A weird thing happened on the way to Boston ...Some people qualify for Boston by sneaking in with a close time ... but my qualifying time was a little more than that. I qualified at the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan, Utah last year - a 17 hour drive from my house in Kansas City, Missouri. At the starting line of the race, I discovered my Garmin was completely dead. I freaked out! I had my pace-plan figured out down to the second and I couldn't afford to run any of the miles at something other than my predetermined pace.
As I began the race, I was sure I wouldn't qualify, so along the way I stopped to pee twice and walked for about 20-30 seconds at mile 25 ... having no idea what my time was. But when I rounded the final corner for the last tenth of a mile, I could see the clock and realized that I was still within reach of my BQ. So I started to sprint.
When I crossed the finish line, I thought I thought I had just missed it by about 10 seconds. I was devastated! I actually went back to my car, called Michael, and freaking CRIED like a baby for a minute or two. Yeah, I cried over a race ... pretty pathetic I know, but hey, I'm a sensitive little fella. I also cry at the end of "Rudy" and "Field of Dreams" ... whatup! She convinced me to go back and look at the posted final times just to make sure.
When I got to the posted times, I couldn't believe my eyes. I needed 3:20:59 to qualify. My official Top of Utah Marathon time was 3:20:59.3!!! I had topped my previous PR by over 23 minutes and ...
I qualified for Boston by two-tenths of a second!
Fast forward a couple of months ... |
| Top Of Utah Marathon Finish |
You all know the "problems" that the BAA had this past year with the race selling out within a few hours. The quick sellout actually factored in the change to the qualifying standard. I got online early the morning registration opened, and after some trouble actually getting into the website, I completed the registration application ... and that was that! Or so I thought!
That afternoon, Michael called me and asked me if I was sure that I was registered (because I have a way of screwing those things up.) I assured her that everything was fine. But I went back online to double-check. As it turned out - in my attempt to register, I had logged off of the site before hitting the "COMPLETE FORM" button at the bottom of the page. I was not actually registered at all. So I quickly completed the form again and this time his the "SUBMIT APPLICATION" button - and officially got registered. The race sold out less than an hour later! I had just slipped in again!
A couple of close calls to be sure, but maybe at the end of the day - it was just meant to be. Who knows. I'm one of those people who believe everything happens for a reason. So what's the reason? I dunno! But I can tell you I've enjoyed every step of the way and I can't friggin' wait 'til April 18th! Just a little more than a week now!
... be great today!
