Name:  Joe H, joe-26-2.blogspot.com

Sex: Male

Age (at the time of first BQ):  37

Height:  5-10

Weight (at the time of first BQ):  164 (ish)

At which marathon did you get your first BQ? What was your finishing time? Tell us a little about the race.  

Wichita, Kansas, October 2003.  3:11   Point to point course that they don’t run anymore.  I liked that old course — part of it ran on an Air Force base.

How long had you been running when you ran your first BQ? 

Maybe about 2 years as an adult.

Did you run in college or high school? 

Yes, but only HS.

What was your approximate lifetime mileage at the time of your first BQ? 

Jeez…  Not much probably.  Maybe 4 or 5 thousand miles total.  Might be on the high side!

How many miles did you run in the year before your first BQ? 

Guessing…  1000.

Approximately how many races did you run in that year? 

A few.  3 total marathons.

Did you follow a canned program? If so, which one? If not, can you give us an idea of what your training philosophy was? 

No, I did not follow a canned program.  I thought I could figure it out for myself.  My training philosophy at first was just to try to run some long runs, but then I got some informal coaching.

Did you run with a running club or utilize a coach?  

After 2 failures to qualify I contacted an old high school friend of mine.  She went on to run D1 in college and the OT marathon (5 times in total, I think).  She introduced me to tempo runs and *that* information, more than any other, propelled my running forward dramatically, especially for marathons.

Did cross training play a role in your training? If so, how? 

No.  I hate cross training.

Did speed work play a role or specific workouts play a role in your training? If so, how? 

Not really true speedwork.  Tempo runs, yes, definitely.

Any other thoughts you would like to share with those of working towards a BQ? 

Be patient.  Don’t necessarily expect to get it on the first try.  Something I’ve learned in subsequent years:  if you are heavier than you should be (and you probably are), then lose a few pounds.  Minutes fall off of your marathon time, “for free”, when you drop unnecessary weight.  It’s actually a WHOLE lot easier than training harder usually.