...or at the very least until my back-shoulder burns wear off. I haven’t been able to make it through one swim practice yet without somebody commenting on my freshly tanned souvenirs. I guess if you’re going get a healthy dose of vitamin D from sun exposure, you might as well get it during the biggest race of your life. On the bright side (oh the puns), yes it was cooler than a tattoo! And yes it was free!
So, inspired by recent accomplishments and back burns, I can’t promise there will be less prattling, punning, and joking, but I can say there will be more new challenges for the year 2012. This is an exciting process of my training.
There is this race called the Boston Marathon, I wanted to do ever since I was a little kid. My semi-annual visits to the dentist were a constant reminder of Boston. At those early years, I just toyed the idea that it was something cool to do one day. Maybe it will impress girls, but I really had no idea how long a marathon was, I had no idea you had to qualify (let alone beat others at registering), and it didn’t occur to me it was the most prestigious marathon. My dentist Dr. Hui had a framed picture of him centred and surrounded by a sea of runners with his metal proudly displayed beside it. As I made more visits to the dentist, my curiosity got the best of me.
Three years ago, my first attempt at the Marathon was over a dozen minutes shy from qualifying.
One year ago, my second attempt at the Marathon was 3:07:53, which was enough to qualify for both Boston 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately as the joke goes, you could have fast enough legs, but you could still be denied an entry spot into Boston if your fingers weren’t fast enough. It took only 8 hours for Boston 2011 to fill up – a day I will never forget since it was also my first day into the real world.
Since the registration process was changed for 2012 in response to the quick fingers, Boston was giving my slow fingers a break for the 2012 registration.
Six months ago, my third attempt at the Marathon was slimmed down to 3:07:32.
Last month, fast forward past a week of agonizing anticipation, I was relieved to hear when it was finally announced that 3:08:46 was the cut off time for my qualifying time group, with only 74 seconds to spare. Watch out Boston! I got my golden ticket!! =)
