This morning the Boston Qualifier Questionnaire was featured on competitor.com with a short little interview with me. In the interview I mentioned that I was interested in hearing from more runners who did not have a background in college or high school running.

Ask and ye shall recieve.

Here’s a response from William, who BQ’ed at 49 with no previous running experience. Thanks for taking the time to fill this out, William!

Name: William M, http://coachbilltexas.wordpress.com, www.facebook.com/OneStepRunning

Sex: Male

Age: 49

Height: 5’7″

Weight: 160lbs

At which marathon did you get your first BQ? Wineglass 2012.

What was your finishing time? 3:22

Tell us a little about the race.

Point to point mostly down hill, perfect weather. The last 6 miles were hard, lots of turns and running down hill the first 20 made the last 6 hurt.

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

Started running May 2009, I did run somewhat when I was 18 but never trained.

Did you run in college or high school?

No

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

4,500 

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

1,350

Approximately how many races did you run in that year?

20, 1 marathon, 7 half’s, 4 10k’s, 1 5k, 7 other (spartan, mud runs and other)

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

No, I did not follow a canned program. I somewhat followed the key runs from “Run Less Run Faster”, But I did not run less or cross train. I ran easy runs for the other two days that were supposed to be cross training days. I increased my long run to 31 miles, and ran over 20 miles 4 times in my training.

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

No

Did cross training play a role in your training?

No, I had tried that the marathon before BQ and found I needed to run more miles.

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

Yes. Speed work ran once a week, never the same distance, varied every week. Used intervals from “Run Less, Run Faster”

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

Train smart, you have to train to race, not race to train. Every run does not need to be a PR. Recovery is key. You have to be stronger for each run and that means recovering from the last run. I ran 60+ miles per week in my peak of BQ training. You have to put in the miles. Get a V02 Test and use the HR training zones to improve, Run the 3 key runs, Speed work, Tempo, Long (these are the hard workouts). Never run two of them back to back days, always either rest or run easy the day after and the day before. Know that you can BQ, Anyone can if they put in the miles….