The Long Road to Boston

The long, drawn-out version of our vacation begins more than four years ago, when Photoguy set a goal to run a marathon. And, being the competitive kind of guy he is, he also set a goal to eventually run fast enough to qualify for the Boston. This meant sustaining a pace of approximately 7 minute 20 second miles for 26.2 miles, or finishing a marathon in less than 3 hours 15 minutes.

We both began training for the Moab Half Marathon, which took place in March, 2004. Photoguy sustained an injury and in an ironic twist of fate I completed the half marathon while he suffered a major set-back in his training. The only way for him to continue was to take several weeks off and then start out painfully slow (two-mile runs) and increase by only a quarter of a mile per week.

For a guy who was eager to build up to 26.2 miles, it took a lot of patience to adhere to this schedule. I was so proud of the way he stuck to it. Unfortunately, by the time he was ready for a marathon in the fall of 2004, all the marathons in our area were over until the following spring. Rather than wait that long, Photoguy and I embarked on our first multi-day leave-the-kids-with-grandma vacation.

The good news is that he finished the Suntrust Richmond, Virginia Marathon in just over 3 ½ hours and we were blessed to spend memorable times with our great friends the Z’s and the C’s. In other news, we missed our kids so much that we had no desire to leave them again (except for the very occasional overnighter) until now.

He seemed right on target for his goals, but his times got longer instead of shorter as he completed more marathons in the coming months. Running at sea level had given him a boost that couldn’t be matched in our high altitude hometown. There were more injuries and set-backs. Finally, in the fall of 2005, he finished the St. George in just 3 hours 24 minutes – only nine minutes above his goal.

Photoguy would have most likely qualified for Boston in the fall of 2006, but we will never know since he gave up his spot in the St. George Marathon (a good Boston qualifying course for its long stretches of downhill) to move to China -- where he ran the, not so downhill, Beijing Marathon instead.

After dedicated training that included running straight up a mountain and back down a few times (also known as "Snowbasin Road"), Photoguy was ready to achieve his goal in fall of 2007. He finished the St. George Marathon in 3 hours 13 minutes with two extra minutes to spare, both of us overcome with emotion and joy over his achievement.