We have big news! Our very own Dr. Jeff Berger has qualified for the Boston Marathon! How big of an accomplishment is this? HUGE!
What is the Boston Marathon?
The Boston Marathon is an annual competition that takes place in Eastern Massachusets. It is the world’s oldest annual marathon, dating back to April 19th, 1897. It is known as one of the most challenging races, with an acceptance rate of only 2%! It’s on athlete’s bucket list nationwide!
How do you Qualify?
To qualify for the Boston Marathon, participants must meet specific standards that correspond to gender and age. For example, males in the 40-44 age group must run a marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes. That averages to 7.31 minutes per mile… for 26 miles! Now that is impressive! Typically, the qualifying window is from September to September for the following year’s race, but due to COVID and the cancellation of the 2020 Boston marathon meant that any qualifying time between September 2018 and April 2021 was eligible for the race.
Carbon Valley Eye Care’s Qualifier!
Carbon Valley Eye Care’s Dr. Berger has qualified for the Boston Marathon and we can’t express how proud we are! While in optometry school, Dr. Berger completed a total of three marathons so long races are nothing new to him. His previous personal record was 3 hours and 33 minutes and qualified with a time of 2 hours, 59 minutes and 51 seconds! Running 35-40 miles each week, Dr. Berger focused on logging enough miles to train for the race. He limited his longest run during training to be 17 miles in order to prevent injury.
Dr. Berger is grateful to have the opportunity to participate in such a prestigious event and could not have done it without the support of his wife taking on responsibilities with their kids while he was training. We are so proud of Dr. Berger and look forward to cheering him on during the Boston Marathon this fall!
