Boston Bound?

 Today registration opened for the 2014 Boston Marathon.  Unless you live under a rock or just started to read this blog you know that I qualified for this race at the Illinois Marathon last April.  I've been giving great thought to if I'm going to actually run the race next April.  Maybe that's a no brainer because OF COURSE I want to run it.  However wanting and being able to are two completely different things.

Being that I'm married and have children, I have 7 other people to consider if such a big race is possible.  I don't believe in doing whatever I want with my time & money.  So right off the bat it's already not an easy decision to make.  I'm know my husband & kids want to me do to big things and are proud of me.  But if it wasn't for them I would likely make running my life and all I would do is race every weekend. So it works well that having them in my life keeps me in check with some of the other things that I really love & desire in life....having a husband & kids.  I came to the conclusion that it's not practical and just "not my time" to be traveling for and competing in the Boston Marathon.

There is also the aspect of the bombings and the impact they have on the race.  For me, I had the dream of qualifying and running Boston long before that first bomb went off.  None of that changed my dreams, it helped inspire me even more.  However the bombings seems to have brought on a whole new slew of runners who are determined to qualify and run next year.  In light of it all the Boston Marathon is opening an additional 9,000 spots for people to run next year.  This makes it the second largest field the race has ever had.  Honestly I think it's going to be a mad house with so many runners in pursuit of redemption of what happened this year.  That's great in many aspects.  But I feel it takes away from someone (meaning me) who wants to run the marathon for the honor & privileged of running THE Boston marathon.  I'm afraid my original dream & inspiration will be lost in the sea of passion as they also honor the victim & events of the bombings. Don't get me wrong.  The vicitms & spirit of the marathon should be honored.  I'm not saying any of that is bad.  It's just not what I had in mind for my first running of the Boston marathon.

Based on those things I know that 2014 will not be my year to run the Boston marathon.  I am still eligible to run the race in 2015 and it's possible I will re-qualify and extend that time frame even further.  I really want to do it soon.  Even with my injury I still consider myself at a prime of my running.  Who knows what life holds for me down the road.  I'd rather do it sooner rather than later.  However, if I can't, re-qualifying should not be a problem.  If you look at the qualifying standards my current time qualifies any woman in any age bracket.  Also, in my current age bracket I'm 10 minutes under my qualifying time and that standard is only going to drop as I get older.  And as far as I know I plan to drop my time not add to it. 

Although registration opened today I can't register.  They have a staggered process to allow the fastest runners (those 20 minutes under their qualifying time) to register first.  Even if I was going to register, I would have to wait until Wednesday.  It would still put me a step ahead of several others who have to wait for the next wave of registration open.  So, unless something drastically changes between now and then I won't be registering for the 2014 Boston marathon.  That's ok.  I'm fairly optimistic that the door to Boston will stay open for a long time and at some point I'll be going through that door.