To BQ, but not be at Boston.
13, 108...that's my Boston Qualifier marathon in seconds. Sure, it's spread out over 3 hours, 38 minutes and 28 seconds along a trail that was 26.2 miles long, but that's still a lot of seconds. Turns out that my first BQ was six seconds too many. It started out in 2008 at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. I was in great shape, for me that is. Shooting for a finishing time of 3:35.59 or less, my recent 20 miler and a couple of tune up 5k's said this was a very doable time. Funny how so many things can crop up on race day. As the race was about to start I realized the guy that passed my at mile 18 in the 20 miler was standing a couple feet away. We talked about goals and I thought I could just pace behind him for a while and see how it goes. Feeling good, as most of us do at the start, I kept within 50 yards or so for the first mile. Bad move, I was a minute ahead of pace! Ugh, what was he doing running so fast? I backed off and as I tried to reg