I have a friend, Ken Rosen, who has run Boston 17 times. Ken told me a great story about a business trip he took to Bosten, and he ran 27 miles from the Boston Finish line to Hopkinton. He is one of these crazy guys who will run 25.2 miles on a long run, and when you ask him why he didn’t run one more mile, he would say, “That would be crazy.” As I write this post, I realize that what I want to do is say how people have inspired me, and my friend Ken has been a huge inspiration for me and my running. He is one of those who will run 80 miles a week, with his shortest run being a 10.11 miler. He also has a great sense of humor, or at least he has humor that doesn’t make sense sometimes. We have a particular coach who will say, “oh geez, we need to get Ken to shut up” (But in a good way). My first goal was to run half the distances that Ken would run, and now I am thinking can I do 65% of the distance!
Ken intersects with Hopkinson in a couple of ways, and I have run one Boston Marathon with him. All be it slower but still the same day. In 2015 I ran the Boston Marathon with the Liver Foundation and would rank this experience as one of the greatest marathons of my life. I was so excited after completing this race that I immediately hired a coach and expected to get my actual BQ for the next year. My hopes and dreams were dashed by injuries, and I wouldn’t come close to qualifying until 2020.
Hopkinson is back on my radar as I only need to improve by 2 minutes and 30 seconds to qualify. The BQ is a dream for so many runners, and Ken has been a great inspiration for me to work towards it.