Name

Daniel

Sex:

Male

Age (at the time of first BQ):

34

Height:

6’1’

Weight (at the time of first BQ):

165

At which marathon did you get your first BQ?

Portland

Tell us a little about the race.

Uneventful, just another marathon

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

11 yrs

Did you run in college or high school?

No

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

Maybe 8 or 10k, not really sure

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

Approximately how many races did you run in that year?

3

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, based on jack daniels, with some tweaks b/c I’m a former swimmer

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

No

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

A bit of cycling, but not really. Had a job, so running was mostly what I had time for

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

Only in the sense that I tend to run easy runs at a quick pace….maybe only 20-30s slower than marathon pace. It’s a character flaw.

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

Don’t overthink things, and do the work to build your “engine”. I never ran at all until age 23 (was a D1 swimmer at a top 3 school, however) and did triathlon for 5 years after that. Despite all that, and (still) never having had a running coach or belonged to a training group, have a 2:36 PR. Run hard, know yourself, and be smart enough to back off if you ever get hurt, which I’ve been largely lucky to avoid.