At age 42, I ran the 2 greatest races of my life over a 6 week Period. On my 40th birthday, my love 😍 and her friend Mary threw me a surprise birthday party. Three of my running buddies were there. I told them I had researched the best age group for qualifying for Boston and we were in it. Never got them to try to qualify with me, but such is life. As I had 2 years before the eighteen month window would open for qualifying for Boston, I began looking at some potential race sites. I settled on Atlantic City for weather and a flat course. In anticipation, I ran a half marathon on the course one year before tackling the marathon. Race went perfectly, I set a half marathon PR. The course was out and back, with 2 bridges being the only hills on the course. 4 miles of the race on the out and the back were on the wooden boardwalk. Was like running on a trampoline.....
A year later in September, I towed the line for my first attempt to qualify. I had to run 3:20. I ran cautiously early, and at 10 miles was about 2 minutes ahead of the needed split. At the half turn around, was up 3 minutes. After that I sort of just ran and didn’t concern myself with pace. When I hit the boards for the last 4 miles, my friend Billy was there to drag me in. He said I was way early and safe. I was too brain addled 🥴 to even try to figure pace. When I saw the clock with a half mile to go at 3:06 I was stunned. I went thru at 3:10 and change. I sat down and cried for ten minutes...I had done it on my first attempt....
6 weeks later I was at the foothills on the Appalachian trail with 620 runners. preparing for the sun to come up and the start of the JFK 50 miler. Had no real time goal or expectation, other than to get in under 12 hours to be an official finisher. The first 6 miles were all uphill onto the trail. I really forced myself to walk and jog And just relax. Once up on the trail, I jogged pretty slowly. It was congested with runners 🏃 so didn’t want to trip or expend too much energy. At mile 16, you come down a switchback that’s is also very dangerous and congested. I just walked. A 33 yr old guy came up behind me and said yah, just walk....we’ll get to run the best section soon....26 miles on a smooth dirt towpath ......Deb met me, gave me fluid and food and the guy stayed with me till I took off. He asked me what time I was aiming for. I said just to qualify as a finisher. His goal was 7:30. He asked me what my recent marathon time was, and I told him my AC finish time. He said you’ll finish around 8:22.....the next 17miles went easy. Felt wonderful and yakked with the young guy. At 33 miles, I hit my first wall, and he took off and I walked a bit. Met Deb at 35 miles and she filled me and provided me fluid. The picture above was at 42 miles. I was in 25th place, but hit wall Again pretty hard. Ate and drank a lot and headed out for last 8 miles. It was all road and just rolled up and down. I jogged down and walked up....got passed a lot. Finally finished at....guess what? 8:22. Placed 61st. My time qualified me for my age group for the western states 100. Never made it there as I ended up with first back surgery and by 2 years later, my decline had begun. Deb took me to McDonald’s where I ate 2 Big Macs, a pie, and 2 chocolate shakes, and slept the first 4 hours of the drive home ....
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