Nobody is gonna ruin Boston for me

If you look up "Boston" in a regular dictionary you get a card game, a dance, or a reference to a geographic place.  If you say Boston to a long distance runner you get a different meaning.  If you have ever run more than 13.1 miles you can skip the following paragraph, because you already know it.

Boston is the fuckin' holy grail of marathons.  It's not that it is just the oldest continuously run  marathon in the world and has a history that is connected to the Modern Olympics.. It is that you have to qualify for it.  You have to BQ, Boston Qualify.  Yes, this race has qualifying standards. You have to be fast. (yea, you can give a lot of money to charity and they can give a chunk of that to the Boston Athletic Association, but don't get me started on that.). For people who were given shit for genes like me qualifying for Boston is a dream. The people who do it are not like us.  They are the people who start in the front of the pack and finish when I am halfway done.  They are the people who casually walk down the street in that yellow windbreaker and have no idea what they are doing to me.

Back in the day, I did everything it my physical ability to break 4 hours in the marathon.  When I did  looked around for new goals.  Then, at age 36 I would have had to break 3:10 to BQ.  But 3:58 would have qualified me if I were 60 years old.  So in just 9 years I have to go back to the gym, loose a few pounds, get serious and run another sub 4 hour marathon.

Photo by Robert Reese at the 2013 Boston Marathon. 

But today I will drive.  I will drive to Boston.  Gonna borrow a big car and fill it up with my closest and newest friends.

I don't know about their reasons but I am going to say FUCK YOU to the little shits that want me to be scared.

I am going to show the people of Boston and those who go there to run that I am there for them.

Because one day, one day, they will be there for me.