Here are the BQ stories of three of my favorite running bloggers: Alex of Building a Faster Me, Jim of 50After40 and Kristy of Run the Long Road.
For more great BQ stories, read my friend Steve's guest post (it's been the most popular post on my blog for a long time) or visit Milo and the Calf to read the stories of those who have answered his BQ Questionnaire.
Inspiring BQ Story #1: Alex
Alex qualified for Boston at the Chicago Marathon in 2009. Her earlier blog, Run350, was the first I found when I was contemplating starting a blog about my own Boston journey and out trolling online for people who were doing or had done something similar. As you'll see if you read from the beginning, hers is a compelling Boston story two years in the making with highs, lows, triumphs and injuries and everything in between.
And while I might dispute her idea that she's an average runner (check out her times! whoa nelly!), she definitely came to running later than a lot of people and had to work for her BQ. The story of her qualifying race is here and the lessons she learned post-race (equally helpful) are here. But I encourage everyone with an interest in this to read her whole blog. She continues to inspire me each time I go back and read her old blog or dip into her new one.
Inspiring BQ Story #2: Jim
All of the bloggers on this page are great at writing detailed race reports, but Jim's are perhaps the most detailed. Jim's qualifying race was the 2010 Top of Utah Marathon (described in his blog here), which I ran myself in September 2011 (unlike Jim, I bonked and did not qualify).
The other thing that's great about Jim (besides the fact that he too is from Missouri) is that he seems like such a nice guy, even amid being super-demanding of himself on the training front. He's proof that nice guys do NOT always finish last: He ended up re-qualifying for Boston 2012 by a wide margin at Boston 2011.
Inspiring BQ Story #3: Kristy
Kristy is the runner most like me of the three on this list. At least I hope so! It took her many many tries to qualify for Boston, but she never quit and never gave up. Ultimately she was rewarded on her ninth attempt. She's since moved on to even bigger goals (ultras!), but her blog continues to be down-to-earth and helpful. For more detailed race reports, check out her guest post for me or her own blog.
