Running To Boston

Halfway There

2009-07-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

I ran the Scotiabank Half marathon here in Vancouver on June 28, with a time of 2:11:24. Not bad, especially because I felt strong at the end of the race, and the next morning I woke up and wanted to do it all over again.

I learned a valuable lesson about pace, in that I have no idea about what is optimum or what's going to knock me out. I managed to spot a woman who was running at what seemed like the right pace and I followed her for several k, just before the 10k mark. Then, because I felt good, I took off...and she caught up to me at the 18.5 k mark, at which point I was plodding and losing time. So I tucked in behind her again, and her pace was magic...she took me to the finish line. I showed no gratitude and sprinted the last 500 metres, just because I was happy and relieved.

The marathon equivalent is still a long way from 4 hours...I have my work cut out for me, but I also have until February to qualify. The key is that I'm in the best shape I've been in for years...and that includes my attitude.

Woo-hoo!

Once More With Feeling

2009-06-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Just so you know... I'm back. The quest for Boston continues. I plan to run a marathon in October in under 4 hours.

I know, I know. I might as well announce I plan to grow cabbages on the dark side of the moon, and that will have as much credibility.

But, when you think about it, it makes sense. When the wheels fell off at 26 k at the May 3 Vancouver marathon, I was running well, then boom...cramps.

Because I didn't try to be heroic and run the whole thing, I've been able to recover fully and I'm ready to train for another crack at qualifying.

I have even arranged another window to deliver the book Running to Boston to the publisher, so here I am, a man with a mission and a plan.

So stay tuned. This time, it's going to happen.

Setback #....

2009-05-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

The dreaded Did Not Finish.

I should be used to setbacks by now, but I have to admit, yesterday's was a humdinger, and there's a word you don't hear too much any more.

I pulled up with cramps at Kilo 25 (15.5 miles) and pulled myself out of the race. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but at that point, the 4 hour pace bunny was still in sight and I was thinking I had a chance to succeed. Of course the last 10 miles are the hardest, but we'll never know, as the calf cramps were so bad, there was no question of continuing on.

So I limped back to my car, trying to get things into perspective.

It's the next day, and "perspective" remains elusive, but I thought I'd post the results (or lack of them). Once perspective emerges from its hole, I'll capture it and get back to you with some more complete thoughts.

This marathon thing is a long and winding road...

Paul

The Great White Whale

2009-04-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

So it's only 2 days 14 hours 33 minutes and 20 seconds until the Vancouver Marathon.

I'm not ready. I'll never be ready, so I might as well just show up and run the damn thing.

The quest to qualify for the Boston Marathon is very much like Captain Ahab and the white whale. I guess it's a "healthy" obsession, unlike the hunt for Moby Dick, but it certainly defines me in much the same way Moby Dick defined Ahab.

So it will be outstanding to get the whale off my back.

Do I think I can make it? Well, sometimes I think yes, and other times I think no. Last Saturday, for example, I went for a great nine mile run, at a pace even faster than the 9:11 required to run a qualifying marathon, and I was feeling pretty good. If I can duplicate that and keep it going for 26.2 miles, I'll be Boston-bound.

26.2 miles is a long way. Counting training runs, I think I've run that far up to 50 times over the years and it never gets easier, does it?

Today, it seems like a long way; I suspect that on Sunday it won't seem so far, as I try to keep up with the 4 hour pace bunny.

One final note. I'd like to dedicate this run to Rick Roberts, a training partner who had this race in his sights before he found out he had cancer. Whenever I starting whining about how hard it is, I'll think of Rick -- who really has something to bitch about -- and that will shut me up.

See you all at the finish line.

Paul

Why I Really Run

2009-04-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure when the penny finally dropped, but drop it has.

It turns out I don't really run to be physically healthy. I really run for mental health. It may seem obvious to someone with a little distance on the matter, but as I'm often lost among the trees of my own life, this revelation comes as a shot out of the blue.

And it feels like "oh."

And it feels like "a-ha."

It all happened sometime this morning. I got up at the usual time, around 5:45, and staggered around groggily for a while, allowing the routine to give me directions. Then, at some point, before I knew it, I was operating in a state of high normal: relacing a pair of running shoes,(which is an early morning IQ test) sorting socks out of the laundry basket, assembling the trash and recycling to take to the curb, answering emails, toasting a bagel...and humming.

Yes, humming. Not that more familiar drone of high anxiety, which is more like eeeeeeeeeee, but with a sense of cheerful well-being. I was awake, alert, almost bouncy with what felt like good health. It was such a surprise, I say down at the table, drank some coffee, and started to take stock.

Here's what I think is going on: around the time I postponed Surf City, I realized that in giving up on the 2009 Boston, I had just gained 15 minutes of qualifying time because I will turn 60 before the 2010 Boston Marathon...and it's your age on the day of the race that determines your qualifying time. And 4 hours, 59 seconds seemed more likely than 3:45:59. I redoubled my efforts, vowing not to miss a single scheduled workout nor go off Coach Shayla's nutritional plan. And so, since mid-January, I've been single-minded and disciplined. I've even given up diet pop, which I fondly regard as my last vice.

And, duh, I have felt better and better. I've lost 20-22 pounds in two and a half months. That has made running easier, and I can now run at the required marathon pace for at least 12-13 miles, which is as far as I've run at that pace to date -- on Saturday, I ran hills for the last five miles of a 17-mile run, and couldn't keep the pace up -- no hills on the marathon course, however, and it's still a month away, so I'm beginning to feel that it will be a fair fight come May 3 when I line up at the starting line of the Vancouver Marathon.

But whatever happens on that day, here's my happy little secret: I've already reached my goal! I just didn't know it was my goal.

I've been part of the way before...I've been leaner and faster and even stronger, but I've never felt as healthy. Or maybe more accurately, I've never felt as grateful for feeling healthy.

So now I get it, in a way that all the current commentators and chroniclers on the importance of fitness don't really make clear, or if they do, (and I'm willing to concede that I'm the problem, not the rest of the world ;-), it has taken a long, very long time to penetrate my thick skull.

It's finally clear that it's not about qualifying for Boston; it's not about extending life or preventing disease; it's not about avoiding prescription meds or defeating gravity, it's not about looking good; it's not even about feeling good, in that marvellous, clear-eyed animal way, although it is about all those things, too. What it's really about is receiving the greatest gift a human being can get: the gift of mental health.

Mental health is probably like the colour blue...even though we all know what we mean, it is different for every individual. To me, mental health means I can experience great joy in all the good things and people around me yet not let myself be overwhelmed by the darkness out there or inside, where shadows also linger. I now believe that I can vanquish those interior shadows, but that might be the enthusiasm talking.

The irony is that it's simple. Eat well, follow a sound nutritional and exercise plan, get enough sleep, and voila, mental health follows.

I can hear the protests..."wait a minute! I suffer from a real disease!" (fill in appropriate disease here) I hasten to add that physical or mental health may not be attainable under present circumstances through no fault of your own. Call it a universal disclaimer.

But...

I've had more than my share of: personal tragedies, diseases, addictions, and personal failings, including the inability to see the light even when it's shining in my eyes. I mean, I'm 59 years old, and I've enjoyed real mental health for about six weeks. I realize that I could end up in the hospital or the Slough of Despond next Thursday, but it's clear to me that I have, within my own resources, the best medicine there is: diet and exercise. I just had to find the right level -- too little is just not enough, and too much leads to injury and breakdown. But here I am, about 185 pounds, running 40 miles a week, working out in the weight room, on the spin cycle and in the pool, eating consciously and carefully, and the biggest benefit has been mental.

I realize that mental well-being is fragile -- as fragile and precious as physical well-being. But now that I have a measure of it, I will work hard, as hard as I'm able, to hang onto it. I may be disappointed if I don't finish the Vancouver Marathon under 4:00:59, but that will be tempered by gratitude.

This time, I like to think, I'll remember, I'll be mindful. I won't bury my new found insight under a mountain of fatburgers or double pepperoni and quattro fromaggio and such crap. I won't feel sorry for myself because I'm not as fast or as pretty as I was when I was 28. And I won't take it out on the people who, by some miracle I don't really understand, still love me.

...Next time, remind me to talk about "play" and "recreation" as a viable substitute for "workout" and "physical fitness."

I Ran 19 Miles on My 59th Birthday

2009-03-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

March 7, 2009, I turned 59 and went for a 19-mile run. No special commemoration--it was on the program that Coach Shayla Roberts has devised leading up to the May 3 Vancouver Marathon.

And the cool thing about it? Not really that big a deal. I felt pretty strong throughout the run, and didn't feel beat down for the rest of the day, which indicates to me that the training program I'm on has really taken hold.

And then the following Saturday, I ran 20, which was a bit harder...perhaps because I had not fully recovered from the previous long run. I've got a 16-miler coming up this week, so we'll see how it's going.

Also good: I weighed in under 190 pounds for the first time since 2005, when I barely tipped the scale at Thursday's weigh-in at 187.5. I no longer have to contend with tight clothing, so this race to qualify for the Boston marathon has its spin-off benefits.

I still wonder if I'm going to make it -- I can run sub-9 minute miles on the treadmill, but it's very difficult to gauge how fast I'm going out on the road. There is no margin for error--no time to get sick or injured. Today, poor Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone on his quest for an 8th Tour de France at 37, and I can sympathize. At this point, all I can do is stay on the program and pray for optimum health on May 3.

I'm also ramping up the visualization exercises. I'm trying to channel what it looks, feels, even smells like to run 26.2 miles under 4 hours. I've done it at least 4 times before at wildly divergent ages, the last time being the California International Marathon in 2004. At the time, I was trying for 3:45, so it felt like a failure to me. However, I felt great for 18 miles...so I'm trying to capture the optimism that went with the attempt, and marry it to the better form and strength I can bring to the race now.

Finally, I still have time to lose another 10 pounds, which would make me lighter than 2004, and if everything else is working, that will give me a psychological edge.

Stay tuned!

Paul

The Good Week

2009-02-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

Here in Vancouver, for the last couple of weeks, we're finally getting the kind of weather that induces people to move here from the Rest of Canada (ROC), which means 7-10 celsius days accompanied by Sunshine Lite...rarely are you required to wear sunglasses or flip the visor down to keep the sun out of your eyes while driving...it's always filtered through vaporous clouds or mist.

It may not be beach weather, but it's ideal running weather, and I've taken advantage of it by making every run on the schedule. They haven't all been gems, but I've worked hard to make each one a quality run. And it may be my imagination, but could it be I'm starting to feel stronger and faster?

For one thing, I've lost 7 or 8 pounds in the last couple of weeks. It's just made me feel a bit lighter on my feet and even up the hills, I don't feel the usual lead in my legs and my butt.

It's also possible that the last stretch of consistency in training is finally paying off. For some reason, Gravity, that constant pernicious foe, is hanging back for a brief moment.

So, success, be it ever so humble, breeds determination. I still have a lot of work to do: It's only 13.5 weeks from the Vancouver Marathon. But because I'll be trying to qualify for the 2010 Boston race, the target has also changed -- I'm now looking at a four-hour marathon, which seems a little less impossible than 3:45 -- because I'll be 60 when the 2010 race is run.

I'm going to need a break. I went over the results of the Surf City Marathon, and noticed there were 11 guys between 55 and 59 who ran a qualifying marathon. One of them, some superman from Santa Rosa Valley California, ran the race in sub-7 minute miles. But that's out of almost 100 guys in that age category who finished the race, or about 10 per cent. So, it's confirmed...it's not easy to qualify.

Not easy, but not impossible either. Stay tuned.

Surf City, We're Not Coming

2009-01-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the Surf City Marathon will go ahead on Super Bowl Sunday and I won't be at the starting line. In fact, I'll be lying in my bed back in Vancouver feeling a little sorry for myself.

Just a little. It would be great to run along that wonderful stretch of Huntington Beach and every marathon fosters a sense of accomplishment.

And there goes another opportunity to qualify for Boston. But seriously folks, I just wasn't ready, and I have to face that fact and make sense out of it. That process of making sense is the consolation prize in this latest deferral of the Quest to Qualify.

Making Sense Conclusion #1: I haven't lost enough weight to run a consistent 8:30 mile. I can run a consistent 9:30 mile, but that doesn't cut the mustard.

Making Sense Conclusion #2: Not enough miles, Sherlock. I haven't been running enough consistently to run a 26 mile marathon and do well.

Making Sense Conclusion #3: Not enough miles, not enough pounds, not competitive enough.

Making Sense Conclusion #4: The door is open to a new opportunity. After a decade of not qualifying at 3:45, I will now be 60 years old (Yikes!) during the running of the 2010 Boston marathon. That means I can qualify sometime in 2009 in 4 hours (and 59 seconds). This seems pretty do-able to me. That's the time I ran in Sacramento in 2005, (although I was 20 pounds lighter). It wasn't exactly easy, but it was very do-able. Of course I haven't run anywhere near the 9:11 per mile pace required with any consistency, but the extra 15 minutes has given me a new target and new motivation for the Quest to Qualify.

Making Sense Conclusion #5: So for my vast public, my apologies for missing the latest Window of Opportunity, and a pledge: 2010 or Bust! This is ideal timing: running the Boston Marathon just after my 60th birthday would be a memorable gift indeed.

Making Sense Conclusion #6: The next window of opportunity is right here in Vancouver, the Vancouver International Marathon on May 3, 2009. I've run the course before and know all its idiosyncrasies. A little over three months from now, I plan to be fitter and faster and qualified for Boston 2010. Hang in there!

The Plot Thickens

2008-12-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for my time in the California International Marathon, which was run yesterday, the more observant among you will notice that I have no time in the California, etc. That's because I didn't run.

Well, I did go for a run yesterday -- six miles around the Stanley Park Seawall, but as world peace was a better bet than Paul running under 3:46, I decided to conserve my energy and target the Surf City Marathon on February 1, 2009, in Huntington Beach.

I'm still game. I think I can do it, especially if I continue to improve over the next two months. I also think I can do it if I lose some weight. I admit it's going to be close, but that makes it more exciting, for me at least. I've always been a deadline kind of guy, anyway.

Meanwhile "Running to Boston" continues to get written, mostly early in the morning. It's an early morning book, not a late night book, although I'll admit I've transported some late night thoughts into the early morning writing.

One of the most troubling is the following: Why didn't I follow through all the way back in the early 80s when I was running fast, and qualify? Was I just too casual or is it deeper and darker, something about a life-long aversion to success? Whatever, what I would give to have that 30-year-old body back now when I need it!

Still, while scrolling through yesterday's times, I noticed the following entry:

1818 DENNIS KROCHAK 3067 M60-64 16 M 1374 61 03:45:40 00:08:36 01:46:34 03:45:37 VANCOUVER, BC, CAN.

Translation: Fellow Vancouverite and old guy Dennis Krochak, 61, finished 1818th in a chip time of 3:45:37, placing 16th in his age class. He crunched his qualifying time -- at 60, it's 4:0059 -- but if Dennis, who's a couple years older than I am, can do it, it gives me a boost. Way to go Dennis!

I also notice someone named Paul Krochak, 33, finished 27th, which leads me to speculate that the Krochak family has good running genes, especially because Dennis and Paul wore numbers 3067 and 3068 respectively.

Surf City or Bust!

Paul

Here Comes Old Slowfoot

2008-09-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

I ran the Nike Human Race 10k on August 31, and came 130,157th in the world, at 1:06:02. My time was better than Mexico City's average of 1:06:05, making it the 18the out of 26 cities. My own city, Vancouver, came fourth, just out of the money behind Madrid, London and Buenos Aires.

It was a fun event and the conditions in Vancouver were perfect. A mob of red shirts ran into a beautiful west coast sunset -- it was almost dark when I crossed the finish line. I got into a race with an Aussie, who kept pulling in front of me throughout the last kilometre. I finally waited until the last 100 metres, then pulled a kick out of somewhere and passed him for good. "Well done at the end there, mate," he said, so I felt a little better about my race and Aussies in general.

For the most part, I was disappointed and a little alarmed at my time. How am I going to run 26 8 minute and 30 second miles if I can't run six 10 minute miles only 13 weeks before the California International Marathon? My post-race analysis-spin has me believing that if I had paced myself better, I would have broken one hour and would have ended up feeling better about the effort. I started off at a 54 minute pace, and ran out of gas at about 3 kilometres. If I had started at a 60 minute pace, I believe I would have had the wheels for a negative split.

Sounds good, anyway.

My secret weapon for Sacramento, apart from weight training and improving my technique, all under the watchful eye of coach Shayla, will be losing weight and increasing my power to weight ratio. I've been more diligent as I draw toward the deadline, trying manfully not to eat anything outside my 1800-calorie a day plan. When I was running marathons in the 90s, I was in the mid-170s, the last time I was that light. In 2004-2005 when I ran a couple of 4 hour marathons, I was 185. It's conceivable, although not a slam dunk, that if I can make it to 175 by December, the day of the Sacramento race, I will by able to run sub-3:45 and qualify for Boston. All I have to do is lose 20 pounds in three months!

So far, it's been a very good week (although it's only Monday!). My goal is to become a bit fitter, a bit stronger, and a bit skinnier every day...

2008-08-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

After yesterday'a run, I'm starting to feel genuinely optimistic about qualifying for Boston. Here's why: it's been weeks since I ran on the treadmill, so I was surprised when I found it easy going for the first mile at 9:13 minutes a mile. So, at Mile 1 I increased the speed to 7.0 mph, which is just under the 8:35 minutes per mile I need to run a qualifying marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes. I kept it up for the next five miles, and my heart rate did not go above 80 per cent, although it was starting to creep up to 85 in the last few minutes.

I realize that a treadmill is easier than the road -- there is no elevation and you have to keep the pace steady or fall off -- but I was heartened by the ease with which I ripped off six miles. Of course, there's still a big distance between 6 and 26, and my recent marathons (and half marathons) have tailed off at the end. But I felt strong and it felt easier than it has in years, easier than when I was running 8:30s in 05. It could be an aberration--I'll be able to tell better after a few more tries.

If this pace holds, I believe it's a testament to Shayla's program. I haven't ruined my legs by trying to run long distances at this point, so I don't feel hobbled or stiff and sore. Frankly, I haven't enjoyed a run that pain free and easy for more than a decade. Woo hoo. Stay tuned!

2008-07-07T08:21:00.001-07:00

By the way, I'm booked! Boston Qualifying Run: Sacramento, the California International Marathon: 7 am Sunday, December 7, 2008. The goal: 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 45 minutes, 59 seconds or less!

Paul

2008-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

The run on Saturday, July 5, was one of the best I've experienced in a long time. Consistency in training is paying off. Legs feel stronger and relatively pain-free; I say relatively, because I still have a little knee pain and hamstring action, not to mention tight quads. But overall, I had more spring in my step Saturday morning. I also felt lighter, testament to keeping the diet under control. It was a hope-inducing session--this crazy idea of qualifying for Boston in December suddenly doesn't seem so crazy after all.

The weather Saturday a.m. was muggy and damp. So far, summer in Vancouver has fizzled. I hope it begins in earnest this week. Normally Saturday morning, coach Shayla Roberts runs a bike/run clinic, but because of the wet roads, it devolved into a run clinic. Maybe that's why I felt so strong on the run -- this time it wasn't preceded by a two-hour bike ride. I was a little disappointed, though, because bike mechanic extraordinaire JPro had fixed my bike up after its crash (another story...) and as it was the first morning of the Tour de France, I was poised to join the peloton.

Oh well, Shayla, who knows the trails in Stanley Park better than the raccoons, found a loop with two nasty little hills built in and had us go around it three times, focusing on technique as we ran. I have to concentrate on pushing off and finishing my stride as well as using my arms as locomotion and not as a way of clenching. So that was the drill. And on the warm-down, when Shayla said, "nice and easy", it didn't feel like speedwork! Minor breakthrough. Stay tuned for more!

Paul

2008-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hello sports fans. I've been tardy, to say the least, about updating this blog. But I do want you to know that the quest to qualify for Boston has begun in earnest. Here's how:

1) Workouts are going well. Have made the last 12 in row.

2) Diet and nutrition is also going well. I eat the same three meals each day because it is simpler that way, but they are healthy, balanced, calorie reduced meals.

3) As a result, I've lost 10 pounds in two weeks.

4) As a result of 1 through 3, I've dropped a minute a mile off my run time. I in no way expect this kind of progress to continue so rapidly, but it's definitely a breakthrough, and for the first time in years, I actually believe I can do it.

My next pledge is to update this blog at least once a week, on Wednesday. That's not to say I can't add supplementary posts but the trick is to update it at least once a week. That way, I'll actually have a diary composed for the book that accompanies this quest.

Until next Wednesday!

Paul

2008-02-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe it's been six years since the last time I posted here!

But this is the rebirth/relaunch/revival of "Running to Boston", the project and the book. After a number of years of false starts, including a disastrous 2006 when I tried to mount a comeback and was felled like a rotten tree with a double injury (more on that later), I've decided to try to qualify to run the 2009 Boston Marathon.

At my age (58, March 7, 2008) that means I have to run a 3:45 marathon sometime in the next 11 months. In 2004, I came close a couple of times, posting a couple of 4 hour marathons in Portland and Sacramento, but that was fours years ago...and before I was injured. Now, I'm recovered and training well, but I'm still too much of a Clydesdale (200.5 pounds, but who's counting?) and boy, am I slow. ButI'm confident that as I lose weight (and I will lose weight), I'll get the speed back. I have a terrific coach with the will and knowledge to get me there...and it's time!

Time to close the loop on a story that began on Easter 1977, when I was fat, drunk and desperate. Qualifying for Boston was something I set out to do after reading Jim Fixx's book. At the time, my hands were shaking so badly I could not lift a coffee cup without spilling it...or, for that matter lift The Joy of Running off the table to turn the page. I have yet to qualify for Boston, but in the meantime running--and marathoning have saved my life. Now it's time to take care of unfinished business!

So please come by in the days ahead and check on my progress. Any help or moral support you bring to this blog will be very much appreciated. I'll keep you posted on the ups, the downs and the sideways along the road. Frankly, I have no idea if it will happen, but something tells me it will....stay tuned!

2002-12-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Limping to Sacramento

Hi Folks: Here's the post-Sacramento update I promised. The California International Marathon started at 7:05 a.m., Sunday, December 8, and I was in the mob at the start line. Conditions were perfect. Light wind, slight haze obscuring the sun, temps in the high 40s (8-9 Celsius) to start.

First: I didn't qualify for Boston. I guess I wasn't ready or else, as my running buddy Steve would say, the stars weren't aligned. But I did finish--in 4:32!

Had a lot of trouble--started out at about an 8:30 pace, maintained it for about five miles, started to fade, suffered a charley horse, stretched it off, then faded some more, got another charley horse at 13, stretched it out, and faded some more, etc. Then came the cramps, brought on, I suspect by Sacramento's water, which has to be the worst I've ever tasted (That was the only bad thing about the race). At 3:35, which is the required qualifying time for my age group, guess where I was? Yep. Poetic justice.

Perhaps the most amusing/humiliating moment was when I was passed by 80-year-old Helen Klein, who went on to set a world record for her age category (about 1 minute in front of me!) Read more about her on the Runners World site: http://www.runnersworld.com/home/0,1300,1-0-0-ZNEWS,00.html

So it's a setback for Paul Sullivan, but not a terminal one. I'm already setting my sights on The Pacific Shoreline Marathon http://www.marathonrun.com/feedback.htm It goes on January 26, and is the last chance I have to qualify for Boston. I'll make the decision after talking it over with my coach and myself. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Paul

2002-11-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

Running to Boston
Paul Sullivan

Hello Fellow Runners, Marathoner-Wannabes, and Just Folks. This Blog will be the ongoing story of my effort to qualify for the Boston Marathon, at the ripe old age of 52. As you will read if you wade through "The Back Story", which follows, I've contracted with Greystone Publishers of Vancouver, Canada, to write a book about this experience. We're calling it Running to Boston.

Rob Sanders, my publisher, believes that my attempt to push back the ravages of time and achieve a 25-year-old dream will fire the imaginations of other Boomers who are also deteriorating nicely. The book contract has certainly helped me focus on the task at hand, and to think about ways to help others along the road to Boston. This blog is also a good way to reach out to the running community for advice, and (I hope encouragement). Your suggestions, stories and observations will help make Running to Boston a better book. You can find out more about Greystone and its titles at www.douglas-mcintyre.com

The good news? The Boston Athletic Association www.bostonmarathon.org has recently added five minutes to the qualifying time for 52-year-olds, from 3 hours and 30 minutes to 3 hours and 35 minutes, so thanks to the BAA for small mercies. My first attempt is coming up on December 8, at the California International Marathon in Sacramento, which is only 9 days away. According to the Boston Marathon site, it's one of the most popular qualifying marathons. If I don't make it, there's still San Diego and Huntington Beach, and if I don't make either of them, it's probably Next Year Country. Wish me luck!

I was helped along the way by my Online Coach, Weldon Johnson, one of the famous Johnson brothers (he's Wejo, the other one's Rojo. Weldon bills himself as the fastest man in America without a shoe contract, and his Web site, www.letsrun.com is a great source of running news and tips. So please read The Back Story, and stay tune for sporadic (not spasmodic) updates on this Blog.

The Back Story:

If you’ve ever run a marathon, you’ve probably dreamed about running Boston. The 107th running of the Boston Marathon is coming up on Monday, April 21th, 2002. It’s the oldest marathon in North America. It’s always run on the third Monday in April, and is as great a ritual of spring as that other hoof-fest, the Kentuck Derby. It’s arguably (there are a lot of great marathons out there) the best marathon on the planet. It’s certainly the most famous.

It’s also the only marathon that requires entrants to qualify by running at a certain pace, set by age, in a prior qualifying marathon. Boston is a serious marathon.

There is a mystique to Boston, a mystique which is enhanced each year by the remarkable stories that are pounded out on the streets of Boston. Such as:
· Boston features the famous Heartbreak Hill. April 20, 1936: The last of Newton's hills was given the nickname "Heartbreak Hill" by Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason. When John A. Kelley caught eventual champion Ellison "Tarzan" Brown on the Newton Hills, Kelley made a friendly gesture of tapping Brown on the shoulder. Brown responded by regaining the lead on the final hill, and, as Nason reported, "Breaking Kelley's heart." Kelly, by the way, won the race in 1935 and again in 1945, owns the record for most Boston Marathons started (61) and finished (58). His final race came in 1992 at the age of 84.

· In 1980, Rosie Ruiz became the patron saint of cheaters, when she appeared to come out of nowhere and win the women’s division in the third fastest-time ever. Unfortunately, the run was subway assisted and she was disqualified a week later. She swears she will run Boston again someday, “by the book”, although she has never admitted to cheating.

· Boston Billy Rodgers (with a little help from Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter and author Jim Fixx, who wrote The Complete Book of Running), launched a worldwide running boom after winning 5 Boston and four New York Marathons between 1975 and 80. Unlike other sports heroes, Boston Billy was laid back, funny, and unassuming. He was also nowhere near as rich. When I started running back in 1977, I wanted to be just like Frank, Jim and Boston Billy, slim, fast and ultra-fit.

After I ran the 1979 Manitoba Marathon in 3:45, I figured it would only be a year or two before I joined the surging throng in Boston. But although I’ve run 12 more marathons in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Minneapolis, Portland Oregon and Los Angeles, I’ve never run Boston. I’ve never even qualified, although I did come close in 1994, when I finished the Portland Marathon in 3 hours and 40 minutes, a personal best.

So I’ve got some unfinished business. I have something to prove--to myself. I never did become Boston Billy, and even he’s no longer the Boston Billy of old. He tried to break the over 50-record in 1999, and gave up five miles before the finish of the race, another victim of Heartbreak Hill. Although he was literally over the hill, it was a brave and audacious run, and I’m going to have be at least as brave and audacious to even qualify.

I turned 52 on March 7. To qualify, men between the age of 50 and 55 have to run a marathon in 3 hours and 35 minutes on a Boston Athletic Association approved course. That’s 5 minutes less than my personal best, run eight years ago. To do that, I have to run an average of 8:15 minutes a mile for 26 miles.

Six months ago, I was lucky if I could run five miles in an hour. While I have never actually stopped running since 1977, there have been as many valleys as peaks. Back then, I quit smoking and lost 80 pounds in an orgy of self-denial and hope for the future. If you’d told me then that on November 1, 2001, I would be as fat as I’d ever been and still hadn’t run the Boston Marathon, perhaps I never would have begun the journey. Of course, I would have missed some great runs. I would have missed some moments of great joy. And I would never have made some of my best friends.

Still, last November, 2001, at 250 pounds, fat and unhappy, I felt as if the great journey I had set out on was over, and I really had not accomplished anything. In fact, it was as if I hadn’t begun. But then, something happened. For the third time in my life, the runner in me turned up at the starting line. 1977 was the first time, and I stayed strong until my mid-30s when my resolve to train was eroded by the pressures of life and work. Then, in 1993, when I was the host of the Early Edition on CBC Radio in Vancouver, my producer Anne Penman helpfully signed me up for the YMCA marathon clinic, and by 1994, I was as lean and as fast as ever.

But life again, plus a few more injuries, led me off the road and into the ditch. Now, here I am again. At the starting line, the finish line nowhere in sight.

Don’t ask me why diets work sometimes and not others. I began, just like all the other times, in a moment of self-disgust and penitence, but without much hope. After all, I’d become a bit of a diet junkie, even sinking to fads like the protein diet, which left me feeling like I’d overdosed on tuna. But this time, although I had no confidence, I went back to Weight Watchers and it worked. It is now November 29, and I weigh 180 pounds. I lost 70 pounds in less than 4 and a half months, and have kept it off for a year. Go figure.
Once I start losing weight, good things start to happen. Clothes fit; it’s easier to get around; I’m not tired all the time, and I’m not hungry all the time. It feels as if I’ve got my life back—that I, not Pizza Hut, is in control of Paul.

Running gets easier too, and when that happens I feel free. That’s the word. Freedom’s just another word for room to move, a feeling that you can run forever, and conquer every hill and every rain storm with equal aplomb.

Somewhere around 190, I remembered that unfinished business about Boston. And until I run Boston, it will continue to feel as if the main goal eludes me. It goes deep—Boston is a symbol to millions, and it’s a symbol to me—of a journey toward hope and freedom, a journey it is time to resume.

The odds are this is the last chance I’ll have. Biomechanically, things have definitely not improved since 1994. How many more times can I hope to ask my body to respond to one of these calls to action? I’m sure there are millions of other boomers sitting at their desks, dreaming one last dream of glory before they get the senior’s discount. Yet, this time is different. I realize, finally, that the goal is not to become Someone or Something other than the best “me” that I can be. It’s not about being Boston Billy (North). It’s about being Paul. Finally.

Paul Sullivan
Vancouver
November 29, 2002
psulli@sullivanmedia.com