Can you qualify for Boston?

Where’s the line between mental and physical ability?

You listen to me talking about the dark place.  You hear me making declarative statements like ‘Anyone who is willing to do the work can qualify for Boston’.   And you wonder, “what about me Chris?”  You ask, “I’m an age grouper with no competitive racing experience. I started running to get in shape as I got older.  I started running to get in shape.  Then I got hooked and wanted more.  What about me?”

I think you can do it.  But I don’t know you.  Let’s talk about it.  Running marathons for a goal is a physical and mental challenge that you must understand to judge the limit of your ability.

I’ll tell you one thing that is almost universal: you can do more than you think you can.  For some reason, as humans, we let our big brains, as Vonnegut called it “that dog’s breakfast’ – we let that get in the way of accomplishing stuff.

The fact that I have qualified for Boston as many times as I have continues to surprise me.   Most of my success initially probably comes from the simple fact that no one told me I couldn’t.  I didn’t really think about it at the time.  I didn’t have any marathon experience and I lucked into an appropriate plan.

I got lucky and didn’t get injured.  I learned as I went.  I tinkered and fixed stuff.  I tinkered and broke stuff.  I tried to game the system and lost.  I tried just doing long runs, or just doing speed work once a week – and I crashed and burned more often than not.  But, through that process I learned a lot about my machine, my experiment of one, and the physical and mental aspects of putting together a successful qualifying campaign.

Sometimes I get asked for advice on this.  Mostly people just tell me the ‘they could never qualify’.   As a boss I had used to say ‘some people think they can, some people think they can’t, and they’re both usually right’.  The point being that until you think you can do it, or at least set that judgment aside, you won’t be able to.

At the core it’s a manifestation of fear.  Fear of failure.  Fear of ridicule.  Fear of success. Fear of the work required.  Until you can set all that aside you’re screwed.  It depends how your brain is wired but there are strategies for this.

First, take on the project of running a qualifying marathon as a learning project not a goal-based project.  Focus on the process, not the outcome.  Take the emotional weight out of the outcome.  Just commit to the training and see what you learn.

Second, if your head is all full of garbage fear maybe you need to write all that down somewhere on a “what’s the worst that can happen?” list to take the emotional weight out of it.  Likewise write down all the benefits – For me the benefits vastly outweigh the worst case scenarios.

Third, you have to have a ‘why’.  Why do you want to do it?  I needed to prove something to myself.  What’s your ‘why’?  Without it you’ll struggle to commit.

Let’s do a fun Socratic exercise.  I’m going to break you Boston wannabes into three categories.  For each of these categories I’ll define a set of attributes and I’ll tell you what it’s going to take to qualify.  I’m going to use categories that they gave my kids at swimming lessons when they were little.  Because that’s just the way I am.

Starfish:

Let’s start at the bottom of the pool, so to speak.  I’m going to call you ‘starfish’.  You’re more than 45 minutes away from your qualifying time.  You have never done speed work or any advanced training.  Maybe you’ve done a marathon for charity and it took you the better part of a day to finish.   You may have never even run a marathon.  Maybe you’ve got some physical limitations, like weight or form or maybe you’re just not designed to run faster.

I’m wondering why you decided to qualify for Boston, but, hey who am I to judge?  I don’t know if you can or not but you’ve got your work cut out for you.  You need to budget 1 – 2 years to build strength and speed and base.

First things first, though, you need to get your body ready.  You need to find someone who will break you down to zero, start from scratch and build your form up from the bottom.  You’re going to need to re-learn how to run, because you’ll need new mechanics to make the big leap required.

The first year will be fixing your form, your weight, getting strong and building a good aerobic base. You’ll become familiar with Arthur Lidyard and heart rate training.  Lots of slow controlled miles, with strength training and drills.

Once you have your mechanics figured out and your base built you will start layering on the advanced training to build your racing strength and speed.  This will mean quality speed, tempo and pace runs and lots of ‘em.  You’ll probably see a 50% improvement or more in your first race.  It will probably take 1 or 2 serious training cycles to get your ticket punched.

At the end of this long build, you’ll know whether or not you can do it.

Rock on my starfish friends if you’re willing to take on a 2+ year rebuild project, you can qualify for Boston.

Guppies:

The next group in the pool I’m going to refer to as Guppies.  Guppies are a bit more gifted than the starfish but haven’t figured it out yet.  Maybe they are casual, recreational runners, like I was when I first set out to conquer the marathon.

Guppies have a subscription to that popular running magazine with the tanned models posed mid-stride on the cover.  Maybe they’ve heard about it but they’ve never done serious speed work.  Guppies probably have a decent base of 15-20 miles a week.  They may have been at it for a year or so.  Maybe they’ve even done a marathon using one of the ‘just want to finish’ plans.

You’re less than 45 minutes away from your qualifying time.

What’s different about you guppies is that you have some athleticism.  Maybe you played soccer or ran cross country when you were younger. The key indicator is that when you ran your local 10k your pace was at or below your qualifying pace.  You’ve got potential, you just need to apply yourself.

All the guppies need to do is get a decent advanced training plan.  This plan should have you up at least into 40-50 mile range on your peak weeks.  This plan should have two hard workouts a week and a long run. You guppies should join a running club with a decent coach.  You need to spend some time training with the veterans and learning how to spend time in the dark place.

Within one or two training cycles you’ll have your BQ.  Guaranteed.  Unless you hurt yourself or go mental or have some other sort of adverse conditions gang up on you.

Mostly this transformation is the ability to handle the physical and emotional stress of making yourself very uncomfortable 2-3 times a week and learning from that – growing from that.

The Guppies are diamonds in the rough.  They just need a little commitment and polish to toe the line in Hopkinton.  These are the people I’m talking to when I cajole “Anyone can qualify if you’re willing to do the work!”  That’s you.

Barracudas:

The next group of kids I’m going to call Barracudas.  Now you folks are already in the thick of things and just need some direction.  You’ve trained with an advanced marathon plan and, although on paper everything added up to a BQ you had some spectacular failures with crashing or cramping or injuries.

You’ve probably come within 15 minutes of your goal but just can’t close the deal.

Maybe it’s just bad luck.   Maybe the truth is you’re terrified of success so you keep sabotaging yourself.  You need to get out of your own head, my friend.  It’s only training.

For most Barracudas finding the right coach is probably their best path to success.  They have the ability to train and race, they’re just not closing.  You need a coach that will mentor you not only physically but mentally. You’ll find it much easier to race successfully when you have someone you can offload the stinking contents of your brain onto.

A good coach will know how to serve up your plan so it builds success on top of success and builds confidence with fitness.

Schooling it all up:

Once you get past the point of understanding your ‘why’ and committing to the work you can qualify for Boston. Or at least get close.  I’ll guarantee the journey will change your life and will change the way you think about yourself.

Make no mistake, when I say ‘work’ I mean pain and effort and time.  You will have to commit to 1-2 hours of quality training every day.  For you starfish it will be a 2-3 year journey. For you guppies it will take 6 – 9 months.

What’s really cool is that even if you never meet your goal you’ll have seen what you can do.  You’ll have found your edge.  What you realize when you stagger across the line with your arms in the air is that it was never about the finish.  It was about the journey.

The value comes from those long runs in the freezing rain and those late nights at the high school track.   That’s where you’ll find your true self.