From Port Alice to Victoria, more than 60 Vancouver Island runners have trained and timed their way to Boston, to join 35,000 other enthusiasts today in the world's oldest annual marathon. The storied Boston Marathon, first run by 18 men in 1897, is the only marathon requiring entrants to reach a qualifying standard for the 42.195-kilometre
distance.
"It's my first time. I thought if I ever qualified, I would go," said 51-year-old Claudia Nordin of Port Alice. Nordin has run 11 marathons, and made the time -- it's 4:05 for women 50-54 -- at last year's Royal Victoria Marathon. "I got close to qualifying two other times, but missed by a minute or so.
"It's going to be a life experience, and it'll be fun."
Nordin, who'll be accompanied by her support team of one -- husband Dan Nordin -- knows what to expect only from researching the event, while Victoria's Dan Ethier is going back to experience the marathon for the second time. Boston goes marathon crazy for the week preceding the race on Patriots Day, and some 500,000 spectators are expected to line the route.
"It's pretty amazing," Ethier, 44, said. "Just to be there with people that had to qualify to be there. It's only the elite."
According to runnersworld.com, just 10 per cent of American marathon runners have been able to qualify for Boston.
"That's how difficult it is to get there."
Coached by distance runner Jim Finlayson, Ethier trains with a few others who'll be in Boston today. They've been on a 16-week training schedule of shorter runs interspersed with longer distances up to 40-K, tapering off over the last few days. Regardless of training, however, Ethier knows his body is bound to hit the proverbial wall.
"Your body shuts down after 32-K, and it's only your mind that gets you through the rest," he said.
Finlayson cautioned the runners to have patience, and avoid getting sucked along at a quicker pace. He also noted it's important to have taken in enough calories for fuel, and have muscles prepared for varying types of terrain.
"Once it starts to unravel in a marathon, it can really unravel," Finlayson said. "You have to save half your energy for the last 10-K."
Ethier has used the dynamics of a training group to prepare, but Nordin is on her own. She fits in her self-designed program around a 75-minute one-way commute to her teaching job at Sunset Elementary School in Port McNeill.
Not a "high mileage" runner, she enjoys focusing on form, consistency, and good quality runs.
"I go up and down hills, up and down," Nordin said. "I run in rain, wind, snow, and sleet."
Both Nordin and Ethier have been in Boston for several days to see the sights and recover from jet lag. On race day, the runners board buses about 6 a.m. to be taken to an athletes' tent village for the start at the rural town of Hopkinton -- where Ethier couldn't help but notice the patrolling police dogs and snipers manning the rooftops for security last year.
Setting off in waves at 10 and 10:30 a.m., the mass will wind its way into Boston, hitting the infamous 600-metre Heartbreak Hill at the 32-K mark.
"I'm looking forward to finding out if Heartbreak Hill really is [heartbreak]," said Nordin, laughing about her Grade 1 students, who are expecting her to return with a trophy.
Nordin will be more than happy to show off her participation medal, and explain that when it comes to the Boston Marathon, it's all about just being there.
