Getting back to Boston

January 02, 2026

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Location:

Fort Smith,AR,USA

Member Since:

Jan 01, 2008

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

Dec. 5, 2009 -- St. Jude Memphis Marathon, 3:31:56. Boston qualifier for 2011. Two-time Boston finisher. 19 marathons so far in 10 states, Canada, Germany, England and Sweden. Next up: London (4/25/17)

5K -- 21:57; 10K -- 45:54; 20K-- 1:42:39, Half -- 1:39:30. All subject to improvement. Maybe. Or maybe not.

Short-Term Running Goals:

Short-term: Just get my motivation back and go from there

Long-Term Running Goals:

A lot of marathons, and other distances, slowly.

Personal:

Physician assistant/hospitalist, divorced since December 2010, one child (son). Ran high school track, took 10 years off, ran a 15K on my 25th birthday, took off next 21 years.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
5.020.000.000.005.02

Well, I'm 50 now. I've been bombarded by birthday wishes on FB, which is kinda overwhelming. I've gotten like 50 or so, and it's not even noon. My cellphone is detonating from the notifications. Mumber called too, right after my run.

Went to Ben Geren for the morning's run. Forgot the watch, which was just as well; just tried to keep a smooth, comfortable pace, then push it just a bit on the last lap. Looped around the parking lot twice for a little extra distance, so I'm estimating total at 5.02 (0.4 around the parking lot). I'm guessing the pace was in the 9:30ish range, a little faster on the last lap. Need 24 miles now for 100 for the month. Sounds more doable, even though it's just five a day, every day.

Not ideal having to work 12 hours on my birthday, but sitting down to check my e-mail this afternoon and finding that my entry to the Boston Marathon has been accepted makes up for a whole bunch of it. I've had to fight hard not to let myself go whole-hog for this; the nagging voice keeps saying something is going to go wrong. I wasn't going to qualify, they were gonna change the qualifying standards (they still might, but not for 2011 :) ), my entry wasn't going to be accepted, I wouldn't be able to afford the trip, blah blah blah. Well, I qualified, I'm in, I have an affordable room by central Boston standards, I can do frequent flyer miles for the flight, I can get time off from work (and I have a job to get time off from). There's still the chance of getting hurt, which I'll be extremely paranoid about since they're not taking deferments any more, but everything else has fallen into place. And how sweet is it to get the notification on my 50th birthday? Aww, man.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00
Comments
From SlowJoe on Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 19:23:26 from 214.13.130.104

I'll add another happy birthday to ya then. Saw your name and I had to check and see what it was that a spider pig does. Congrats on getting a step closer to running the Boston Marathon.

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