Road to Boston 2016

The last marathon I ran was Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee, WI on October 5, 2008.  I didn't train too intensely for it, and started out way too fast.  (This was my 5th marathon so no excuse for starting out too fast.) My half marathon split was 1:38:19, not too far off of my half-marathon race PR. Shortly after the half, I saw my mom, cheering for me and I told her, "I am never doing this again." Somewhere along the last 10K, I saw my best friend, and I stopped gave her a hug and started crying.

UGH.  My finish time wasn't terrible (3:40:35) but it was not an enjoyable event.

I didn't have the itch to return to the marathon for six years.  

Then earlier this year, something changed.  I was watching coverage of Boston when I could sneak updates during my workday and I thought, "I wish I was running this!" 

The seed was planted.  There was no going back.

The more I thought about it, the more obsessed I became.  

I knew I needed to do a few things to keep me motivated.  The earliest I could do Boston was 2016, having not run a marathon this year to qualify for the 2015 race.  I will be 35 years old at the time of the 2016 Boston marathon, which according to the qualifying standards, I need to run 3:40:00 or less. I would prefer to run a fall marathon to qualify, but did not want to put all of my eggs in one basket. I decided the best thing to do was to register for a spring 2015 race, that way if I missed qualifying, I could have another chance with a fall 2015 race.

So, #1, I had to find a spring 2015 race.

I wanted something close to home and cheap.  I decided on the Wisconsin Marathon, located in Kenosha, WI, about an hour away from home.  Race day is May 2, 2015.  I registered the day it opened.

I also knew that I needed some peer pressure.  The more people I told about my goal, the more people to hold me accountable.  I have a fairly high internal locus of control motivating me, but I knew that it would be even more motivating to have others hold me accountable. 

So, #2, I started this blog to document my training.

194 days until race day!