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Qualify for and run the Boston Marathon

Hopkinton's town green is small and unremarkable, the kind of place you'd drive through without noticing, except every Patriots' Day since 1897 it has filled with people who ran a qualifying time somewhere else just to stand there. The course runs downhill first, which nobody warns you about, quads burning by mile ten. Roughly 30,000 people make the point-to-point trip to Boston that day. You remember the mistake of that downhill start in the way your legs pay for it later, screaming on the Newton hills when there's nothing left to give.

Practical

Cost
$300 entry; $1,000–3,000 total
Best time
Patriots' Day, third Monday in April
Difficulty
Hard
Time it takes
Months of training plus a qualifier, about a year end-to-end
What people get wrong
People assume one fast recent marathon guarantees entry; missing the cutoff by seconds is common and happens to serious runners. Many also go out too fast on the early downhill and pay for it on the Newton hills.
With
Alone

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