Name: Riley VanPelt

Sex: Male

Age (at the time of first BQ): 22

Height (at the time of first BQ):  5 ft 11 inches

Weight (at the time of first BQ): 140

At which marathon did you get your first BQ? Detroit Marathon 2019

Tell us a little about the race. This was one of the wildest races of my life. Training had gone fairly well, but I didn’t know what to expect with my 2nd marathon. I went out around 6 min pace with my buddy and stayed around there together at mile 13. Unfortunately at mile 13, I had to stop at a portapotty for about a minute. I initially thought my race was over after that, but my buddy told me catch him. So I got back on the grind and slowly worked back up to him with 5:50s-5:35 miles until Mile 21. I ran with him until mile 21 and surged ahead….. and 30 seconds later I started vomiting Gatorade. He passed me again but I didn’t ever stop and still maintained pace. I kept a steady distance behind and tried to come back again. In the last mile, I had to really push to not let my legs die out on me. I vomited again in the last mile but ended up surviving to the finish. 2:36:08 for 8th place overall, a 30 min PR, and a 1:19:53-1:16:08 negative split.

How long had you been running when you ran your first BQ? I have been running since the age of 11, but I’ve been running consistently year-round since I was 17.

Did you run in college or high school? Yes

What was your approximate lifetime mileage at the time of your first BQ? Yikes, maybe 12,000-13,000 but a guess. I was logging until age 19.

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

Approximately how many races did you run in that year? 1 other marathon that I didn’t train for in 3:10

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 plan for me. His philosophy revolves around a long run every week reaching 20, threshold workouts, easy runs, marathon paced workouts, and some VO2 max. I started at 50 miles a week and worked up to doing 70 for 6 weeks in a row. Roughly 21-22 week training block.

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

Did cross training play a role in your training? If so, how? Nope, I only run lol. If I tried to swim, I would drown after 2 minutes lol. I’d like to get into biking/aqua jogging though.

Did speed work play a role in your training? If so, how? Yes, during the cycle I did VO2 Max 1000m or 1200m repeats every 2 weeks.

Any other thoughts you would like to share with those of working towards a BQ? The keys to hitting a BQ was consistency, using easy runs to allow for recovery, and increasing mileage safely. Best of luck!