.... it's the moment I've been waiting for since 25 September 2011 when I qualified for Boston at the Berlin Marathon.
after a 2 week L.O.N.G registration process, I received my email confirmation this morning that I have been accepted into the 2013 Boston Marathon! my eyes are still puffy from crying tears of JOY after receiving the news that my application has been accepted.
there are probably many people that don't know this personal story of mine - I qualified for the Boston Marathon back in 1997 - in my very first marathon - the Detroit Marathon. In fact, at the time, I don't think I'd ever run more that 12 or 13 consecutive miles before the race let alone aware of any Boston qualifying standards. I even ran the marathon in a ribbed tank top, short sleeve cotton shirt, long sleeve cotton shirt over that, long basketball shorts, and big tube socks (who needs all that techinical gear anyway!). Back then (now, I'm sounding old! - haha), your Boston qualifying time was good for 2 years. You could defer the first year and decide to run it the next year. I was in college at the time with very little 'extra' money or time, so I did not register for the Boston Marathon. The next year, I caught Mono and found myself barely able to walk to classes so Boston was out of the question that year. I attempted several marathons after that and coming as close as 1:00 and a few seconds off in Chicago and Las Vegas. As I interviewed for jobs during my last year of college, a common interview question seemed to be "If you had a chance to do something over - what would it be?" - and my immediate response was ALWAYS - "I wish I had registered and run the Boston Marathon." Most seemed puzzled by my response - but it's true - I wish I had gone to Boston. And to have 2 separate occations where I was SO close to qualifying again! ....one would think a minute and a few seconds would be so EASY to make up over 26.2 miles :)
the day I turned 35, I told Ross that I was so excited! why? because when I turned 35 I was placed in a different qualifying bracket for Boston! I would only need to run a 3:45 not the 3:40 standard when I was 30-34. we were living in Holland at the time and I had always wanted to run the Berlin Marathon - so I registered.... knowing this was my chance again to qualify for Boston! As I began to search the Boston website - I discovered that the qualifying standards had changed! - ugh! my heart sank - i STILL needed to run a 3:40 to get into Boston - all times were adjusted by 5 minutes because now so many runners were qualifying for Boston now.
My Berlin time gave me 4:24 seconds to spare under my BQ (Boston Qualifying) time requirement. but with the new application process, i knew my time/registration would be dependent upon how many runners that had a faster qualifying time than me.... on day 1 - people with a BQ -20 could register... the registration process continued for the week in increments of -10, -5 and then opened up to everyone on Monday, Sept. 17. Beginning on the 17th, runners would be accepted based on the fastest times by gender and age. On Friday, BAA announced that registration would continue on Monday, Sept 24th - which basically meant that everyone that applied over the last 2 weeks got in and they still have some spots left in the race! I knew I was in at that point - BUT i would not celebrate until I saw this:
finally - my name appears on the Entry List... along with a few other Randolph's :)
the Official Email Letter from the BAA - I'm IN - whoo hoo!
I wore my medal from Berlin around my neck for the last 2 weeks (i did take it off for running and showering though) -
in hopes that it would bring me good luck :) And some beautiful flowers from the man who supports me 110% ALL. THE.TIME... I am so thankful.... whether it's helping with the kids while I'm out for a long run, preparing dinner or getting the kids breakfast because I'm out for an early run, allowing me to run a marathon on his birthday, or listening to my words of doubt when I didn't think it was possible for me to achieve my goal!
