This woman qualified for the Boston Marathon in all 50 states
She’s run 58 marathons total since starting only 15 years ago.
It’s hard to qualify for the Boston Marathon—running even one second too slowly will lose you the chance to run the exalted race. Only 10 percent of American marathoners are fast enough, according to Runner’s World. But one woman is really owning that elite group.
Julie Musselman met the standards for Boston in all 50 states after running a total of 58 marathons,Runner’s World reports. Even crazier is the fact that she didn’t even run a marathon until she was 34—she turned to the sport as something to focus on after her husband passed away. Musselman then started on her quest to run a race in every state at 44 years old (she’s 49 now), when she set a goal to run “50 by 50 [years old].’’
Last November’s Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon marked her 50th state. A friend yelled out her accomplishment to the other runners, and Meb Keflezighi happened to be running nearby and heard.
“He came up and congratulated me and shook my hand while we were running, which turned me into the biggest crazy Meb fan,’’ Musselman told Runner’s World. (He has that effect on people.)
But Musselman’s quest wasn’t always that easy. She hit a snag when another runner told her that the 2013 marathon she had run in Wyoming didn’t have the right certifications to count as a Boston Marathon qualifier, according to Runner’s World. She had to go back to Wyoming and face rain and sleet for the Jackson Hole Marathon—which has the right requirements to count as a Boston qualifier—and came in way under the necessary time.
How did she celebrate her amazing athletic accomplishment of qualifying for Boston in all 50 states? By running another marathon, of course.
Gorgeous morning runs around Boston
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