Boston Marathon: Could it Happen?

Oct 25, 2011 by Greg Fowler

I used to play golf.  A lot of golf.  Like running, I took up golf too late to be a great golfer (darn short game!), and, like my running, I took it a little too serious for many years.  I spent a lot of time (and money) on it and worked my way down to a low handicap.

Now golf and running are not very similar.  But something happened recently that reminded me of my golf days.  See, the problem with golf was that one great shot or one good round that kept you coming back.  You could be cussing and breaking clubs (so, I’ve heard) because of an awful round, ready to quit for good.  Then on the 18th hole, you could hit your longest drive of the day right down the middle, birdie the hole and forget about the other 17 lousy holes.  You’d be ready to go back and play again the next week.

The running equivalent of this phenomena happened to me at the Ray Tanner Home Run 12K.

First, a bit of background. The running equivalent of golf’s U.S. Open, is the Boston Marathon.  In the U.S. Open, if you are a good enough golfer, you can go through the qualifying process to get in.  The Boston Marathon has a qualifying process as well.  It is very simple.  Beat a certain time in a Boston Marathon qualifier-designated marathon and you can enter Boston.  The qualifying times are age-based.  For example, males in the 40-44 year old age group must beat 3 hours 15 minutes to qualify.  Younger runners must be faster and older runners get more time.  Click here to see the entire chart.

So, back to the Home Run.  My goal when I signed up was to beat an 8:00/mile pace.  As the race approached, my training was going well, so I adjusted my goal to 7:45/mile.  On race day, the weather was perfect, and I felt great.  I started out a little faster than goal, but I suspected that would happen.  I intended to dial it back a bit, but as the race progressed, I saw no sign of my body hitting the wall, so I kept up the pace and I finished with a 7:31 pace!  I was shocked when I looked at my watch.  I still felt good, too.  The only other times I had beaten that pace were a couple of 5K’s, and I felt pretty bad at the end.

Back to Boston Qualifying.  The pace one must run a marathon to qualify in the 45-49 age group is a 7:49/mile (3 hours 25 minutes).  Now a 12K (7.44 miles) is a long way from 26.2 miles, but for the first time in my running, I had the feeling that might Boston might be attainable with a couple more years of hard work.   I had smacked a drive right down the middle on the 18th hole, and I was ready to work hard for the next race.

So, is the Boston Marathon in my future?  I don’t know, but it was nice to see progress that gave me a small bit of hope.

POFIFOTO!