impressive.