Boston Qualifier!
I want to give a big shout out to a Phidippides customer and Wednesday night group runner, David. Late April, just a few weeks after the horrible events that took place in Boston, David came to the store for a shoe fitting. As I was helping him, all he could talk about was qualifying for the Boston Marathon in 2014.
That day he came in happened to be on a Wednesday. The day we have a group run at our Sandy Springs store. He ended up sticking around that night, asking for training tips and munching on our snacks we provide. From that day on he’s now considered one of the “usuals.” He quickly made new friends and shared his goal of qualifying for Boston with everyone.
Every week, I always asked how his training was going and if he’d picked out a qualifying race yet. Well after the group runs finish, you’d often still see him running around. Even as we were locking up the store for the night! As motivated as he was, you could tell there was a tad bit of doubt in him. One day he told me about a 20 mile training run he did to gauge if he’d be able to qualify. His time that run was well off target, leaving him discouraged. I told him he started out too fast and he still had a shot. He might as well try, right? What’s the point in talking about a goal if you don’t even go for it? This helped lift his spirits back up.
3:55 is the qualifying time for a male his age. He found a race this past weekend, that is appropriately named Last Chance for Beantown.
David ran a 3:54:33!!!
Congrats from everyone at Phidippides! This was well deserved!
-Joey