Boston Bound

On Wednesday I was eligible to register for the Boston Marathon.  Or so I thought.  I thought my BQ time was good for 2 years.  And for the last 2 years I have ran well below my BQ cutoff (which is 3:40).  My first one was 3:29:50 in April 2013 and then exactly 1 minute "slower" with 3:30:50 in April 2014.  One puts me 10:10 below my BQ time needed and the other 9:10.  Since I thought my time was good for 2 years I was going to register on Wednesday using my faster time.  Except, as I learned, my time from April 2013 was not any good.  Turns out your BQ is only good for about 18 months.

My bubble bursted a little because mentally I was all psyched out to get it done on Wednesday.  But I wasn't too worried.  Except for the realization that I would be on the road running RGR during that time.  Again, there should have been nothing to worry about.  But I, being Mrs. Worse Case Scenario, was envisioning waiting until I arrived home after being on the road and finding the marathon already full.  Oh, no, not that nightmare.  So there was no way around it.  I had to register on Friday when it came open for the next round of qualifiers.

While I was on the road, either literally running or riding in the shaggin' wagon (a term given to my van by another team mate) I knew I needed to save my precious phone battery power for 2 things.  My family....in case anything went wrong and they really needed to get a hold of me (or vice versa) and registering for Boston.  I have a very low end smart phone, but it gets the job done when I really need it to...even if it's a pain in the rear.  As it turned out I wasn't running when registration opened that morning, but I was the next up runner so I made sure I was all ready to run with plenty of time to still mess with my phone & registration.  After nervously watching the clock inch toward 9 a.m., my team mate Patches, heard me declare my intentions and saw me starting to type on my phone. She graciously offered to let me use her iPad to get my registration done.  Yes, yes, yes!  That made things so much easier than me squinting and struggling over my itty bitty screen.

Once you fill out your registration form & submit payment (that is held until final authorization) you get this nice little email.

And then I had nothing to do, but wait.......  But I had PLENTY to keep me occupied.  Like finishing my relay race across Iowa with little to no sleep.  (I keep giving you details of RGR and I promise a full race report will happen).  According to the email I wasn't expecting to hear any official word until early October.

However, on Sunday I received this email:

I had my confirmation that I WAS GOING TO RUN THE BOSTON MARATHON!!!!

I don't think words can express how happy & excited I am to be doing this race next year.  So many emotions and thoughts constantly swirl through my head and even though it feels like forever away, I know it will come faster than I realize.  I'm already planning for this to be a marathon PR.  Come January I'll be bringing it on like Donkey Kong and for a change take on a serious training plan.  I'm not taking this lightly with hopes to do ok.  I'm going to blow it out of the water!

I'm sure you'll hear me talk about Boston off and on for the next 7 months.  For now I'm just busy telling every person I know, maybe even some strangers that HEY....I'M BOSTON BOUND!!!!

Are you planning to run the Boston Marathon in 2015?  I'd like to meet as many running friends as possible!!  Have you run the Boston Marathon before?  I'd love to hear about your experience!!