Now that New York has come and gone, it’s time to figure out what to do next. New York was one of the “Big Five” that every marathoner should do at least once in there lifetime:
- New York City Marathon
- Chicago Marathon
- Marine Corps Marathon (in Washington DC)
- Los Angeles Marathon
- Boston Marathon
Chicago, Marine Corps, and LA are all signup-and-run marathons, meaning that there’s no criteria to get into the marathon. New York is a lottery-based entry, where roughly 60,000 people apply and only 30,000 get invited. Boston is a qualifying event, meaning that marathoners need to run under a qualifying time to be invited to run the marathon. For my age group, I’ll have to run a 3hour15minute race.
Right now, there’s NO WAY that I’d be able to qualify for Boston. Well, at least not yet. My marathon Personal Record is no where near that time.
I love running, but I tend to “enjoy the sites” more during the marathon. I’m what’s called a “strong-and-steady” runner, meaning that I take longer than usual, but keep a steady pace throughout the race. It’s a good way of saying that Boston will take longer than usual for me to qualify. 
Last year, I made a 5-year commitment to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2008 and run the fabled marathon in 2009. Why 5 years? Well, just like my running, I’ll be taking the conservative route to getting there. This gives me a long term goal to shoot for.
Along the way, I’ll be doing one of the “Big 5″ once a year with Boston being the final year in 2009.
Next year will most likely be Chicago; however, if I get picked to do NYC again, I’ll do that one again. It’s THAT much of a good race.
