The Road to Boston

Back in April, as I wrote about, I ran the New Jersey Marathon. I was very content when I finished in 3:36 and change, but in retrospect, I was far from satisfied because I knew that although the completion of those 26.2 miles was tremendous source of pride, I had another goal that still needed to be completed in order to fully satiate my marathon jones i.e. qualify for the Boston Marathon.

The Boston Marathon, which this year is being held for the 110th time, requires that its participants meet a time standard in order to be able to compete in this event. While it is true that in recent years, individuals have been able to run without meeting a standard by getting in through some kind of charity exemption, I firmly believe that the only way I will ever run this event is by meeting the qualifying time set for my age group, which is 3:10 or 7:15 per mile. There is no other way that I will run this event because I want to train my ass off, run like a mad man, and meet the qualifying standard so that I can run the Boston Marathon in April 2007.

Now, back in the day when I was young (I'm not a kid anymore), qualifying for Boston would have been something that I probably could have done in my sleep, but currently, after gaining a little weight and failing to maintain a running routine, this goal is going to require some hard core training. As such, in order to accomplish this goal, I have selected the Vermont City Marathon, which will be held on May 28, 2006, as the race to lay down the gauntlet and let the proverbial shit fly. The race itself seems to feature a healthy amount of crowd support, a decent course, and 3599 of my closest friends to help me with this task. Additionally, in the next week or so, I have to develop a training plan that will require me at its peak to run 40 miles or so per week while hopefully, shedding 15-20 pounds in the process. (I need to be fast and quick and not lumpy and slow.) Moreover, as I wrote about a week or so ago, I have convinced a couple of my buddies from my high school crew team and who have each ran an Ironman or two themselves to train and try to qualify with me. (strength in numbers or just suckers for pain?) Finally, I have written this entry as a way to hold myself to this goal because for some reason when I put my plans in life out here for public consumption, I tend to actually follow through with them.

So there it is... I am locked in... I registered for Vermont tonight and have already run three times this week... I will keep you posted.