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July 21, 2001
BY JIM THOMAS He qualified once already but did not get an opportunity to run. But now Cortez distance runner Roy Perales, after learning that he has qualified again for the Boston Marathon, the granddaddy of all marathons, wants to run it. Perales finished 10th overall at the annual Shiprock Marathon with a time of 3 hours, 24 minutes, 01 seconds on May 6 and that time qualified him for the famed 106th annual Boston Marathon which will be held next April, 2002. Participants must run a qualifying time between Oct. 1, 2000 and Feb. 1, 2002 at a certified marathon (Shiprock is a certified marathon). All participants must adhere to the guidelines set forth by the Boston Athletic Association, USA Track and Field or foreign equivalent, Wheelchair Athletics USA, and the International Stoke-Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation and must meet the standards for eligibility as outlined by those organizations. Qualifying times must be met in competitions observing those same rules. Proof of qualification, such as a copy of your finish certificate or results listing, must accompany the application. Participants must be 18 years or older on race day. Before competing in the Shiprock Marathon, Perales placed fourth at the annual Pueblo to Pueblo Run (11 miles from Anasazi Heritage Center to Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez) in April. "Right now I’m training for the Boston by running in the hills and rural areas of Cortez and throughout the Four Corners Area," Perales said. "I qualified a couple years ago but I could not afford to go. I did not have a sponsor. But now I have sponsor but I still need some donations to help cover my expenses." Perales can be reached at 564-1336. "I’ve already told my boss that I plan on taking time off to run in the marathon. This has been a longtime goal of mine," he added. Perales, 47, said he started running back in 1969. He ran in the Colorado Marathon in 1982 and placed high. Through the years, he has run in marathons in Grand Junction, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Denver. He also runs in the annual half-marathon Indian Summer Run, held in October from Mesa Verde National Park to Cortez. He has run Imogene Pass and Red Rock on the Navajo Reservation. How does a runner prepare for the Boston Marathon? Perales said he runs an average of about 10 minutes per mile. He ran at a pace a little bit slower than that at the Shiprock Marathon because it happened to be very hot that day. He generally tries to run daily, although certainly not the 26.2 miles of a marathon distance. What is it that keeps a runner wanting to pound away on the pavement for that long of a distance? And what is it that keeps runners running at the Boston? It is a 26.2-mile journey through a tunnel of sights and sounds, and eventually just sounds as a runner grimly puts his head down to the pavement at the top of Heartbreak Hill and lets the noise from thousands pull him to the finish line with a final vow to live it all again next year. If Perales realizes his goal, he will be joined by 15,000 other runners at the Boston. "I’ve watched it on television and that, I think, it is every distance runner’s goal," Perales, who works for Horizon Custom Builders, commented. "I want that long-sleeve T-shirt and commemorative medallion for finishing. I don’t think I have a chance to win it, but just to compete would be something special." The course record for men is 2:07:15 set by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 1994. Four Olympic champions have won Boston. Three-time defending women's champion Fatuma Roba became the fourth person to win the Olympic Games Marathon and the B.A.A. Boston Marathon when she posted a 2:26:23 to win the 1997 Boston Marathon. Roba, who won the 1996 Olympic Marathon, joined fellow-women's champions Joan Benoit, who won Boston in 1979 and 1983, before adding the 1984 Olympic Games title; and Rosa Mota of Puerto Rico, who won a trio of Boston crowns (1987, 1988, and 1990), while adding the 1988 Olympic title. Gelindo Bordin of Italy is the only male to win the Olympic (1988) and Boston (1990) titles. Perales has never run in front of thousands (estimated more than 450,000 spectators lined the 26.2-mile course last year). He has run before only a few hundred or so in some of the larger marathons in this part of the country. "I think that would be something to run in front of that many people and to be out there running with all those people," he added. |
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Copyright © 2001 the Cortez Journal.
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