the impossibility of the boston marathon

last saturday night me, dave, and tom did the tierra rejada loop (it was sooo romantic). tom started us on a pretty good clip and kept pushing us throughout the run. for about the last mile we all picked up the pace (new york city!!) and averaged probably just over a 7:00 mile pace for that last mile. our final distance was 6.1 miles (i think) at a 8:27 mile pace. we were a little disappointed in the overall pace, but happy about the last mile. afterwards we began talking about what it would be like to be able to run fast. not like a 8:00 mile fast, but fast fast. we were guessing on how fast we could complete one mile and wondering if we could clock a sub-6:00 mile. that led me to start thinking about and doing some research on the boston marathon. for those who may not know, not just anyone can run in the boston marathon. you have to qualify and you have to be fast in order to qualify. below are the times for males and females from the age ranges most of us would fit under. i apologize in advance for the shoddy table.

	age range	cut-off time	average mile pace
male	18-34	3:05	7:03
female	18-34	3:35	8:12
male	35-39	3:10	7:14
female	35-39	3:40	8:23
male	40-44	3:15	7:26
female	40-44	3:25	8:34
Male	45-49	3:25	7:49
female	45-49	3:55	8:57

here are a couple thoughts after reviewing the information. first, so much for gender equality. looks like the men are being discriminated against on this one. second, i'm never going to qualify for the boston marathon. even if i really, really dedicated myself and had as much time and resources as i needed, i still could not qualify. i mean, i would have to run a WHOLE marathon at an average mile pace of 7:14. a couple years ago i completed the agoura great race 10K in 45:04, which i was pretty happy with. what was my average pace? 7:17. i would have to run a faster pace than that for over four times as long. i seriously can't comprehend how anyone can run that fast over that distance. i have an uncle that qualified for the boston marathon last year with a time of 3:09. i'm gonna e-mail him and see how he did it. do any of you think you could ever qualify? i think my best chance would be to wait until i'm 45, undergo a sex change (keep your jokes to yourself!), and then attempt to qualify.