Andrea looked over at me and said “What a view we have!”
If you had asked me in early March if I was going to be running the Boston Marathon, I would have replied with a “maybe.” Because of a minor four week setback with my calf, at that point my training was not near where I had planned to be. I was running again, but with […]
“Just go straight up the stairs to the right.”
In 1982, I was 25 years old. I qualified for The Boston Marathon at the Dallas White Rock Marathon in December of 1981, with a time of 3:05. (I had run one marathon before White Rock, the New Orleans Marathon, also in 1981.) When I received my results booklet after Dallas (these printed results came […]
From Chasing the Family Station Wagon to the Quarter Century Club
My eleven siblings and I were raised on a dairy farm in Reedsville, Wisconsin, by awesome, hard-working parents. Quite often instead of us taking the bus home, our Mom or Pa would pick us up from school in our old Ford station wagon, so we could get milking chores started earlier. In 1964 when I was […]
Running as the Bona Fide #14285
Though the 2014 Boston was not my “A” race of spring and I hadn’t been training specifically for a marathon, I’d been excited about it for weeks… First, it’s the Boston Marathon! Second, I had really strong feelings about running after being there and seeing the tragedy unfold the year before. And third, I would be running […]
Boston makes you stand taller, breath deeper, and run faster
Running the Boston Marathon was an incredible experience. Being part of a 118-year old tradition was both amazing and emotional. I qualified for the Boston Marathon in Paris in April 2013, a week before the bombings happened in Boston. I was still determined to be a participant in 2014. I arrived in Boston on the Saturday before […]
(As my dad’s favorite Disney Character Buzz Lightyear always says) “To Infinity & Beyond!”
I’ve participated in track & field since middle school (1998-1999), ran varsity track during high school (2000-2003), started running half marathons at college in 2004, and full marathons since 2005. When I moved to Canada in 2008, I ran my worst full marathon the following spring. I stopped running full marathons for a few years and […]
I got a bit emotional as I realized these people didn’t know me, but were cheering for me anyway.
My first attempt to train and qualify for Boston came in 2004 with the Chicago Marathon. I was training really well, and then while playing a large group game at camp, I did an unintentional back flip. Afterwards my knee wasn’t the same, but I decided to run the marathon anyway. I came so close […]
In a “my legs are tired” way, not in a “I might die, need to walk, or maybe vomit” kind of way
Wow. Well, obviously the aftermath brought a lot more emotions and many things to process far more important than the actual race. Things I never dreamed I’d be considering when recording my first Boston experience. But her I want to focus on the good and the positive that came before… My husband Monte and I […]
My legs were boycotting and there really wasn’t anything I could do about it
No one likes to write a race report about a race that didn’t go well. I questioned putting these thoughts out there, but I know eventually I’ll be glad I did. It will be good to look back on it in the future–hopefully when a race goes “right.” The first few days after the marathon, […]
Finally, a BQ at Boston
Brian and I hit the road early Sunday morning for the 3.5 hour drive to Boston. The drive was uneventful, and before long we were checking in to the hotel and making our way to the expo by 11:00am. The expo itself was a madhouse. There were so many people crammed into the space it […]
Remembering Happy Moments That Cannot Be Taken Away
Like many others, I sat down to write my race recap a couple of times in the immediate days after the race. It’s hard to write about something that forced you to feel so many conflicting emotions. I went to write one sentence and then slowly deleted it, thinking “Is that what I really want […]
In the last two miles, it finally sank in I was going to finish this marathon
Any story of Boston 2012 has to begin with the weather. Runners anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard were well aware of the brutally hot weather forecast for Monday, April 16th. At first I thought weather.com was playing a cruel April Fool’s joke on us – 89 degrees and sunny in mid April?! I’ve run three […]