The ultimate goal of many marathon runners is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Each age group has a specific qualifying time – mine happens to be 3:15:59. At the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon in May, I came very close to qualifying for Boston. At the 25.2 mile mark, my time was 3:06:44. That means that I only had to run the last mile in 9:15 to qualify. Considering that my overall pace for the race was 7:35 per mile, this should have been very easy, but unfortunately, my body didn’t cooperate, and I finished in 3:18:43.

I haven’t completely decided whether I’m going to try to qualify for Boston again at the Columbus Marathon in October. I could play it safe and try to keep my streak of sub-3:30 marathons alive (all four of my marathons have been under 3:30), or I could push the envelope and try for 3:15:59 again. I probably won’t decide for sure until I line up on the starting line on October 15th.

Speaking of marathons, I’m getting ready to run nineteen miles tomorrow with the Premier Sports Marathoner in Training (MIT) group. It will be my longest run since the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon in May.

Tags: Boston Marathon, Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon, Flying Pig Marathon, Columbus Marathon, marathon, marathons, running