How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon

Carrie Tollefson: everybody. Welcome to the RunDot Podcast. In the running world, the Boston Marathon is a pretty big deal. It's on the bucket list for most marathoners. So today I have a RunDot coach joining the show to talk to us about how to qualify for Boston and make the most of it when we do. Our coach is Brady Hoover. He's been on the show with me quite a bit. Hey, Brady. Brady has raced the Boston Marathon nine times already, and he'll be towing the line on Marathon Monday for his 10th this coming Monday. Yay. Also, Brady has coached many of his athletes to their own BQs. Brady is an ace. SM certified personal trainer and a 248 marathoner. And like I said, as coach runners and even triathletes for many years. I'm Carrie Tollefson. I'm an Olympian, broadcaster and your guide to the world of run dot. We treat the show like any good workout. We'll start with our warm up question, settle into our main set conversation and then wind things down by having coach Brady answer an audience question on the cool down. Lots of good stuff. So let's get after All right, Brady. Here's the warm up question before we even get into Boston stuff. The warm up question. Most races give their finishers a medal or a token of some kind to commemorate their achievement of crossing the finish line. For our warm-up question today, I'm curious what finish line medal or keepsake is in your collection and it's your favorite one Brady, so tell us which one it is.

Brady Hoover: And it can't be by Boston medals. Well, since we're recording about the Boston Marathon, I'll go another very unique one. In 2015, I did this thing called because Big Sur is a very popular marathon and it's a lottery and it's hard to get into. There is no qualifying times for that one. So the ways to get into it is lottery or you run Boston and six days or depending on the year, 13 days later.

Carrie Tollefson: It can be whatever you want. Okay. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: It's called Boston to Big Sur. And they usually have about 250 bibs for that and usually they don't overfill that. So pretty much if you're running Boston, go in there and apply. You do have to do a marathon back to back. mean, the year I did it in 2015, it was six days apart. It seems like every other year, it's just the date that Boston falls on and Big Sur falls on. You know, if I thought about it a little bit more, I would have given myself 13 days, but hey. Go big or go home. When you finish, they have a fantastic medal out of clay. And you get a second medal out of clay that says Boston to Big Sur, as well as a, it was a maroon jacket that year that says Boston to Big Sur. And even with the training, they give you a t-shirt to let everybody know that you're training for the Boston to Big Sur challenge. So I gotta say that whole, yeah, that whole swag was well worth it I'm very proud of it.

Carrie Tollefson: That's cool. Mm. You know, I have never heard this. Like I'm in the running world like crazy, right? But sometimes because I do the commentary, because I was this athlete that was more on the elite side, like I don't know all the fun things that happen. Like it is fun to be an elite runner. It's fun to be super fast. But at the same time, we miss out on kind of some of these cool opportunities, you know? So this is new to me.

Brady Hoover: these like bucket list things or you've got the, I don't know if I have the intention to do it, but maybe when I get older, like the run a marathon in every state, things like that. There's just so many fun challenges out there and folks are always raising the bar. That's what keeps the sport fun. And as we slow down and we get older, you know, there's other opportunities out there for us to just keep going.

Carrie Tollefson: Yes! Yes, all those cool things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. One of my favorite things like I love some medals and things like that. But I'm not really a keepsake person. Like I you don't see any of my medals anywhere. You actually see my husband's medals everywhere. And so I just I don't even know where they are. Charlie knows where all my stuff is. But I had fun one year. I was pregnant and I was pretty far along, had a pretty big belly. And my husband Charlie ran the race with me and it was a turkey trot and he had to run with a turkey. And so because I was pregnant it was kind of the equalizer right so I thought that was pretty fun we got to take the turkey home I think we made a different turkey that day but I think that's always a fun thing to do too so guys out there if you ever want to run and see what it feels like to kind of be pregnant you know Saran wrap a turkey around your belly and see how it feels so that was one of our fun things but anyway we want

Brady Hoover: Sometimes when I my camera back on and it's like I'm running with that, like, I couldn't even imagine carrying this in the front.

Carrie Tollefson: I know. And it's not even the weight. There's just everything else going on. It's a trip. I'm gonna tell you all. It's a trip. Well audience, we want to hear from you too. We'll ask this question on all the RunDot social media accounts. I'm curious to hear what is your favorite medal or keepsake from one of your races. Find us on our socials and let us know. Alright, into the main set. Okay, I'm gonna be at the marathon on Monday. I will be with the WCVB and ESPN2 all morning running my mouth while Brady\... running his legs. But I will tell you if you tune in it's gonna be a really fun cast. There's gonna be all kinds of local anchors but also John Anderson who has been with ESPN for years and a lot of the marathons with me. Amanda McGroory an amazing Paralympian and also she's won many of the majors in the marathon. And then Meb Keflezighi obviously people know Meb in Boston and New York. He's an Olympic medalist. So he'll be on the show with me while we cheering Brady on. Go Brady! Brady, we want to hear how in the heck did you qualify for Boston? Maybe you can tell us about your first BQ and even how this one happened.

Brady Hoover: Okay. Yeah, so first EQ. Oh jeez, that takes me back to 2012. I started running in 2011. I mean, I grew up playing soccer. And then my dad's like, hey, there's this little 5K in town. I was living in Somerville at the time. It's Jingle Bell. Like there's like 6,000 runners, sometimes seven, right? And it's just a great time. I said, yeah, I'll train for that. Why not? And then I just, really got into the training. said, I wonder if there's any run clubs going on, you know, around here. And that's where I heard about, it was the Somerville Striders run by Paul Coyer. You might, you might not know. is big in the race industry especially around here in England. So I started running with those guys, did my first 5k and you know the goal I didn't know what to I didn't know what to run but in my training I was running you know quite comfortably seven minute miles which was I look at now and I said okay that's too fast for most of the training like I was kind of in this gray area all the time but you know I squeaked under I squeaked under 20 minutes on that course 1955 and I was I was hooked I was like I love this I love training for it was running with the guys You know, fast forward a little bit, time went by. I did my first half marathon. That hurt. That hurt a lot. Ran 145 and that stung, right? And I said, how could somebody do this twice? Like, no way. Well, you know, I was in my younger days and you know, we would socialize and drink some beers, you know, one, two or many. And my buddy, my buddy Tom had run Boston like three or four times at the time. He runs Philly every year and he's like, you know, it's August right now. You have time to train. the Philly Marathon and you could probably qualify for Boston. He's like I'll pace you, he's like I'll pace you so you don't start out too fast. And with a little buzz I went home and I signed up and I woke up the next morning and I go\... I look at my email and I'm like, what did I just do? It's like, what did I just do? Gosh, and then just training for that. Just experiencing a lot of firsts, right first 14 mile, first 15, first 16. Gosh, you get over 16 and then there's like, you know, your hip flexors are screaming and you're like, whoa, what is this thing? You know, it all gets better with time, but that first experience, I love working with first time marathoners because I tell them like things to expect. This is totally normal. You're gonna feel this, right? Don't be over. and then you get up to 18 and then you come back to 16 and you don't feel those pains. So lo and behold 2012 Philly comes around and 2012 yeah Philly comes around been training with Tom and his wife all summer putting in the work and you know the goal was to just go under three hours you know that's what Tom wanted to do a 252 and he was pacing he was pacing a 258 for the first 258 for the first 16 and then he does like that's he likes that he's a big negative splitter. So he'll just he'll just cut loose. I mean, he was like, he said we get to mile 16. And he's like, All right, see you later. You know, five minutes later, I can't even see the guy anymore. He's just gone. But I'm glad I had him to run with because I had never like tapered and felt this fresh, where I'm looking at heart rate and things are good. And we're clicking out. Gosh, was the what's the pace like just under seven minute miles and feel good.

Carrie Tollefson: Then he goes, cool. Right, right, he's gone. Mm-hmm.

Brady Hoover: Nice and low. was like Tom we can go faster like I feel great He's like no, you know, we're three miles into the race You know, then we get to like mile seven like fraternity row at the Philly Marathon and we're running uphill and I mean, oh Tom I feel like really good heart rates really low we can go Like let's you know, you're going to 52. I might be able to do that with you He's like no people are passing this he's like those people you're gonna catch like you're gonna catch them at like 18 20 or 22, like you're gonna catch them. So we get up, you we go through the half and now it's starting to wear on me a little bit. We get to 16 and I'm like, okay, now I feel the miles. I'm glad I held back because I would have made that rookie mistake had I not been with them. Like I knew better. but you know, that mistake that like, my gosh, I just feel so good. Cause every other long run I've been fatigued and the numbers look good and the heart rate's low and everything just comes together right in the taper. That's why we always say trust the process. yeah. So we went out to, geez, what's the turnaround spot? So Tom took off and, we get to the party, the party town out there and. And he warned me, don't take any thoughts. Manion, yes! Yeah, that's the spot. It's just loud, it's so much fun. Hit that, hit the turnaround, now it's four miles home. And yeah, I was like 23, I bonked, right? I hit the wall, and I looked back and I reflected. I didn't take enough fueling, I didn't know back then. And I learned so much since then, and that way coach. So yeah, would like, I'm gonna run to the next aid station, walk through the aid station, and that's what I did. And I came through at three hours and 54 seconds,

Carrie Tollefson: Maniank? Is that where it is? Yay! Yeah. Hmm

Brady Hoover: you know, the mayor of Big High Five and qualifying time. think it was 305 at the time. It could have been 310 that year. It's only gotten five percent since was, oh gosh, 2012. I was young. I was in that 18 to 34 year old, 18 to 34 age group.

Carrie Tollefson: So cool. Okay. so fast. Yeah, it's a big, big age group.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, so that was my first time.

Carrie Tollefson: and you did it great. mean so many people work so hard to continue to try and they just miss it and you were lucky to get it on your first try.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, I wouldn't have done it without him. And you know, I think I'm all for it. yeah, he's got kids and he's going to be a very visual memory. do. I do have.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, that's so cool. It's so cool how you remember so much about it too. Yeah. So how did you qualify for this year's?

Brady Hoover: This year, so I ran New York City in 2024. So qualifying for Boston is a little unique. The qualifying window is, they haven't announced it for this year, but it pretty much follows the same pattern. So the day Boston Marathon registration opens, that is the qualifying window for the next year. So let's just say it opens September 10th, 2026. Yeah, so if we're looking at, sorry, for 2027, the qualifying window, let's whenever Boston opened, let's just say it was September 10th. I don't know the exact date when it opened in 2025 for this year's race. That's when the qualification window opened for next year. I ran.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah. Right. for next years. Yeah, so you almost have like a year and over like a year and a half at least.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, they've tightened that. And so now it's like a year. for like, um, 2027, the qualification window was like September 10th, 2026 or 2025 to September 9th or whenever registration is going to happen. That is the window. So you have one year to do it. Um, it used to be, it used to be the day before. So the Sunday, so you could like run the Sunday, the day before last chance BQ and you could use that for two years. They took that away because it's just been so popular. They added, um,

Carrie Tollefson: to September of 20. Yes. I see. Okay, one year to do it. So popular.

Brady Hoover: You know, they added some new rules this year, the downhill, downhill rule, which we'll talk about as we get further along. So yeah, qualified at New York 2024. And I like to do my qualifications in the fall. So I've re-qualified at Bay State, which I used for seeding. I had tachycardia at like mile 20, 24 at the New York City Marathon. I was going to go 254 there and I had tachycardia and I squeaked in at like 305 or 303 something and it just got me in. It was, yeah, it was unfortunate.

Carrie Tollefson: Hold on. So we got to explain this to some people because some people don't like they may have heard that word before they don't really get what it is. Attack of Cardia. Tell us what that is.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. So I have something called super ventricular tachycardia and mine, I'm fortunate enough that it doesn't happen very often. It's like once in a blue moon, I catalog this for years. And usually it happens in the hotter temperatures. And what it is is there's an electrical signal in the heart that will sometimes go haywire and I'll get like a second beat and it just, you know, goes through the moon. Right. So it took, it took like six months to diagnose it. This was many years ago. And the doctor came, okay. We know what it is. I've got three options for you. Option one, we can do an ablation, simple procedure. You come in, you know, we pump you full of adrenaline or whatever medicine they use. We get the heart rate up and when it happens, you know, cauterize that, you know, it's microscopic, cauterize that section of the heart. We could put you on a beta blocker, but since it only happens like once a year, it doesn't really make sense for you. Or you can learn to live with it. If we do do the procedure\... Chances are it's not going to happen on the table because you're an athlete and you know, even pumping you through the adrenaline and all that stuff, not going to happen. So I took the learn to live with path. But then the frequency ticked up and then I went to Tufts Medical, you know, so first I went to MGH, got diagnosed. He's like, nothing dangerous. This is what you got to do. This is how you get out of it. And when it does happen, it's like I fought a lion and I'm just like, I'm just gone. Like it's just the body just gets heavy. I get out of the tachycardia, but as soon as I start putting any effort in it goes right you know the heart rate goes right up the body gets heavy so this happened at yeah 24 24 and a half and I'm like okay it's I've got about 15 minutes to get to that finish line I'm gonna run walk and at the time I could run like 200 meters then had a walk 200 meters had a walk yeah

Carrie Tollefson: Huh. Like how high is your heart rate? it like 200s?

Brady Hoover: Yeah, it goes, it goes, it will go from like 160 to 200. Um, and there's no, with mine, there's no warnings. Some people can feel it right before it happens. Sometimes I can, and I can catch it. Other times it's like the light switch, like you just turned on or off the lights. Um, so I was lucky enough to qualify there. Um, it wasn't the time that I had trained for. Um, yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: That's so scary. I'm sorry, I'm trying not to laugh, but like, again, so many people want to qualify for Boston and you get to do it while you have tachycardia.

Brady Hoover: I know if it had happened at like 22 of my it wouldn't have happened right? I just wear it today. Tachycardia, yep. Yeah, so I did try the inflation. Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, is that how say it? Am I saying it right? Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry that you have it. I'm not laughing that you have that, but I mean it's like you're crazy Brady.

Brady Hoover: So I went to Tufts and saw a sports cardiologist there. you know, that just works with a lot of athletes. He means like, you know, this is, this is more common than you would think that athletes at your level, right? That we're just, we're just pushing at such a high effort, right? You're middle of the pack, back of the pack. They're just, they're running easier, if you will. So their heart rate is not getting as elevated whereas we're out there for just under three hours. We're pushing, you know, we're running at 95, 96 % of our threshold pace. I mean, it's, it's quite fast. So, you know, that put me at ease. It's like, okay.

Carrie Tollefson: Fairly common, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. sure. pushing it a little bit, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: I remember growing up and sometimes raising my hand, hey coach, I gotta come off the soccer field. Didn't know why, right? Never put a finger on it, but then when I reflect back. So I tried the ablation and it was unsuccessful. He's like, well, we could try again in six months. And then the frequency went down and he's like, you're probably gonna age out of it because you're just not gonna be able to get your heart rate as the years go by. Knock on wood, I haven't had it since then and that was fall of 2024.

Carrie Tollefson: Really? Huh. yeah. I see. OK. well good.

Brady Hoover: Maybe I'm getting older, I am slowing down a little bit.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, or maybe it did kind of work and it's a weird way. You never know. Well, we're glad that it's not happening as often and that, you know, you still know how to kind of gauge it and whatever.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, right. Right. Yeah, so that got me into Boston. then I did run prior to this year. I ran October 2025. I ran the Bay State Marathon, which is local to me. It's one of the top 10 qualifying races for Boston. It's in Lowell, Massachusetts. It's a double loop.

Carrie Tollefson: Okay. Where is that? What city? Okay, cool.

Brady Hoover: It's advertised as flat. There's a couple of rollers on one side of the river and then it's like pancake flat on the other side and you do two loops. I say it has just, I think I would be slower on a pancake flat. I do like the variation to switch up the rules, use the glutes a little bit more, the quads on the downhills. And then I ran 258 to improve my seating time so I could get a lower bib.

Carrie Tollefson: Nice. You like that, yeah. Mm-hmm. and then you can move up.

Brady Hoover: And this is the first year for Boston that I do not have a red bib. I'm in the second wave. I saw that. said, oh my gosh, what an amazing field of athletes that 258 puts you in wave two. Like, what's the cutoff for wave one? 254? I guess I got to run faster in the fall.

Carrie Tollefson: yay! Ha ha ha! so 254 is the cutoff to be in the first wave.

Brady Hoover: I think that was this year. I don't have the official stat, if I'm 258, it's gotta be, and I'm in Corral 1. It's gotta be, it's just somewhere between 254 and probably 256.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Do you think you're gonna run pretty fast? What's the plan?

Brady Hoover: Uh, plan is just to enjoy it. I've got the qualification. Um, we had a great, well, we didn't have a great winter for training, but we had a great winter for skiing. So I did a lot of time on the slopes. I have just enough miles and me, um, you know, done five or six runs that were leading up to this that are sick, you know, 16 to 17 miles. Usually I'll go, I'll get a couple of twenties and 22s in there when I'm going to race it. So just enough to finish it, have fun with the crowds. It's like, I know somebody from mile three all the way into the finish line every mile. people that I used to run with. it's like\... I've had my best days at Boston, my best race at Boston. I've had my worst race at Boston. I ran in the heat. I've ran on in 2018. I don't know if you were there that year. Um, the worst weather in history and Boston. I've blown up at mile 10 and did a run walk to the finish, um, in 2021 when we, my daughter was six months old and I just didn't train for the thing. Um, but no matter what Boston does not disappoint. It doesn't matter what experience you have or how the race is going. It's just so uplifting. that it's like well I know I got 16 miles to go but I got no plans the rest of the day I'm just gonna get to that finish line right and I'm like I'm gonna get the dogs and high five the kids and tell them they're gonna do just change the mindset. Here's all the girl yeah well so yeah I lost like my splits just tanked and I don't know what happened there.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah kiss all the girls at Wellesley. Do you kiss a girl? Like will your wife allow it during the Boston Marathon or no?

Brady Hoover: No, I don't do that, I'll go hug a girl. I'll hug a girl, yeah. Not the kids, no. Because if that ever got photographed or something, would not fly.

Carrie Tollefson: So my husband I threw under the bus one year. Yes, that's that's allowed. I said on national television one year that Charlie stopped to kiss all the girls and he was like, Carrie, I didn't stop to kiss the girls. I'm like, I know, I was just, you know, making a joke of it. But anyway, I threw him under the bus.

Brady Hoover: Like, why did you lose a minute here?

Carrie Tollefson: He's like, people are gonna think we're weird. I'm like, no, it's during the Boston Marathon, it's okay. If you do a kiss on the cheek, it's okay. But, so how do you coach your athletes to qualify for Boston? I mean, you can qualify all over. There are some rules and regulations which we can get into now or whenever you want, but tell us how you kind of set that year up or that 20 weeks or 12 weeks, whatever the plan is, for them to actually hit their time.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, it's part of the race. Yeah. so yeah, I do, I do get approached by a lot of runners that are aiming to qualify for Boston or just run personal best. They've already qualified for Boston. so it depends on the athlete. Amanda who's been on this podcast, she just be queued this February for the first time, right? She came to me and she, she had just had a baby. getting back into running. She ran track and, track and field in high school and she was fast, right? Said, we have an engine to tap into. It's just going to take us some time to get there. Her idea was I run a run to marathon. a year. And I said, we could do that. Yep. You know, at the time her threshold pace or one hour pace was a 930. I said, we could do that. If we ran a marathon, two marathons a year, we're going to sacrifice precious development time. You'll get there. It'll just take a little bit longer, right? Cause you can't have speed and power work, high intensity training, short duration, along with high volume, right? That's just a recipe for overtraining injury. So you can't have both. I said, If we do two marathons a year, that means your race preparation phase is going to be about four months in each marathon. So that's eight months out of a calendar year. That gives you four months to develop, right? Not counting recovery time after the marathon. I said, if we do one marathon a year, I'll let you run a half marathon. you know, in the spring or the fall, whenever, you know, whenever you run a spring marathon, it's a fall half marathon. You will, you will PR that, but I won't let you run it at your potential because I'll give you just enough miles to run it at say 96 % instead of 98 % of your threshold pace, which will still be faster than previous Amanda. Um, so it's having those conversations of like, I can get you there a little bit quicker if we have nine months to develop speed power. We make it at like a sea focused race, just enough miles. Yeah, and she PR'd her halves at the time and now she sits on a 715 threshold pace and then she went out and went from a 349 two years ago to a 322 now. Yeah, and we didn't go all in. We held back a little bit because it's like 322, that's more than enough qualifying time. That gives her like a seven and change buffer because it's 322 and change. More than enough. If we went all in, you run the risk of. Potent Rizzer's Edge, right? That means hydration, sleep, everything comes full circle. And I say, we all have those races where everything comes together. And it's just this enlightening race. And it's like a high. I think I feel like that's what keeps us going is we're always, we have great races, but those perfect races, they're very few in part between. I maybe had two of those, maybe three in my many years. And constantly.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Well, also we're always chasing the next thing, even if we hit it, we're like, but I could have done this better. We're terrible that way.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. Yeah, so it's, it's all like it's in the development work and how quickly do you want to get there? I have had athletes that are like, I've been running marathons for five years. I've always had this dream of running Boston. You know, I train year to year. do two, three marathons a year, or they're triathletes and they do two marathons and a 70.3 or 140.6. I've just not, you know, with, despite all this training, I'm just not getting any faster. So then when I talk about, talk to them, like, well, you know, tell me like, what's your race schedule like year to year? Oh, I usually run a marathon in April or May, and then I'll do a 70.3 or another marathon in like September, and then I'll run something, you know, December, January, I'll travel over to here. Um, and I go, let's see, 16 weeks, 16 to 20 weeks for race preparation. Yeah. You're, you're going into your race preparation phase in January, and then you're running that April or May marathon and then you're recovering and you're going into race preparation. for that 70.3 in July or August or 140.6. And then you're running a fall marathon in October, November. You're staying in race to race preparation. The entire, you know, your focus is building stamina from one race to the next race to the next race. You're not taking a step to step back and develop speed and power. And that's where the gains are going to come in. runners that are new to the sport, they can get away with a couple of marathons a year through experience in structured training. They're going to get faster. but you, when you feel like you've hit that plateau, it's time to take a step back and look, okay, what races and what are our priorities? Are we spending too much time building stamina? Which is fine. Some athletes just, their goal is to just finish and that's what they want to do and that's what keeps them happy. Yep. And then others are like, I want to get faster. And then you see, it's like, okay, I hate to tell you that not race as much, but like you can still do these races. We're going to change these priorities. So maybe it's instead of doing an April marathon, let's run a really fast half marathon in April. You know, that will give us January to April to develop and then you can still do your 78.3 and fall marathon and then all of sudden they see like a good drop in their marathon time and like wow that was the missing piece.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yep. Yep, timing sometimes is everything. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, yeah, it's hard to explain. Sometimes, you know, periodization, I often will bring up like Arnold Schwarzenegger, right? And I say, Arnold, you know, Arnold, you grew up with and I did too. you know, I say I say to athletes, know, Arnold, he gets on stage, right? And he's winning from year to year, he's doing one or two events. you know, for him to put on more size, do you think he's doing all that heavy lifting like eight weeks out from his competition? Or is he doing that right after his competition? You know, where he's eating a surplus of calories, doing those like one rep max, doing six sets of three reps to failure, right? You can't do that when you're getting close to the stage because you're starting the diet down. You just don't have the calories, the carbohydrates, the protein to be able to fuel that. You know, running is no different. It's all about priorities.

Carrie Tollefson: Uh-huh. you That is interesting. That's a great analogy and I just keep thinking of I want to pump you up. Right?

Brady Hoover: That's a great analogy and I just can't thank you enough. Yes. He's doing doubles. Runners will do doubles. Yeah. Yeah. So was very relatable. And when you say it's sometimes it really sinks in, go, athlete has this aha. I get it. I get it. Yeah. And then they buy in and it's like, trust the process. Trust me as your coach. I will, I will help you. start seeing, we'll start seeing improvements in the short game. the improvements in the short game, you know, there's going to be improvements in the long game. It's just, you know, you need to run a marathon.

Carrie Tollefson: it's so good. Yeah. Yeah. huh. Trust it, yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: like you need 12, 16, 20 weeks to build the stamina depending on how long you're going to be on the course. Like on run.it gives me a 12 week race preparation phase. Everything that comes before that is speed, speed and power development. And then it's, you know, it's 10 weeks of building and the two week taper and you know, I'm ready. I don't like to give up that development time unless I, unless I have to.

Carrie Tollefson: Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah. No, and we shouldn't. That's the bread and butter. That's the base. You know, we need to get we need to get that in. A lot of people forget that we do need some speed behind all that strength. So we have to remember that. And that's why we have coaches like you to, you know, keep us on track. But once once people actually get that time, it's not a guarantee. That they're in, I mean, that's the hard part about Boston, and it's getting harder and harder every year. Like the time standards are coming down and we know that what have they like in the last few years, they've dropped a ton.

Brady Hoover: Right. Like 10 minutes. 10 minutes for the young guys. Yep.

Carrie Tollefson: And part of that I think is the equipment as well. they have people, know, times are changing in the world of sport. So we have to kind of keep up with that. But yeah, the times are getting faster. There's more people running like it's harder and even we'll get into charity. But that's you have to make you have to get more donations to get in there. So, you know, buckle up.

Brady Hoover: Yup. And Boston, the charity picket is, high. Whereas, you know, some of the other world, New York, London, it's a little bit lower. London, that's a good explanation for popularity. They'll get a million people to enter the lottery. New York just had 260,000. They're biggest. Yeah. Like that just shows that like people are embracing the sport. They want to get in. you know, maybe some of us run influencers or, you know, we're just on this health boom where we're seeing how unhealthy our population is. And people are like, running is a really, you know, it's fairly inexpensive. I just need to, well, it's fairly inexpensive. Yeah. Until you start buying the shoes. You know, but yeah, you can do it out of your house. You can do it out of your home. Yeah. With just a pair of sneakers. Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: and then you start traveling and then have hotels and I\... Yeah. Right. Right. I love that. So when you get, you you hit that time, you know it. What do do then? Submit it? Or I mean, there's not like a results website for the Boston Marathon folks to go and start handpicking. Like how does that? I mean, I guess there probably is, but like how does a person do that? Okay.

Brady Hoover: Yep. Thank Yeah. Yeah, let's break it down. So let's take the 18 to 34 because that's the first qualifying age group. Back when I was 18 to 34, the qualifying time was, I think in 2012, it was 310. It was either 310 or 305. I can't remember off the top of my head. But it's now down to 255.

Carrie Tollefson: yeah, I said three minutes. No, sorry. That's in the older people group. The younger one is even more.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, yeah, the bigger, yeah, the older it's like, I'm not, I'm slowing down just a little bit. And it's like, well, I just turned 40, but I'm looking at the times here. Wow. When I turned 45, I get 10 more minutes. I'm only going to be a tad bit slower. It's almost like it gets easier to qualify as you get older. If, I just turned 40.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah. I know. Did you say you just turned 40? Brady! You're a baby. I love it. Okay, carry on. Sorry. I digress.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. So back in 2012, 2013, even 2014 was a big year, was the Boston bombing. But, you know, up until about 2014, the Boston Marathon didn't sell out when registration opened. It usually would sell out when Chicago happened mid-October, because there wasn't enough qualifiers, but the qualifying time. Now, there's more qualifiers than there is entries. And it was like 2014 that they had to drop the paces by like five minutes, like across the board. That's all the way down, 18 to 34, 35 to 39, 40 to 44. and so on. I think they could make a better, more data centric approach. Cause I don't think like five minutes for me, a 40 year old affects it's different than five minutes to go from three hours to two 55 only 10 % of no 5 % of runners year to year will break three hours. Right. I said, that's a really, you know, for those men, the women dropped from three 30 to three, three 25. There's, there's very few that can do that. I'm like, that's gonna like Boston's going to be, there's plenty of young people there. Right. Um, but it's like, I think your big basis of qualifiers are going be like you know a little bit older it's just getting harder I think they could pay to take a more data-centric approach and look where those big qualifying windows do I need ten minutes when I turn 45? I'm going to say I don't, I shrink it by five minutes and like, okay, maybe that will weed some stuff out. But, um, so what happens is you get your qualifying time, but you don't know what the cutoff is going to be now because there's more entrance than qualifier, or than bibs available. Boston feels about 30,000 this year and about, um, I don't know the exact number, but I'm going to say 18, at least 18,000, if not 20,000 are qualifiers. Um, I think they had 36,000. of you know people submit times this past year for the 2026 race so they had to do a cutoff and that cutoff was it was just over five minutes so not only did you have to run a qualifying time but you had to be five minutes under qualifying so imagine that you qualify for the Olympic trials and you hit that time and they say sorry Carrie you can't go like you know faster you know so

Carrie Tollefson: Ha ha. Yeah. Whoops, gotta do it again or just didn't happen. that is hard.

Brady Hoover: it's like, oh, what time do I need? And I always say, well, five minutes under is a good enough buffer. Two years ago, that's when they dropped the three hour to the 2.55. And then, you know, and the cutoff was not quite five minutes, but just under maybe it was four minutes, 34 seconds. And then new for this year, the time qualifications for 2027 are still the same, except people that are running downhill races, if the net downhill is 1,499 feet to 2,999 feet, that's how much the net drop is, they're going to add five minutes to your time. Right? Because it's easier. It's easier. like, yeah, downhill is easy until it's not because it everybody differently. And then

Carrie Tollefson: Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, exactly. But people used to do that, right? Like they'd go to St. George or they'd go to CIM or they'd go places that have, yeah, like we know that they're mainly downhill courses, but that's, think, why they're trying to equalize that out a little bit.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, cottonwood. Yeah, that's exactly why. Yep. And then at 3,000 feet, well, then you get a 10 minute, right? So I'm like, well, just go out and find a course that's like 2,800 feet, and they're only going to punish you five minutes. Like, 1,500 feet? No, no, don't do that one. Like, you might as well just milk it for everything it's worth. So that's new for this year.

Carrie Tollefson: Ha! Yeah. Yeah. So that's homework though. have to, I mean obviously you as a coach have to, you have to know that too, but people have to just realize it's not just, I can go do this downhill course and it's gonna be great. Now there's rules and regulations so you need to make sure you know that.

Brady Hoover: to know. do these things. Yep, yep, because they'll add five minutes. So you might go 250 as an 18 year old and run it down the course and you might be 250 and change. So now it's 250. Your time adjusted is 255 and change. Sorry, you didn't even qualify. You know, it's, it's another thing. Um, but, uh, from, know, a runner, I'm trying to think, I can't remember their name, but they crunch all the numbers. It sounds like there's really only 400 people running this year that would have been excluded. Um, and done one of those races. So I thought it was. So I'm like, ah, yeah, I think you still need a five-minute buffer right now. We'll see what the numbers bring as we get closer to fall. We're pretty good at predicting the data, what the cutoff's going to be within 30 seconds. But it's looking for and change.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm are there certain are there certain races that you recommend to people like This is the perfect time of year to do it and it's you know We don't have to worry about all those buffers and things like that

Brady Hoover: Yeah. So, you know, us Northern, it's always hot down South, right? So if you're a Southern runner, like traveling North in the fall, September, October, ideally October, you're, the weather's more stable. Whereas with Boston and April, you just never know. all have hot days, cold days, windy days. but you're more likely to have those ideal conditions like come October up in, you know, the Northern, you know, Northern States, anywhere from Washington to, you know, Maine, right? No. So targeting one of the lows because you you're, you're more optimal to run. mean, run dot will tell you if you're going to run a three hour marathon and 60 degree weather, but then your race day decides it's going to be 75 degrees. Well, you can't run a three hour, you know, that's going to be a much harder effort. We got to account for that and actually slow down a little bit. So now our potential might be 305 because of the weather, right? lot of runners will go out and say, I'm going to run three hours no matter what.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, you gotta adjust it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Brady Hoover: get away with it till about mile 16 or 18 and then it just all goes south right because they're just burning through Cleckagen that much faster their heart rate's higher than it otherwise would be just all of those things. Some other good races happen in the winter like Surf City is a great one it's flat so those that want a pancake flat there's not a lot of shade there so even though it could be 50 degrees that sun can make it feel much much warmer Ventura Marathon has a drop of about 800 feet that's what Amanda just and that's in late February, which is a very comfortable time. think it was 40 at the start and 50 when she finished, you know, just over three hours later. So those winter races and some of those warmer climates where temperature is little cooler, those are the ones I would bank on. When you get into like April, May up here, like Boston, you just never know the weather. Typically, historically, it's like 55 degrees, right? That's like the 10-year average. But you start getting into May and the Northern start, never know what the weather is going to do and if you get the warm day.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah, our thunderstorms or whatever, all the things.

Brady Hoover: Wind, yeah, you get a perfect temperatures and then you could have a wind from the east for Boston and you're just fighting a headwind the whole way. That was 2018. like perfect, yeah. Cool for you all. Yes.

Carrie Tollefson: Have you been looking at the weather for Monday? It's cold! It's perfect for you. It's cold for me to be sitting out there. but I'm happy for you guys because we have seen it all in Boston. Really, like you said, I mean, you can. The spring weather is a little crazy at times. And I mean, my husband's been sunburned. He's been through the rain and the wind and the cold and all of it. So it's it's always a guessing game. You never know what it's going to be that morning.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's sitting at 70 degrees right now. It's humid. I had it actually turn on my AC. I'm like, Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: I know, I know. You guys usually get what we get and we're gonna kinda have a funny week where it's been warm, it's cooling down now, we've had tons of rain and wind. So hopefully all that is out of there and it's just like a cool, crisp morning. That would be nice.

Brady Hoover: Red, there's for us here in the North, there's no time for us to alchemy. It's like you could run and run in the gym, but it's different when you get the sun beating on. I it helps to run in a hot environment, but you know, those that are coming up from the south, whether it's like 80 degrees. Yeah. If they get a 70 degree day, they're going to fare much better. It's like in the North. So weather's looking good. I hope it, I hope it stands still because of the wind. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Get the sun out there.

Carrie Tollefson: No. It is. Yeah. yeah. I just hope it stays dry. Nobody likes wet cool, you know, like for all for the spectators and all of you guys, it just would be nice if it's dry. So, OK, we've talked about how to qualify, how to train, how to get through it, all that stuff. But there's other ways to qualify for Boston without having to run a time. And we mentioned it earlier with charity. But talk a little bit more about that if you can.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, yeah. So I used to run and once I had kids, I used to qualify, but then I would run for the Alzheimer's Association and I would fundraise what I could. Like we lost my mother-in-law to Alzheimer's, early onset Alzheimer's disease. So, 52.

Carrie Tollefson: was she young? my gosh. that is heartbreaking. We lost my mother-in-law to Alzheimer's too, but she was 70 and still too young. but what a nice way for you to remember her and to raise awareness for it.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, it's terrible. Still. Yeah, so I got really involved in the Alzheimer's Association and learned a little bit about the charity, you know, the charity opportunities. Like me being a qualifier, I just add an extra bib to their pool, right? They don't say, like they say, you know, if you could raise \$5,000, great. We're not going to hold you to it, right? Because I'm bringing them a bib, whereas, and then I can train with the team and then they have this nice little coach boss that gets you up to the starting line. So you can sit on the coach bus, it's got a bathroom, like that's gold right there. And you don't have to go into Athletes Village until you, if it's your first time, you want to go in and experience it. But then I say go back to your bus if you're running for charity. Because there's not, there's a lot happening in Athletes Village, but everyone's just kind of hurry up and wait. And there's long bathroom lines, the poor parties are running out of toilet paper. So anyone running in Boston, bring an entire team of us. So like get back on that bus. Like that's the benefit of running for a charity. Is they're going to give you a coach bus to get there?

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah Yeah. Yeah, you're seeing things you don't want to see. Hilarious.

Brady Hoover: just you can camp there until your waves call right there's a parking lot so you know when it's about time for you to leave that bus if it's raining and it's bad elements like 2018 it's like you're just so much you're not sitting out in a field right athletes villages it's a field you're not you're not sitting out of the elements

Carrie Tollefson: Nice. Yep, stay warm. Who? Right? yeah, that is tough.

Brady Hoover: So now it's become so popular and know, is breaking records every year for how much they are fundraising through their charity. It's just And I say that's, I say training for Boston and trying to raise it's like the minimum is like \$12,000 now for a lot of these. That's harder than qualifying. It is way harder because you're trying to put organized events and you're reaching out to what your 401c letters and you're trying to like reach out to shops and see if people can get donations so you can do a raffle, you know, these other things, and it's just a lot of work. More power to them, you know, it's, I say it's so much harder, and often charities are now, they have to be selective because something like the Alzheimer's disease, they get like 30 bibs, but they'll have over 200 applications, right? So it's like how do they weed through all of these things? I'll give you a little tip if you're gonna want to run for charity, where you're have the things that they're like looking at when they more bibs, more more applicants than bibs available, is they're looking for people with like a personal connection, right? I have that personal connection to Alzheimer's so I can share the story, share my why, it's mainly my purpose behind it. I'm gonna immediately go into that, you know, that maybe pile and then that maybe pile comes down to like, you know, from 200 to 50. Okay, we got to sort through these, you know, what's their running, you know, what's their running history like, what's their back story, they're looking at all of that stuff, how involved are they in the running community, you you can talk about that, you know, because they're looking at, you know, your ability to be able to fundraise. You know, they don't want to whack anyone \$12,000 when they don't hit, you know, or \$4,000 because they come up short. They want all their runners to be able to fundraise that, right, but they have to hold them to that, you know, \$12,000 mark. So they want these runners to be successful.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. that is a lot of money. I mean it's a lot of money but it is we like you said they race so much and it's for good causes so it's pretty neat when you're out there running and you're knowing what you're running for it's pretty awesome like not only in the race but your builds you know your 10 15 whatever 20 weeks of training it's pretty pretty inspiring that's for sure so

Brady Hoover: So much good. Yep. each team has each team as a coach. So you have someone to ask questions to they're providing you, you know, at least one training plan, if not like a beginner intermediate advanced, right. And in some of the ask questions to their having monthly calls. They'd have a banquet dinner. The coach goes through, I remember 2018 because the weather was going to be so bad and the coach for Alzheimer's, she was like, you could start with a poncho and guess what? going to get a couple miles in and you're soaking wet and uncomfortable, but you know what? You're going to be OK. You can start with that poncho and you know what? You're going to be soaking wet and uncomfortable, but you're going to be OK. I was like, OK, more of a story. You're going to be OK.

Carrie Tollefson: Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, and that's the funny thing is, is 2018. That was a smart recommendation by that coach or that leader because even the people up front still had their coats on. They still had their ponchos on the whole entire way. It was freezing. Yes.

Brady Hoover: right. Yup. Yup. And that's when Dez, you know, she wanted Yuki who I just love Yuki because he's like, I come everyday runner. think he's a college professor or something. He's, he's an elite runner, but it's not his full-time gig. to see.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, he's smooth. Nobody runs a lot of miles from Japan. I we haven't seen him though in a while

Brady Hoover: I know, I know, I still follow him. I think he was injured for a little while. Yeah, and he's just put up something. Yes. I would love to meet you.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Okay. Yuki Kouchi. Yup. So, you know what? can come and meet some of the elites if you come to the expo and I think you're gonna maybe come to that or the Q &A that I have. I've got a lot of stuff going on. So if anyone wants to find me over the weekend, you gotta reach out to Brady. He's got my schedule. It's a busy one.

Brady Hoover: there. I got the whole itinerary. Yes.

Carrie Tollefson: It's a busy one. Okay, so Boston we've we've kind of covered it all how to qualify even through charity But there's a lot of world marathon majors right now and they're actually adding to it So Tokyo Berlin London, New York Chicago and Boston were the original six now We have Sydney and they're talking about adding one or two more and they're in the works of that So is the process the same for each and every one of them or is it all are they all different? Mm-hmm

Brady Hoover: They're all different. So a lot of them are charity driven, but they do have some qualifying standards. So let's go, let's go US first. New York City Marathon. They have guaranteed entry application where you have to run a you know, a qualifying time, you know, at any, at any marathon in the time, the qualification times are faster than Boston for the respective age group, right? Cause it's not a qual, it's not a qualifying race, if you will, but it's something that they offer. A of years ago you could, at New York, could qualify with a really fast half. That's how I got in in 2024, is I did a fast half and I hit that. I could have hit the marathon time, but I had the half. So I used that to get in and get that guaranteed entry. They've now taken away the half marathon. But there is still a time stamp for the half marathon if you run one of the New York City Roadrunner halves. Then you can get in that way. If you run another half, they're not going to accept you. But if you run New York City Roadrunner half and get that qualification time, you get the guaranteed entry. Which is more fun when you're in New York City. Yes.

Carrie Tollefson: Which is a fun race actually. It's a really the NYC half in the spring is a really fun race. They shut down Times Square like you're in Central Park like it's it's really cool.

Brady Hoover: Yes. Yeah, and I had an athlete just go under 130 there for her first time this year. She's running Boston as well this year, so so stoked to run with her. Yeah, so you can get in that way. You can do nine plus one, which means you do nine of the. in a calendar year, do nine of the New York City Roadrunners races. Some of the events offer virtual, so you don't have to travel to New York every time. 5K, 10K, you can do the virtual. But then you do have to volunteer for one of their races as well. So run nine, volunteer one. Yes.

Carrie Tollefson: Okay. I did not know this. Huh. I am learning so much. So much. Okay, carry on.

Brady Hoover: There's the lottery, which the lottery less than 1 % got in this year because it was like 260,000 applicants. And then you could run for charity. In the charity, back when I looked into it, I didn't pull the stats for today. But just a couple years ago, was \$3,500. So not as much as, something like Boston. New York can have 50,000 runners, if not more, 55 the year I ran it. So they can just accommodate more runners. Well, that's getting into New York. New York takes place in the fall. It takes the first weekend after Halloween. Sometimes it's November 1st, and it's like, well, I got kids. I can't do November 1st.

Carrie Tollefson: It's so hard when it's over that Halloween weekend. We've had, we've brought the kids to New York to do Halloween before, which is an experience. It's pretty fun. But yeah. How about Chicago?

Brady Hoover: Yes. Yeah, that would be an experience. Let's go to Chicago. So Chicago. They do have a guaranteed entry application process as well. That one's mostly a lottery or charity, just like New York. But they do have a small pool of athletes that will do a guaranteed entry time. Back when I ran Chicago in 2017, men had to run under 315, women under 345, and that was it, right? That was just, that was it. Now their qualification times reflect what Boston has. So you run 18 to 34. If you're a male, 254 will get you in. If you're a female, 324 will get you in, or 324.59, right? One second under. We'll get you in and get you that guaranteed entry, which is my plan for next year, is to do Chicago next fall. But my wife wants to go back. And I said, absolutely. The kids will love it. We'll do the, you know, it's just so much fun to be had there. Yes, yes. We'll run into each other a lot. Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: Mm-hmm. Cool, fun. Yes! I'll see you there too then. I know, it's good, it's good. How about Tokyo?

Brady Hoover: So let's go to Tokyo. So that race takes place end of February, beginning of March. That one, it only has an elite qualifying field. Let me look at my notes, because I did have that. It's like under 228 for men. And for women, these are elites. Berlin, Sydney, Tokyo. Women is under 254. But there's only so many, but then it comes down to they have about 260 bibs for that elite field. So then it becomes down to well, how much under 228 or how much under 254 did you run? And then you can get in. Otherwise it's, you know, it's a lottery as well. There's yeah, there is charity component. And with all these, there's, you know, the Abbott series as well. There's there's marathon tours and other ways to get in as well. I forgot to mention that. Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: huh. And is there a charity component? Okay. other ways to get in. Yeah. Okay. Berlin and London are the next two. I guess in Sydney, but let's talk Berlin and London because those are the original.

Brady Hoover: Yep, Berlin. Berlin does have qualification standards. It is 18 to 44, so it's a much bigger range. So this would be me if I were to qualify for Berlin. I'd have to go under 245. I don't know if I'm in that kind of shape right now. A few years ago, I should have done it. And then 310 for women in that age group. So very, very hard to hit time. Definitely favors the younger runners. a 40-year-old trying to run 245. I mean, that's just incredible when you look at age.

Carrie Tollefson: It is beautiful over there. I was super surprised. I went and did the commentary two years ago and the park right where the gate is. It's so pretty. It's just like a small central park right there in the middle of the city. then obviously you see like you can see that there was war there because there's still some buildings that have you know damage from that. And like it's just this really cool city. So I'm surprised like I'm not I didn't race over there. And so just to do the commentary a couple years ago is my first experience of Berlin and I loved it. So.

Brady Hoover: What an amazing experience to just see so much history there. Does Oktoberfest usually follow Berlin? I feel like it lines up on the way, so you get to enjoy that.

Carrie Tollefson: So much history right there. I think it's right after. I mean, I feel like they're getting into it because isn't it like the last weekend of September normally? yeah. Yep. So fun.

Brady Hoover: Yep. Yes. It's to coincide. So those traveling, it's like, I've always wanted to experience too. It's like, well, you know, now I could, you know, I could go, Hey, let's go, let's go take a trip to Germany. It's like, there'll be something for me, but there's something for you and the family as well.

Carrie Tollefson: Go to Munich. Yeah. Yes. I actually really like Germany. I've been over there to the Adidas headquarters, Adidas headquarters in Herzogenau, Germany. And I mean everywhere it's so different. There's city, there's, you know, it's farm country. It's a beautiful country. But still you can feel the heaviness that they went through and still, you know, at times. So, but that's cool. Okay, so that's a fast one as well. Charity is there. How about London? London is like thinking about going to two days. Like there's so many people that want to run London.

Brady Hoover: I think is the most popular race in the world, um, with over a million applications, right? Um, so yeah, you can get in. So London does have qualifying times. It's called good for age. However, it only applies to UK residents. So, you know, the time, if you live outside of the UK, these times don't, they don't apply. Um, you know, so for, um, men it's, know, under two 52 for 18 to 39 year old age group. And for a woman it's three 38, but those are two UK residents only. So then it's the lottery, it's the marathon tours, or charity would be the other. I did get into London via charity, but then my wife got pregnant and she was gonna be like eight months pregnant, so yeah, that was a no-go.

Carrie Tollefson: huh. Okay. Yes, so maybe another year.

Brady Hoover: Another year, I'll circle back to that and that will be another. It's six days after Boston and you know, if I'm if I'm qualified for Boston, I'm not going to not run Boston, so it will be another, you know, we call it. I live in Newburyport, so 45 minutes north.

Carrie Tollefson: Okay. Yes. That's your hometown, basically. Like, how far out of the city do you live? Nice, yeah, I get it. It's such a fun experience for you to be that hometown guy.

Brady Hoover: I mean, last weekend when I was out, I saw volunteer jackets on the bike trails when I was out running from previous years. It's like when the warm weather hits, you know, when the warm weather is in the air, say Boston is near and even this far out of the city, you see, you know, runners with, you know, the, you know, they're wearing their gloves and, know, because everyone knows it's coming. see jackets from previous years, you see volunteer jackets from previous years. It's just, yeah, it's really feeling the vibes and I'm not even in the city yet.

Carrie Tollefson: Aww. Yeah, yeah. Aww. Yeah. sure. Yep. The build. The build. I can't wait. It's gonna be fun. Sydney's the last one. This was the first time this past end of summer early fall I guess where Sydney became one of the world marathon majors and it's a hilly hard course but people loved it.

Brady Hoover: Yup. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah in Sydney it that one takes place at the end of August which is actually their winter So it's no fake usually favorable weather. They do have a cool this

Carrie Tollefson: Yep, so it's cooler. But it was warm, I think. It ended up being a warm

Brady Hoover: Yeah, and I think a yeah, slow, yeah, they, you know, are the pros run all of 210, right? Because of the right? You know, but yeah, and then I saw something in like runner's world and I'm like, it's a, it's a hard course. Like, you know, don't, you know, fret on it. It's a slow course, right? It's like, it's, it's about the experience, you know, in, in Rundahl where we normalize, you know, we can normalize the environment of any race based on elevation. So if you run, you know, three hours. let's say in Sydney, well you could quickly jump onto Rundot, do a simulation and say on that same fitness, what would by the expected finish time be for Boston if I ran Boston instead and you're like okay three hours there, it would be \$2.55 at the same effort. So these are other things I can do with my athletes is analyze courses and see like where might they be the fastest and you know Amanda when we were trying to qualify her Ventura Marathon happens in February. There's also another race that's the same course in April. We plugged them both into simulations and then run. says, Based on your training, this is where we expect you to be in February. This is where you expect to be in April. In April, she was going to be two minutes faster, better shot at qualifying for Boston. But the April weather in California could be a little bit warmer. You're better off running in February. So these are all those things that we can, you know, think about big picture. Okay. How do we qualify? We can actually run these simulations and run over. I'll have athletes. I'm thinking about these four marathons. Which one should I do? Let's pop into the simulation. and let's see what course is fastest for you. Yep, let's go run, you know, sometimes downhill is not always the fastest because there's a little bit of uphill in those late miles or something, you know, something on those lines. Sydney does have, yeah, Sydney does have qualification times. They're faster than Boston. So 18 to 34, we'll just take that first age bracket. 253 for men and 313 for women.

Carrie Tollefson: Yep. Yep. I love it. when carry on. Yeah, sorry. Okay. Okay, okay.

Brady Hoover: Yep, so you can get in guaranteed entry there as well. Otherwise, it's lottery and just like all the other big majors.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, and pricing is different for all of them, right? Yeah, so you got to keep that in mind too.

Brady Hoover: Yes, yep, pricing is different as a qualified runner. Yeah, you got travel costs, pricing as a qualified runner. What I pay for Boston is a little bit less than what a charity runner will do or an invitational entry. There is different pricing.

Carrie Tollefson: Okay. man, we talked about a lot of things. So I think there's some new athletes or people that haven't ever run a marathon major or something where you really have to qualify. So what would you say to them today, Brady? I mean, it gets overwhelming at times, but also it's kind of fun to have that big goal. And I think you and I both are pretty goal driven people. So sometimes as we get a little older in life, we need that. We need that thing hanging over our head. So what would you tell someone today if they're thinking? about trying to qualify for a race that we've chatted about.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, remember, you know, look at, look at, you know, look at your training cycle. Like how many big races are you doing? I do, you know, I, I do coach connect for the East coast here. So athletes looking for a coach, I'll interview them and a lot of them have time oriented. And, if they've been on try dot or run dot, I'll see their profile. I started to talk, okay, what are your goals? I want to get faster. Okay. I see your race history here. You got a lot of a races. you're not giving your time to self time to develop. So make sure you're getting in, you know, development time if you do want to qualify and you feel like you're not getting faster from year to year. That's often the missing piece is you're just building stamina from one race to the next race to the next race. You know, then November rolls around and it's the holidays and you're burnt out from high volume training all year and then January hits and it's like, okay, race preparation phase once again. Or you recover and you get four weeks to do some speed work and then it's okay. Maybe I improved my 5k by 10 seconds. It's those big chunks of change that you want to do.

Carrie Tollefson: Well, I'm pumped for you. I mean, you know the ins and outs and all arounds of all of these races, but it's now time for you to just focus on what you have to do on Monday and that is to have fun.

Brady Hoover: Yes, that is a have fun. It's nice not to run with the time. Time goal. I've done time goals and focus on the yellow lines and then the the best days are like, let time go out the window. I might just be running next to someone and you know, they're trying to qualify and go under 315 and it's like, I'm going to help you. I'm going to pace you. I'm going to, you're going to be on my hip and we're just going to pick out miles and I'm not going to let you drop. You know, let's get, let's go, you know, let's dig deep. Cause I could, I could do that pace. I could probably do three 10. So if I do get on somebody and we're chatting and having fun and

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. Yeah.

Brady Hoover: and that's their goal and they've never done it before? All right, I'm gonna help you out, sir. Or ma'am, you I'm gonna help you out. Let's go.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. Yeah. Take the focus off of you and put it on someone else. I always think that's a fun way to do it. Well, best wishes. I know.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, yeah. But I love my family, all the little kids. All the little kids. You know, it's like my hand hurts, you know. Yeah, I'll usually put a piece of duct tape there with my name. I'll be in a BAA singlet. Yep. I'll be in the BAA care with a pink hat on. So I stick out like a sore thumb. Pink hat, red shoes. You can't miss me.

Carrie Tollefson: Are you gonna wear a shirt that says your name on it though? Okay, so people can yell for you. Okay, great, great. Well\... pink hat! Okay, that's a good way for people to find you. Yeah. I love Well, we have one more question. It's during the cool down here and it's from Roger. He's from New York and he said, I saw the elevation profile for the Boston Marathon and did not realize how much the first half of the race is downhill. Yes it is. Now he says, I'm fast enough to make it. He says he's not fast enough to make it into Boston, excuse me. But it made him wonder, how would a coach advise someone to pace a race with a long section that is downhill?

Brady Hoover: yes. Yeah, Boston is, It's got a net downhill of 400 feet. So that means you're running downhill for 12,000. You're running uphill for 800 or sorry, 12,000, 1200. Um, so the net drop, that's why I wheelchair racing. If any world record that gets set there, it doesn't count because, because of the elevation, right? Um, so even effort, even effort running, right? Downhill's fast. Like you can run faster. Um, for every like 1 % grade downhill, gravity is going to help us out about eight seconds per mile. So if you're running a 10 minute mile, let's say, and you're running downhill on 1 % grade, the equal effort is 952. Taking off out of Boston, it's like 5 or 6%. However, this can blow up your quads early on from the pounding, it's a delicate balance. So how I coach somebody to run a course like Boston, it depends. What did their training look like? Did we do a lot of downhills? I like my athletes that are running Boston or any downhill to do strength training, especially when we're like 10 weeks out from peaking to introduce what I call eccentric loading. Because the time that you're spending on the ground is a little bit more when you're running downhill, that your quads are contracting a little bit more, you're in hip extension for a longer, I mean we're talking split seconds, but longer period of time, like that is what's going on. We can, you know, we can gear our strength training towards that. So when we're 10 weeks out, if I had the athlete doing split squats, I tell them now with your split squat, we're going to change the tempo. You're going down for five seconds, you're coming up for one. You're probably not going to get 12 reps in, but this is what's going to prepare your muscles for those downhills so that you can run a really fast and successful boston. So downhill's fun, it's fast, it's very fast when you're prepared for it. I've done one downhill race that I didn't train for because it was a pivot because a nor'easter came through and the race I was supposed to do in 2023 got canceled. So I ran a downhill and yeah, it's fast. And I had what, four weeks to prepare myself, right? know, or two more weeks to build and then it was taper. So I got to experience downhill. And you know, I knew everything to do. I just didn't have the time as I would with my athletes. So I couldn't run it as fast as I would like because I wasn't prepared for it. But even effort, great adjusted pace. Or if you have a stride power meter, it gives you power. So that's what I run by. So I just keep that wattage equal, whether I'm going downhill. So if I'm running a seven minute mile, if I'm going downhill, I might be running 630s. But when I'm running uphill, like heartbreak hill, I could be running a nine minute mile, right? I'm just keeping that power. consistent.

Carrie Tollefson: consistency. You know there are a couple funny tricks that some of the oldie but goodie Dick Beardsley would say is he would do his long runs and then he would pound his quads 2,000 times. He would hit him. He would punch him. So that was his tip back in the day before he finished second to Alberto Salazar in the Boston Marathon. And then CJ Albertson who will be racing in the elite field this year. His trick is to put bricks underneath his treadmill so he can actually go even further downhill than his treadmill goes. like you're talking about building those quads up with strength training, doing downhills and those are just two different ways that some of the elites have done it in the past. So it's, think just getting, I think. Yes, we have to physically get our body ready for something like the Bossa Marathon, but also mentally knowing that I've handled this downhill section of training or I do a long run on the treadmill with bricks. Like it's more just like training your body, but also training your brain to be able to handle that kind of lactic acid and the buildup of the downhill.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, yeah, and some of for the late miles, some of my long runs, it's like I'll do, usually I'll do the speed work in the second half of the run. But when I'm trying to be a little bit more specific with Boston, I'll do the speed work earlier on so that, you know, I have this loop that I go out and around Newberry Port, it's flat, it's 10 miles. And then I go to Amesbury and that's, you know, 12 miles and that's got some big climbs in it. So I'll do my speed work on the flat so that I fatigue my quads, get that pounding, and then I'm running uphill, know, roughly around mile 16. where that 95 overpass is for Boston. So am getting some good climbs in there. know, training on the course helps too, which I don't have the time to do anymore, but you years ago before kids, every weekend, especially when we had those things, it's like the carriage lane, you could just run up and down the carriage lane. There was no cars. Everybody is out there running and enjoying it.

Carrie Tollefson: Yep. Get out there. cool. That's really neat. Well thank you for your time today Brady. I know that you've got a lot to do before the big race but we will see you on Saturday or Sunday and then for sure I'll be cheering for you on Monday and for all of you listening if you're racing go get them have fun get after it and maybe maybe we've convinced someone to try running Boston or a major just by listening to you today Brady.

Brady Hoover: Just keep applying. Other than Boston, even if Boston with the charity, just keep applying. You'll eventually get in. New York, just keep applying every year. You'll eventually get in. Just be consistent.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, consistent in training consistent in trying to get in and you know, just have fun It'll all come together. All right, dude. Thank you so much

Brady Hoover: it'll all come together eventually,