This is the race-report that I always wanted to write! YES I did qualify for Boston! I had the race of a lifetime. This was marathon number 11 and the fourth serious attempt to qualify! Here is a quick recap of previous disaster runs: 1. 5.4 seconds to late in Mississauga Marathon in May 2007 2. Diarrhea and hurling in Toronto International Marathon October 2007 3. Hitting the wall in the final 6 km up the Niagara escarpment 300 feet straight up 4 weeks later. Hamilton Marathon November 2007 The Last Chance for Boston is as the name suggests a Marathon for the desperate runner. And that was me! You run the same circle 26.2 times. It is flat and Ohio can get pretty cold at this time of the year. The drive down from Toronto was nice except for 2.5 hours of Homeland Insecurity Border delay. Arrived late Saturday night in Columbus Ohio. The host hotel is 30 meters from the finishing line. Packet pick up and after race snack is done inside the hotel. RACEDAY: +7 Celsius and RAIN. I felt sluggish after 3 weeks of tapering with way too much food. The 9 Hour drive was still in my body so I was concerned. About 130 runners did the full M, several hundreds more did the 5K, 10K and ½ M. We started a bit staggered to avoid congestion on the 1 Mile course. After 3 miles I lost track of how many rounds I had done. I was passing a lot of runners and I was passed myself by even more. I decided to keep going at the pace I started with. Body felt pretty good and I just kept going for 20 Miles not knowing how I was doing time wise. The rain let up after 1 mile and everything was just fine. I took a GU every 45 minutes, Gatorade every 2 miles. After 2 Hours the number of people on the track was down and they started calling out how many miles you had done. My name was called after I had done 20.2 Miles and then I knew that I was pretty much right on a schedule for 3:25. I knew that I could do the final 6 miles and even hit the wall a bit without missing out on BQ. So the last 2 miles I was just a giant smile, laughing and giggling to myself and everybody else around me. I passed the finish line in 3:27, ran to my hotel room and turned on the laptop and signed on to BOSTON 2008. Afterwards I went back to the track and thanked all the helping hands handing out drinks and keeping the remaining runners moral up. This race also gives you pizza as post-race snack in addition to the usual bagels and fruit. A perfect race to BQ in!!!! The drive home? Singing and smiling in the car all by myself, even the homeland insecurity people had disappeared, only a nice girl on the other side greeting “Welcome to Canada!” Thanks to all of you other 1500 milers, the boost this site gives me has an absolute influence on my training and racing!!!! Cheers Arne

Arne, all the hard work payed off!!! Congrats on overcoming a lot of obstacles along the way, right down to the race day weather. Enjoy Boston! You should really consider sharing this report out on the main forum for everyone to see!

Congratulations! You rocked it? But... one mile circles? Weren't you dizzy?