By Guest Blogger John Tarantino
I have a friend, Eliot from Colorado, who has been trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon the last couple of years. His qualifying time is 3:15. which he missed by 15 seconds last year at Phoenix.
I'm training for Boston this year and decided I could help pace Eliot and get my 16 mile run in also.
The day before the race we figured out the details. Try to meet between 17 and 18 mile mark. I would run 6 miles from the finish line and then run 7:15 pace to the end with him. To get my 16 miles in I turned around at the 26 mile mark and ran out and back a mile.
Day of the race I left the finish line at 7:50am and met Eliot at 17 and a half miles, 8:35am. Right on schedule! He had run a little too fast in the first half,1:33, target was 1:36. We ran together and I was talking the whole way. At Mile 23 Eliot said he was tired. I dismissed this and told him we had 20 minutes of work to do and he could be tired the rest of the day!!
At mile 24 I was trying to keep his mind off of being tired and told Eliot to keep an eye on a guy with orange shorts in front of us.
At mile 25 I could feel him slipping. We saw a lady with a Boston Marathon jacket on and I hollered at Eliot " Do you want one of those jackets ?
Follow me we are almost there. Here comes a downhill use it. I can see the finish line!" Anything positive came out of my mouth. He passed the guy with the orange shorts with .1 to go. Eliot crossed the line in 3:09:51. This was over a 5 minute PR and of course a BQ for my friend : )
John Tarantino
Shelby Twp., Michigan
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