We all have dreams, goals, aspirations to do something we once could not do…for the past two years I have had such a dream. I didn’t really go public with this until recently. I told a couple of people (i.e. wife, brother, and close friend) about my dreams to qualify for the Boston marathon, which at the time was like a frog telling someone they wanted to be a prince! It was a dream…it was really a fantasy!
For the past few years I have been running, getting faster, and finally had been making some benchmark workouts that pointed to the idea that instead of being a fantasy it was going to simply take a superior effort on my part…then today happened.
Today I got news. The long awaited Boston Athletic Association decided to go public with the “New” qualifying standards. I won’t bore you with all the details, I will just tell you what the ends mean.
My new qualifying time for 2012 is 3:05, which may not appear to be such a drastic deal…however that means running 7:03 miles instead of 7:15 miles! 12 seconds faster per mile for 26.2 miles. To top it off, it also allows for a window of registration…if you beat your qualifying time by 20 minutes or more your allowed to register on day one of registration. As the days roll by you will be able to register, but the faster runner will always get the advantage and be granted entry first! After a week of this registration all other athletes that run a qualifying time will be allowed submit an entry, without guarantee of getting into the race.
So this brings me to the point, not that it really matters but what is my opinion on this, what appears to be even more stringent qualifying standards?
It will make me train that much harder…rise that much earlier…it’s exactly why I dreamed of qualifying for Boston in the first place! If I make it great, if not, at least the dream caused me to become better and not bitter!
These tougher standards make Boston what it is, one of the worlds most elite endurance fields. A benchmark for all other races! There is a reason the race sold out in less then eight hours this year. For any who are upset at this “change” I propose this…put in more miles, run more hills, eat better, train harder, and in the end whether you qualify or not you will be BETTER, and isn’t that why we run?
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