Make way For The underdog (Road to Boston) Part 3

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You must expect great things from yourself before you can actually do great things! The confidence to push yourself harder, even though you may fear getting hurt!

I took a year off of hard running. I needed to heal.

I needed to be whole.

I finished the 2014 with a PR 50k. I was feeling really good about 2015. I've been waiting for this!

And while the few years before were filled with a lot of races, more than anyone should really do when you are a competitive runner, 2015 was no different.

2 5k's
1 10 Miler
2 Half Marathon's
4 Full Marathon's
2 50k's

But running a year full of crazy races was about to change!

It was right after my North Face Endurance 50k on Bear Mountain in New York in May, that I decided to train with some friends of mine, of which the majority had just come back from running the Boston Marathon. I thought to myself, if they can do it... Surely, I can too!

I never really considered Boston up until now.. I just didn't think it was an attainable goal. The time goal for me to BQ was way faster than I thought ever possible for me. Up until now I had run a lot of marathons but they all shook out in the three forty's. I was happy with these times but I was not getting any faster... and I wanted to get faster.

I realized that I just wasn't training right. I wasn't doing any specified workouts. No hills, No speed work, No intervals... No Nothing!

I was merely running miles.

Same old stuff, 5 days a week.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If I wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I needed to do something different.

So I hooked up with these guys who were starting another cycle of training, 20 weeks, six days a week, specified workouts. The training would be to run the Erie Marathon in Erie, PA. in September.

I made the commitment, showed up and headed out to run that race 20 weeks later.

That day was bittersweet!

Unfortunately, I did not qualify for Boston on this first attempt to do so. I missed.. holding my pace (7:45mm) for 19 miles before falling apart! My quads blown, doing everything I could mentally to keep running forward, my pace fell, and fell, and fell...  until I finally crossed the finish line.

It was a tough and bitter pill to swallow. I was sad... disappointed.

So what was so sweet about it, you ask? I PR'd by nine minutes running a 3:32:10! So while I trained really, really hard for 20 weeks and didn't leave with what I came for. I had just run the fastest marathon of my life. That in itself was pretty damn satisfying! So in the end.. I was okay with this!

I finished out the year running four more races and enjoyed some more PR's along the way, five for the whole year, actually. But again... If I was going to run Boston.. I needed to still do something different, and that was train harder and race less. So this is what I intended to do!


Next Up: Back To The Drawing Board (Road to Boston) Part 4







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