Destination: Boston Marathon 2013

So now it all becomes real.  Less than one calendar year.  5 years ago my Uncle Steve told me that he hoped someday to run the Boston Marathon with me.  I was not a runner, not even remotely interested in trying to be one.  I made one vain attempt to rush into being a runner, got hurt, and quit for 4+ years.

Once I began running for real 13 months ago my Uncle again brought up the possibility of running Boston with him.  He wanted me to ride the bus from Hopkinton, family, side by side at the most famous race on earth.  I laughed still but deep inside I knew that it was my ultimate goal.  I never wanted to make that known too early on.  I mean, come on, who was I to say I’d run the Boston Marathon before I even completed a 5K?  I’m sure most would have shook their heads and thought of me as delusional.

Here I sit though, the 2012 Marathon just passed 2 days ago and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can’t think of a better metaphor.  In about 5 weeks I will begin a ‘beginner’ marathon training regimen.  The 20-week program will lead me almost exactly to the Cape Cod Marathon which happens in the last week of October.  My goal for that is 3:45, or roughly 8:34/mile. 

I will be very strict with my training, not going to stray from the allotted runs for any reason.  I do plan on running as many as 6 races during the summer, but they will all be shorter runs, no halfs.  Once the Cape Marathon is over I will likely rest a bit and then begin a similar training program for Boston.  Luckily for me I have a very strong connection which is going to help me get into the race, hey, it’s as much who you know as what you know usually, right?

This race, this goal, has taken on a far greater purpose for me with the news that my Uncle Steve has a fractured hip and is out indefinitely.  He has always supported me and stood by me even well before I was a runner.  Now I am going to do the same for him.  If it is at all humanly possible I am not going to let him give up on running.  He has run Boston several times, he’s an Ultra Marathoner, I believe that he is in too deep to not try to make the incredible comeback. 

I am going to be extremely focused and extremely determined to make sure that I am standing at the starting line in Boston in 362 days.  What once was a mythical place now feels like a real destination.  Soon I will be heading into uncharted waters, then again running in general was pretty uncharted when I began 13 months ago.  Boston 2013 is just the next logical step in my journey.

Certainly there will be times where I want to give up or slow down.  I’ll bet when I do my first 20-mile run, probably in the August sun, I will be wondering if it is all worth it.  All I will have to do is remember the bigger picture.  I want so badly to run this race.  It will be an amazing achievement to be able to always say I ran the Boston Marathon even once.  It will be an even greater honor to run it with my favorite uncle, and to be there with him to soak in the atmosphere and know that I pushed myself and made it to my ultimate destination. 

In my weakest moments I will keep those words and images in my mind.  They will keep my legs moving.  I will be there April 15, 2013 at the starting line in Hopkinton, nothing and nobody will shake me from my path.  Have you ever been motivated to run a race for someone other than yourself?  For those of you who have run marathons what was the training like for your first?  How much did it differ from previous training?  What should I be expecting?    

The motivation for us starts now.