Once in a Lifetime !

A bit of Talking Heads for you today.

The once in a lifetime I refer to is my one & only oppurtunity to run the oldest marathon of them all - Boston.

As a kid I'd watch the race with my father in the days before London even existed. A race steeped in tradition & history with so many well known points along the 26.2 mile route from Hopkinton to Boston, the chance to run past Fenway park & up the notorious Heatbreak Hill & past the ear defening sounds of the girls college on the way.

In October 2009 I entereed the pancake flat Amsterdam marathon with the sole intention of cracking the elusive time of 3.15 to qualify for Boston (I later found out 3.15.59 would have got me in). To qualify I would need to shave 10 mins off my Berlin PB from the previous September when a great run from me foced Haile to panic & end up smashing his own world record to fight off my challenge, In the end he pipped me to the line by a mere 80 minutes !

Amsterdam one of my 3 favourite European marathons gave me the qualifying time I craved & I set my heart on leg 4 of the big 6 dream marathons I wanted in my race portfolio - the 5 majors & Comrades (the worlds biggest Ultra marathon - based on number of Finishers) The latter was gonna be the final event in case running 56 miles would end my running career for good.

Then one of my best friends annouces he's going out to run Comrades & asked me to go out there & be best man at his wedding & so that was Boston on a back burner & I was off to South Africa.

Ironically due to the Volcanic ash I wouldn't have been able to get to the North Eastern US for Patriots day anyway so I guess fate played a hand in my Journey to Comrades.

It's been a tough year running wise due to injuries & my times have gone backwards rapidly since 2009 with my quickest marathon being a 3.34 ( i ran 5 sub 3.30's in 2009 including 3 consecutive months with a PB) Thus I'm a long way off qualifying again & so next April I will join many American's in running their big event, the one many plan their whole running year around. For many folks Boston is the holy grail & many US events feature prominentally on their websites the words "Official Boston qualifier"

Just to have qualified & have the chance to say I ran the Boston marathon qualifies me as an athlete - Boston essentially is an athletes only marathon due to it's qualifying structure. This might be the only time i have the chance to call myself an athlete & hence Boston is my "Big one 2011"

I'm sure as I prepare in Hopkinton on April 18th there will be lots of talking heads preparing to tackle an event which for a mere jogger like me is indeed Once in a lifetime.

Still resting & still injured, but still dreaming

Foxy