Mount Si grad qualifies for 2017 Boston Marathon in local race

Published 7:30 am Thursday, December 1, 2016

By completing his first marathon this year, Mount Si High School graduate Ryan Moore has qualified to participate in the Boston Marathon on April 17 of next year.

On July 31, Moore, a native of North Bend and a 2016 graduate of Mount Si, participated in a local Boston Marathon qualifier, the Jack and Jill Downhill Marathon, a 26.2 mile run which starts at the on the John Wayne Trail by the Snoqualmie Pass and ends in on the Snoqualmie Trail in North Bend. Moore was the 16th runner to finish the race and crossed the finished line at a total time of 3:00:51.

After finishing his final season as part of Mount Si High School’s cross country and track team in 2015, Moore decided he wanted to run his first marathon. He trained for almost three months leading up to the race. His preparation included reading books like “Hanson’s Marathon Method” on how to prepare for a marathon. He used the training plan in the book which had him running 60 miles per week.

One of the workouts Moore highlighted were tempo runs, running at an intensity just below his maximum to increase his body’s stamina.

“I maxed out at a little bit above 60 miles per week, then there was also speed work and tempo runs, running at a little bit less than race pace,” he said. “The whole marathon was a test to see how far I could go and push myself.”

Now that he has participated in a marathon, Moore said that it was harder than he had thought, but that difficulty drove his desire to keeping pushing through until the end.

“(A marathon) is harder than it sounds,” he said. “It takes a lot of heart and determination even when everything is hurting and you are 20 miles in.”

According to the Jack and Jill Downhill Marathon website, only 20 percent of runners qualified to run in Boston. Moore said the cut off time to qualify was originally 3:05:00, but because there were only a limited number of spots available, that qualifying time was reduced to 3:02:51. Moore was able to beat that time by exactly two minutes.

”My goal was to see if I could beat the Boston qualifying time,” he said. “I was happy to get under it and beat my goal.”

Moore is already registered for the Boston Marathon next April and plans to continue his training while attending his first year at Washington State University. Moore is planning to miss a couple days of school to be able to run in Boston.

The 18-week training plan detailed in “Hanson’s Marathon Method” is what Moore said he will use to train.

”They talked about the physics of being a runner, the fibers in the leg that affect why you get tired, what you should eat, and the stretches you should do,” he said. “I think I’m going to follow the same plan for the next marathon.”

Moore joins the very small group of teenage runners who have qualified for the race and views his chance to race in the Boston Marathon as his next step into marathon running, which he plans to pursue in the future.

“I believe there are only six 18-year-olds running the Boston Marathon and about 15 19-year-olds,” he said. “The peak age of a marathon runner is 29 so it’s definitely a sport I can grow into. I’ve got a long time to go far.”