Beyond The Game: Blackhurst runs Boston
By Dom Izzo | WDAY TV
There are few sporting events in the world that you need to say just say the city and you know what it means.
Augusta and the Masters.
Boston and the Marathon.
For MSU Moorhead president Anne Blackhurst, she’ll run in the historic race on Monday, fully aware of the spectacle that awaits her.
Blackhurst: “It is the pinnacle for Marathon runners, I’m not in my best marathon shape by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m just going to enjoy every minute of it.”
The wait is nearly over for Blackhurst, who earned a spot in the most prestigious race in the world by qualifying with a time of 3 hours, 58 minutes 49 seconds at the Fargo Marathon last May.
“It’s hard to put into words, at the end of 26 miles you’re just spent, but the satisfaction of knowing I had met my goal was pretty special.”
Blackhurst and running have gone hand in hand since she took over at MSUM. Back in September she ran 50 laps on the Nemzek track to raise money for Dragon scholarships. She says that excelling at running helps with her day job.
“Being a president is an endurance activity, so you have to be physically fit in my opinion to do this kind of work. I think if all goes well I’ll be president for about 10 years or so, and I really try to look at that as a marathon. I don’t have to get everything done in first year, it’s not a sprint. I really need to be patient and pace myself, and have that endurance for the long run. So I think marathon running helps me be a better president and the stress of being a president certainly fuels a lot of my marathon training runs.”
Blackhurst says Boston is her Mount Everest and it hasn’t hit her of what’s to come on Monday.
“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to run with 36,000 other runners, I can’t imagine what the spectators will be like. Just to be apart of something that historic, it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Blackhurst says her goal time is four hours 15 minutes and says students have been asking for her bib number to follow her online, race starts at 8:30 Monday morning.