Runners train for Boston Marathon

By Chad Buck

March 12, 2005 | Waking up early one Saturday morning and you look outside and realize that it is 10 degrees and you are about to embark on a 16 mile adventure takes a lot of motivation. This is what it takes to train and qualify for the Boston Marathon, better known as the Super Bowl of running.

The Boston marathon is what the majority of marathoners aspire to run during their running career. Many have asked what it takes to qualify for one of the oldest and most prestigious marathons in the nation. Runners have been participating in this race for well over 100 years now and will be for many more to come. It used to be considered a more prestigious marathon than the Olympics. Now many that have participated in the Olympics games have chosen to also run the Boston Marathon.

Rob De Castella in the book 26 Miles to Boston said of the course, "If you feel bad at Mile 10 you're in trouble. If you feel bad at Mile 20 you're normal. If you don't feel bad at Mile 26 you're abnormal."

Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is no easy task for most runners and some spend a lifetime and never get an opportunity to obtain it. When deciding to run my first marathon I had high aspirations of qualifying but soon fell short to the marathon gods and was only able to run a 3:18, which was 10 minutes shy of qualifying. All hard work was not lost because it gave me hope to qualify in my next race. In the spring of 2004 I ran the Tri-State Marathon and with my extensive training and better knowledge of marathons I was able to shave off 12 minutes, and now I could officially start training for the ultimate race, the Boston Marathon.

Dr. George Sheehan in the book 26 Miles To Boston said, "Everyone who finishes the Boston Marathon has their own great moment in sports. Each one of us, on this day, has achieved greatness."

The Boston Marathon began on April 19, 1897, and the race was only 24.5 miles long and was run from Irvington Oval in Boston to Metcalf's Mill in Ashland. The first winner was John McDermott of New York with a time of 2:55:10. They moved the starting point to Hopkinton in 1924 and soon lengthened the race to 26.2 miles to conform to the Olympic distance. There are on average over 500,000 spectators that line the course each year. The Boston is held annually on Patriots Day which is a holiday commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War.

Paul Bernards, a USU student, said, "Boston is the ultimate experience, it's what all marathoners strive to do."

Bernards is veteran runner who qualified and ran the Boston Marathon last Spring. It took him two marathons in order to qualify. He said he attributed his running to his soccer coach that put him on a strict diet and running schedule. He said being dedicated through the cold Logan winters helped him accomplish his goal. "Boston was so exhilarating, not just the race ifself but the hype when the whole city focuses on the marathon."

The Boston Marathon has stood the test of time where other marathons have failed. People get out of the martathon what they put in to it. The city of Boston has gone great lengths to make the marathon an extraordinary experience for all that participate in it. In the past the marathon clock was stopped at 3:35 whereas other marathons were just getting started at that time. Now they give you a six hour window in which to finish the marathon.It is still one of the only marathons to make you run a qualifying time to enter the race.

Ben Pederson, a USU student, said, "The accomplishment of finishing a marathon is amazing." You are in an elite group of people when you say you have run a marathon, Pederson said.

Being around other people who are motivated to run makes it easy to get excited about preparing for a marathon, Pederson said.He has run one marathon and has been running for about eight years and hopes to qualify for the Boston marathon in the near future.

Pederson said, "Being dedicated to something as difficult as training for a marthon and then being able to accomplish it is the best feeling."

There are many who are looking to start a training program for a marathon but don't know where to start. Online there are many free Web sites that can help you jumpstart your training from ground zero.

"Training for your first marathon can be a real challenge here in Logan," said Matt Ethington, USU student. Ethington said that his ultimate goal is to qualify and run the Boston Marathon but he plans to try to focus on just finishing his first marathon. "It takes a lot of dedication to train in the frigid cold in Logan."

The city of Boston will continue to host its annual marathon and bring people from all over the world to experience the thrill of running one of the world's greatest races.

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