We at Blog Central bring you this special Sunday edition to brag that Jef did, indeed, qualify for the Boston Marathon during today's Detroit Free Press Marathon with a 3:23:49 finish—well under the required 3:30. (Our apologies, by the way, to those of you who tried to track Jef during the race. There was a glitch—not ours!—that kept race tracking from working until at least four hours after the race started. Oops.)
To forestall the inevitable (and understandable) questions from those of you who haven't watched or competed in a large marathon: Clock time (Jef's was 3:26:14) starts when the first runners cross the starting line and ends when an individual runner crosses the finish line. Chip time (Jef's was 3:23:49) starts when an individual runner crosses a mat at the starting line that takes note of the little electronic tracking device that runner is wearing on his or her shoe and ends when the runner crosses the mat again at the finish line.
Note the two-and-a-half minute difference between Jef's two times.
The Freep Marathon is a HUGE race—I'm not sure how many people started it, but more than 12,000 people competing in the full marathon, the half marathon and the five-person marathon relay finished it. To manage this crowd, race organizers assign the runners to waves based on their estimated per-mile pace, and each wave starts two minutes after the previous one. There were a total of 13 waves, and Jef was in the second one.
Anyway. It was a beautiful day in Detroit. I managed to haul my butt out of bed this morning to accompany Jef downtown, and I spent a decent portion of the race riding Detroit’s much-maligned People Mover (but it's really kinda cool—there are gorgeous tile mosaics in a bunch of the stations [my favorite was the Cadillac Center station]) so I could cheer Jef on at Mile 9 and Mile 13.
Once Jef finished the race, we walked to Detroit's Famous/Legendary (they don't seem to be able to decide which) Anchor Bar with two friends (one of whom had placed first in her age group in the half marathon a couple of hours earlier) so Jef could tip a celebratory Guinness and eat a celebratory cheeseburger.
Now it’s a little after 8, and we’re both ready for bed.
Jef’s especially motivated to get enough sleep tonight: Online registration for Boston starts at 9 tomorrow morning...
About Jef Mallett
- Jef Mallett
- Jef Mallett is the creator and cartoonist of the nationally syndicated comic strip Frazz. Jef is also author and illustrator of the triathlon lifestyle book Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete.
9 comments:
Congratulations.
If chip time was qualifying (under 3:30) but clock time wasn't (over 3:30), would he have qualified?
Yep--Jef's chip time was his *real* time. (Clock time, especially for a runner in a later wave, can be WAY off the true finish time. A friend of ours had a difference of 20 minutes between clock and chip time today because she started in a much later wave...)
Thanks for the recap Patty. Jef will probably have that smile on his face all night while he sleeps.
Congratulations Jef. I am SO jealous. I came as close to qualifying as I was able with a 3:46 marathon. Not nearly good enough.
As for a smile, if Jef feels anything like I do after a marathon, there will be grimaces and very sore muscles. Then again, I didn't qualify for Boston!
Yaaaay! Look out Boston, here he comes.
Good luck with registration tomorrow, and may the Internet be with you.
HOO YA Jef. Good Job.
Way to Go! Congrats to Jef!
Congratulations. Way to go Jef and Patty!
Great race Jef!
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