Name: Nathan Paden

Sex: Male

Age (at the time of first BQ): 49

Height (at the time of first BQ): 6’3″

Weight (at the time of first BQ): 205 lbs

At which marathon did you get your first BQ? Revel Mt Charleston

Tell us a little about the race. Point to point downhill race pretty much specifically designed to help folks qualify for Boston. Loses 5,000’+ of elevation very gradually with only a few very tiny uphills mixed in.

I had trained for the downhill by running on my treadmill at -3% incline. Should have trained a bit more for the downhill because I was VERY sore after the race. I didn’t end up cramping any during the race although my quads were telling me that this was not normal and they didn’t like it very much by the end.

I ended up with a -10 BQ which was a 21 minute PR from last year. I had a 30 second positive split, but that could easily be attributed to a slightly harder 2nd half of the course. My second fastest mile of the race was the last mile, I ran it in 7:07. Really felt good the entire race, only struggled the last 3 or 4 miles.

According to the splits on the website I was in 262nd place at the 1/2 way point and passed 110 people from there on and finished in 152nd place.

https://www.runrevel.com/rmc/results?pk=1526017

How long had you been running when you ran your first BQ? 6 years

Did you run in college or high school? No

What was your approximate lifetime mileage at the time of your first BQ? 10,200 miles

How many miles did you run in the year before your first BQ? 2,000

Approximately how many races did you run in that year? 15

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

Did you run with a running club or utilize a coach? No

Did cross training play a role in your training? If so, how? I really don’t do any cross training other than hiking during hunting season.

Did speed work play a role in your training? If so, how? The Hansons program has some interval work in their program but not a lot. They do have a lot of marathon pace miles and I think that does help.

Any other thoughts you would like to share with those of working towards a BQ? I’ve never been a runner but at age 42 I decided that I need to start doing something to get in shape and running ended up looking like the best option. Over time my competitive nature kicked in and I found myself setting higher and higher goals until a BQ was one of them. It took a couple years focusing on that to make it happen. I really think that one of the keys was maintaining about 35 to 40 miles per week for about a year and a half before I qualified. Previously I would ramp up for a marathon training cycle and then slack off during the off period to about 25 miles per week. I think maintaining the additional mileage and locking in that strong really made a difference. One other note would be to run your easy runs easy.

Good luck!