07/31/2026
Twenty year goal accomplished.
Sub 3 hour marathon.
Twenty years ago, I set a goal to run a marathon in under three hours.
For those who aren’t runners, that’s 26.2 miles at an average pace of 6:52 per mile.
In 2006, after running the Gainesville Marathon and the Boston Marathon, I lined up for the Jacksonville Marathon with one goal: finish in under three hours.
I finished in 3:00:45.
Forty five seconds.
I wanted another shot, but life had other plans. I was a freshman in college, and it was time to focus on school. The goal quietly went on the shelf.
I had to focus on becoming a dentist.
Fast forward 20 years.
Now I have a wonderful wife, four amazing kids, a career I love, and plenty of responsibilities. Life is full and busy. I assumed my marathon running days were behind me.
Then I watched a friend finally finish the Western States 100 after chasing that goal for nearly a decade. Another friend qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon.
Seeing them accomplish goals they’d worked toward for years made me wonder…
Maybe I could too.
When I looked up what it would take to qualify for Boston again, I smiled.
It seemed like sub three hours might be just fast enough.
The same goal I’d left behind twenty years earlier.
Only this time, everything looked different.
Back then, I trained six days a week. I was younger and could organize my life around running.
This time, I trained three days a week.
Not because it’s the ideal training plan, but because that’s what fit this season of life. I wanted to chase a dream without sacrificing the things that matter most, my family.
When I told my wife my ridiculous idea, she didn’t laugh. She told me to go for it. She knew it would mean a lot of early mornings and changes to our family routine, yet she supported me more than I could have imagined.
For a full year, I woke up around 4:00 a.m. three days a week to run.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure it would be enough.
But last month, twenty years after missing my goal by 45 seconds, I finally crossed the finish line in under three hours.
2:59:57
As meaningful as the time is, I think the bigger lesson has nothing to do with running.
Some goals don’t have expiration dates.
Life changes. Priorities change. The path changes. Sometimes a dream has to wait because something more important deserves your attention.
That doesn’t mean the dream is gone.
If there’s something you’ve always wanted to accomplish but life got in the way, maybe this is your reminder that it’s still there, waiting for you.
Sometimes the second attempt comes 20 years later.
*Thank you to my wife, Julie. Thank you to all of you who inspired me, cheered for me and prayed for me. Your support and prayers literally carried me over the finish line and saved me those 3 seconds and more at the end 🙏❤️*
