Marathon Majors

On October 3rd, 2005 I ran my first marathon; it was an utter and epic failure. On that sunny day in Milwaukee, I ran the first 16 miles in two hours. It took me two hours and 55 minutes to walk the next 10 miles. My debut marathon was a 4:55 and I was in tears.  Any thoughts of running a Boston Qualifying 3:10 were so far from reality that I wondered if I would ever run another marathon.



I did.

In the spring of 2006 I trained smarter, not harder, and ran the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.  On a perfect weather day, I was able to run 3:18 and officially had caught that marathon bug.  Despite the throbbing pain in my legs, I started to wonder if I'd ever been good enough to run at Boston.  Dreaming even bigger, I knew that somewhere along the way I would like to run all three of the U.S. marathon majors; Chicago, Boston and New York.



So I wrote it down on my bucket list.

While I thought that since I was so close to qualifying for Boston that it would be easy, I failed on my next attempt.  In doing so, I managed to complete step one of my goal and finish the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 3:16 in October of 2006.



Then on my second attempt to qualify for Boston in South Carolina at the Myrtle Beach Marathon I failed again.  This time I was a kick away from making the mark, as I finished in 3:11:12 and missed the mark by 13 seconds.  I was more heart broken in coming so close than I was in my near five hour finish in Milwaukee. The dejected look on my face tells the story of how I was feeling.



Despite the continued failures, I tried again in May of 2007 at Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.  This proved to be my day and with my parents sitting in Lambeau field at mile 25 to cheer me on, I was able to run 3:07 and finally qualify for the Boston Marathon.  The second leg of my marathon majors dream was not set into motion.



I would go on to run Boston in April of 2008, finishing just under the time I needed to requalify for the following year, notching a 3:09.  Chicago.  Check.  Boston.  Check.  Now was it possible to break 3 hours in the marathon?



In December 2008 I laid it all out on the line and after logging numerous hundred mile weeks and training to the breaking point, I raced Rocket City Marathon to a 2:54.  I felt like I had finally arrived as a marathoner and wanted to take my game back to Boston for another shot.



Boston 2009 went much better as I was able to stick with Dink Taylor for the first 16 miles before the Newton Hills and after struggling through to Boston College, was able to hold on to run 2:56.  Two marathons in a row under three hours.



While getting into Chicago was a matter of registering early enough to run amongst 40,000 other people, it took qualifying to run on Patriot's Day in Massachusetts in 2008 and 2009.  To get into New York, I would either have to be lucky and gain entry through the lottery, or I would have to bypass the lottery with a fast marathon time.  That would mean running under 2:55 again and after struggling to a 2:58 at Rocket City in late 2009, I wondered if I could do it again.



So in June of 2010 I started training to run my fastest marathon ever.  I put together a brutal training plan and booked a flight to Sacramento, where I would test my skills at the ultra fast California International Marathon.  After hitting some very fast times in training, including a 1:15:32 half marathon, I felt like I was ready.  Then on race day in early December, everything came together and I was fortunate enough to run a 2:43:40 which would ensure my entry into New York.  The final step of my marathon dream was not one step closer to reality.



In February, I ran a miserable 2:48 at Mercedes Marathon which was part of left over fitness from Sacramento as I had not done any training since December as I was suffering from burn out.  Despite the 1:20 / 1:28 splits, it still was my second fastest marathon ever and 5th marathon in a row under three hours.



With my 2:43 and 2:48, I was able to bypass the lottery and was accepted to New York and ten months later I would be in the Big Apple.  My short distance fitness was tremendous, having run 1:16 on a hilly half marathon in Winchester, TN but I had only run over 20 miles once in training.  So I was in great half marathon shape, but combined with an ailing right knee, shooting pains in my left inner calf and a possible torn rotator cuff, I was worried how the race might go. During the race, I held onto 6:10 pace for the first 10 miles, but was struggling on the rolling hills of Brooklyn.  I split the first half in 1:22 but by the base of the Queensboro Bridge, I was starting to drop off quickly.  I held onto 7 minute pace in the final 10 miles to reach my B goal and run 2:54:44.  That made six marathons in a row under 3 hours.



It has been nearly two years since my last marathon finish, having lost the later half of 2012 to injury.  Other than some minor fatigue from training, I am healthy and ready to finish a dream that started seven years ago. I have trained wisely, focusing on long quality training runs with plenty of miles at marathon pace.

I have been fortunate enough to run all three marathon majors; but now I want to run them all in under 3 hours.  Given my 2:56 at Boston, my 2:54 at New York, all that remains is a return trip to Chicago on October 13th and running the marathon one more time.  Then the Major dream will be complete.



I feel tremendously blessed to have been given the gift to run, the motivation to train hard and the determination to keep trying after failure. These medals have been a dream of mine for a long time, but the glory of finally earning them all goes to God.