Shipping Off to Boston!

I finally did it, I qualified for the Boston Marathon with a 3:09:25 finish at the Cleveland Marathon! Even though I know I can run faster given the proper training I was really pleased with my day. My race plan was simple...stick with the 3:10 pace group and just knock out the qualifying time. I tend to get carried away at races and go out too fast so I figured the pace group would keep me in check. The pace group was 0:30 behind pace all day long and at mile 17ish one of the pace leaders decided to get a handful of us back on pace so we picked it up a bit. 3 miles later there were about 5 of us left in the pace group and we were cruising and picking off a decent amount of runners in the last 10k. At about mile 23 the legs started to get heavy but with only three miles left I knew I could gut out a qualifier and not much more. I had this vision of running a super fast last 5k and finishing around 3:07 but I was thrilled to cross the line in 3:09 with a qualifier in the bag, and an 11 minute PR. With a high mileage week ahead it was probably for the best...can't afford to be too sore this week. Onwards and upwards to Mohican!