Well worth it Part II

I not only paced an appreciative group of runners at Fargo last weekend but also seemed to get one of my more thankful and verbal groups as well. I received another great email and as I love sharing good news, wanted you to see it. As soon as Darius gets me some more info on his own journey, I will be updating this entry here. For now, his email:

Hi Dane,

I thanked you at the finish line of the Fargo Marathon last Saturday, but I want to express how thankful I am for your support in leading the 3:10 pace group to Boston qualifying times. Thinking back to my first marathon in 2004 that I finished in over 5 hours it seems crazy that I was even running with your group.

At the start line you told the group "if you stay with me you will be in Boston". That is something that I kept in my head for the entire race and told myself that I have to do everything to stay with you. I slowly dropped off the group just before the 25 mile mark, but knew I still had a chance to make it to Boston if I ran as fast as I could at the time. It was close, but I crossed the line with a time of 3:10:50. I don't know if anything will top the emotion that I experienced after finishing and knowing that I did it...I qualified for Boston.

I plan to run the Boston Marathon next year. I know that this accomplishment would not have been possible without your pacing, encouragement, energy and advice. I will never forget the experience of running in a group of runners chasing the same goal.

Again thank you Dane, keep it up and run on!!

- Darius K


Update:

Darius was kind enough to send me his picture from the finish. That is one happy guy!



For those of you who think they cannot improve dramatically over the course of a few marathons, look at Darius' rocketing up the time charts:

2004 Manitoba Marathon 5:02:59
2007 Manitoba Marathon 4:11:03
2008 Manitoba Marathon 3:32:37
2009 Fargo Marathon 3:10:50

Fantastic!!