See Lance Armstrong beats 3 hours at 2008 Boston Marathon
Lance Armstrong must be getting to like his running game. I wonder if he's lacing up his running shoes more these days than his cycling cleats.
Armstrong is running in the high-profile Boston Marathon on April 21 to help raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. It will be his third marathon.
He qualified for the 112th event by finishing last year's New York Marathon in 2:46:43. The qualifying time for his age group — 35-39 — is 3:15.
Marathon runner
Back in high school in Texas, Armstrong used to compete in triathlons. So it wasn't a surprise to many that he started running again in 2006 for his first New York Marathon.
He set a time of 2:59 in 2006, achieving his desire to beat three hours. His comment after the race:
“For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done.”
Records
Boston is such a popular marathon that competitors need to attain certain qualifying times to enter. Entries will be cut off at 25,000 this year.
The course record is 2:07:14, set in 2006 by Kenyan Robert K. Cheruiyot. The master's mark of 2:11:04 was set in 1990 by John Campbell of New Zealand.
Although there are qualifying times, the organizers of the event, the Boston Athletic Association, will waive those times for persons willing to raise money for one of the charities it supports. Read more about the fund-raising.
Focus
The Boston Herald quotes Armstrong about his reasons for running the Boston Marathon:
“I chose Boston because I feel like it’s one of the monuments of marathon (running),” Armstrong said. “It has the history, the story, the following, the pressure of trying to qualify.”
Kind of sounds like his interest in the Tour de France, doesn't it? Granted, he won the Tour de Georgia one year and Tour duPont a couple of times, but Armstrong was pretty much focused on the Tour de France and nothing else later in his career.
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