A friend of mine ran a BQ this weekend
 

His first marathon was Vegas in '06, he ran it in 5:24:56.

He got serious about running, and got into Furman's FIRST training. This past weekend he ran a 3:30:35 and qualified for Boston with just 24 seconds to spare. Even more impressive is that he does every single training run on a treadmill. He never runs outside, with the exception of races, of course.

Yuck, I can't even imagine. But congrats to your friend, that is awesome. I plan on doing that it a couple of years, or at least trying.

or maybe not

http://www.bostonmarathon.org/Boston...Qualifying.asp

I thought that my times were already getting easier, but no. I would wait 3 more years before they add 5 minutes and still that is moving.

I know. I would have to take 31 minutes off of my PR to qualify. Not gonna happen. I don't have the time to devote to it, and most importantly, I don't care enough to try. My dream marathon is NYC, which I'm hoping to do this year.

My problem is that I have to compete with my wife, who has already run the Boston. And I think she is going to try and qualify again next year, making me look even more whimpy. I am trying to get just a bit faster so she can start with the elite women. She only needs to drop about 23 minutes off her best...

I'd have to run a 3:15 and that is never going to happen.

Yeah 3:10 for me doesn't look like it is going to happen any time soon either.

It is just that 3:23 that my wife ran 5 years ago is haunting me.

If I can run a good 1/2 marathon this fall I might consider giving a marathon a try next year or the year after.

That's right, I forgot your wife is a speed demon. That is cool. I've become quite accustomed to getting my butt kicked by lots of ladies, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Speaking of speed, there's a guy I went to high school with that runs. I knew who he was back in high school, but we never even exchanged "hello's". I just didn't know him at all. Well, he ran his first marathon back in '05, finished in 3:48. He also decided to apply himself to it, and last year, he won the Pocatello Marathon in 2:51:16. I finished an hour after him. I would have never guessed the guy had that kind of talent. He never played sports with us, never ran cross country, nothing. Pretty amazing. I read his blog occasionally, and his new goal is a 2:35, and eventually qualify for the Olympic Trials.

Ever since I started to run again I have always wondered if I'm ever going to get back to what I used to run in high school (running under 17:00 5K's). I guess I will have to wait and see. Deep inside I really don't think so, I think I will be happy to just get back to running under 20:00 5K. But I tell you one thing with all this weight I have gained my body sure is not used to it. I felt great on my run on monday and ran my fastest mile, but yesterday my body just felt like crap. Today I'm not feeling great either. I just can't wait when I get under 200 lbs.

That is some incredible improvement. I would never want to workt aht hard in order to get that fast.

Though watching the Xterra world championships the other day my wife and I had a discussion about whether or not I could compete as an age grouper. Her opinion was that if I got tougher mentally I could qualify and compete. I'd never win, but I would do ok. She even said I could be as good as some of the slower pros. I think she has an elevated opinion of my athletic abilities and her judgment is clouded by my stunningly good looks. Plus she is probably nuts. But if she really thinks these things I am having second thoughts about allowing her to help create my training plan. I may die.