What's This All About?

In December 2023, I decided to make a few life changes. I moved to a new city to break my daily routines and gave up drinking alcohol and soda. So far, I've lost 40 pounds and started running, biking, and canoeing. I'm not good at those activities, but I am improving.

For fun, I looked at the Boston Marathon qualifying times. At my current age of 57, the qualifying time is 3:35 minutes. The qualifying time for 60-year-olds, though, is 3:50, less about 5 minutes to keep the field to 30,000 people.

So, I'm starting a journey to qualify for the Boston Marathon and run the race as a 60-year-old. It's a far-fetched plan, to be sure. I haven't run consistently since high school. I ran a marathon then, but ironically, the posted time would not qualify a 60-year-old for Boston in 2024. I missed it by 12 seconds. My training for that event consisted of completing a cross-country season, taking a two-week break, and showing up for a marathon without a training run longer than 10 miles.

So, this blog will trace my journey from weighing 218 pounds and not running for decades to the world's premier marathon in three years.