How To Qualify For Boston Marathon 2015

This is the first of a series of online workshops, for those keen to challenge yourself to a Boston Qualifier (BQ) or Boston Qualifying time. The Boston Marathon, often touted as the Holy Grail of marathons, is  one of the Big Six of the Marathon World Series (including London, Tokyo, Chicago, New York City, and Berlin), that attracts numerous marathoners to apply for registrations as well as the lottery. Having just qualified for next year's event, and at my second attempt, I will share with you my lessons in, successfully, making it so far into the process.

1) Be mostly healthy (free from injury).
2) Set realistic goals and expectations.
3) Plan for, and stick to the plans.
4) Train consistently (and smartly).
5) Race regularly and apply tactics and strategies.
6) Take measurements and use assessments.
7) Recovery and recuperation from workouts is key to your continued progress.
8) You must deliberately eat (and fuel yourself) very well.
9) Stay sharply focused, and have an acute sense of purpose.
10) Your Journey will be fraught with failure, and filled with success (learn from your lessons).

Homework: Check out your BQ timings. What is your current best timing? How fast were your 21km and 42km timings? How often do you train? What do your workouts involve? If you are injured now, which is the area? Which are your recurring injuries?

Stay tuned for the next workshop.