My 25th Boston Marathon Qualifier

I am delighted to have just run my 25th straight Boston Marathon Qualifying (BQ) time in 25 states in the last 3 years at the Kentucky Derby Marathon.

I’m proud that I’ve placed in the top runners in my age group in 13 of the last 16 of these races. And that I’ve finished in the top 10% of the entire race in most of them, since I’m one of the oldest runners and only run about 30 miles a week (serious marathoners typically run 60 – 100 miles and only two races a year).

My 34 marathons in 32 states have been a magical mystery trip. They have taken me by Revolutionary War sites in Boston (twice), Philadelphia, Newport, and Burlington, Civil War battlegrounds, and the high school that sparked the civil rights movement, the capitol buildings of the U.S. and seven states, through tree lined college campuses and tropical rain forests, up bridges and down mountains, by drunks on Bourbon Street and the Vegas

Strip at 7 a.m., beside the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and across rivers as wide as the Mississippi River and as small as trout-filled streams. I’ve been cheered on by a million screaming fans in New York CIty and glared at by a moose in Anchorage. And now I’ve run through Louisville Downs with race horses galloping by.

As exciting as these races can be, they are difficult, especialIy when I’ve had trouble breathing in the five courses in the Rocky Mountains and with bad weather ranging from 92 degrees in Chicago that caused me to pass out to 25 degrees in Colorado. I’ve had to run into 30 mile an hour winds in Rhode Island and with tornado sirens sounding in Georgia.

But even though it’s hard, especially while “running” my own office, being in my late 50’s, and being punished by our Texas heat, the discipline and strength I gain from marathoning and lifting weights make me a more disciplined attorney. I know I can go the distance, withstand the rigors of trial, and fight to get my clients the money they deserve.

Next up is a marathon in the old west down of Deadwood, South Dakota near Mount Rushmore and then the northern tip of Michigan to cool off this summer. And then I’ll “just” have 16 more states to complete my goal of running all 50 by the time I’m 60.

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