September 28, 2017

So I'm Boston Bound-Hello Boston Marathon 2018!


So my goal of getting accepted to run the Boston Marathon is becoming a reality. I received an email in my inbox last Sunday night that looked like this: 


boston-marathon-bound-2018-acceptance


I saw the subject line in my inbox and was like HOLY SH#&! 

Now I had put in my application on Friday when it opened up for qualifiers who had a  time over 5 minutes under the qualifying time. I was expecting to hear back on Monday, because silly me assumed people weren't working fast enough to verify results and get a bunch of emails out on Sunday night. So just randomly checking my email Sunday night as dinner was cooking literally really caught me by surprise and I yelled and then got a bit teary. So it was more like omgomgomgomgomogomg


thehills-excited



And then randomly crying on and off. 

I celebrated with some prosecco and supermarket chocolate cake! Okay so really I was planning on having the cake before I got the email, but it was clearly meant to be.


boston-marathon-bound-2018-acceptance2


Running a qualifying time with a big cushion this past year at the Chicago Marathon was really special. Like really FREAKING special. It's been weird since then when I'm talking to people about having another qualifying time with a cushion most likely to get me accepted into the race based on previous years, but not having that official acceptance. I've been saying "well I ran X time, but do not know if I'm officially able to run the race yet." That leads to me explaining that there are only 30,000 spots available for the race with 80% going to qualifiers and the remaining 20% of spots going to charity runners. Therefore in recent years more people apply with qualifying times then there are spots available. This year the cutoff below the qualifying time ended up being 3:23 (more info here). 



I feel like I could drag on about how hard I worked for this.That I had a really freaking strong training cycle last year despite slogging through full-time graduate school, coaching, and working over 25 hours a week, etc.Then that I also had a really great race day where I stuck to my race day plan and things turned out better than expected. 


This dream I've had since running my first full marathon, and yes it was only a dream at first, of qualifying for Boston is REALLY HAPPENING. I know a bunch of friends and virtual running friends who will be there running, and even my parents are planning to watch me run (who have never seen me run a marathon before!). This is one of those big long-term goals that I've finally achieved. Obviously because they are big and long-term, it's not the type of  goal you are crushing every day or even every year. The hard work, the journey makes it even sweeter. 


I want to make you feel super inspired or could babble on about how important this goal is to me, but don't know what I can say that doesn't sound cliche or silly. So here's a little token of my journey I shared on social media. 

💙5 yrs ago (the weekend I received my acceptance email, actually) I ran my first half marathon at Rock 'n' Roll Philadelphia
💙 4 yrs ago I ran my first full marathon- the Baltimore Marathon
💙2 yrs ago I qualified by 12 seconds but wasn't accepted to run Boston due to number of runners who applied vs. spots available 
💙1 yr ago I ran my best marathon yet at Chicago 7:36 under my qualifying time
💙2018 I'll be running the Boston Marathon 



hello-boston-marathon-2018

So remember to run happy, dream big, and keep hustlin'. Dreams come to those who hustle. 
See ya in April, Boston.  

6 comments:

  1. Congrats - So happy for you! I know you will rock Boston next year.

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  2. Yay yay yay yay yay!!!!!! I'm SO excited for you! I was really surprised that the cutoff was so high this year, especially since I usually expect it to be about a minute slower than what it was this year. I'm super happy that you got in!

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  3. SO SO SO FREAKING PROUD OF YOU <3

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  4. congratulations Lauren! my husband got in as well, so we'll be in Boston next year too! so exciting!

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  5. Yay, Lauren- that is so exciting! I'll be running Boston 2018 too!! And I just saw that you are my roommate at the RW festival event next weekend... looking forward to hanging out and talking all things running. :-)

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