I was talking to a friend of mine who was down in Boston watching her husband run the marathon last week and it got me thinking about the qualifying times needed to run that race. So I ventured to the website to see what I would have to do if I ever wanted to do the famous Boston Marathon.
The good news: I am at the lower end of my age bracket (35-39)
The bad news: The qualifying time for that age bracket is 3:15. 3:15 for a 42.2km run! That’s a 4 min 37sec km! I could probably do one km at that pace but 42? C’mon! If I were to think about my best ½ marathon time (1:51:53) and make the assumption that I would be able to continue the pace for another 21.1km I would come in at 3:43:46. That’s a smoking 5:18km and a fair ways from 4:37! Hmmm something tells me that my current training regime of running 3-4 times a week, drinking more than the occasional pint and eating whatever I can is not going to help cut the required 41 seconds per km off my pace.
So all I need to do is increase my training, cut out beer and cut down on eating………easy right? Not when the NHL playoffs are on and my family is still 5 hours away giving me more freedom to head to the pub to watch a game or two!
So at this point what do I have to do to qualify for the famous Boston Marathon?
Answer: strap rockets to my feet.
Our Magazine
