Only one person from Owensboro is running the 2023 Boston Marathon. Derrick Roby is tackling the prestigious race for a second time on April 17.
Roby first ran race in 2018, and last year decided he wanted to run it again before his young children got older and into their own journeys of sports and activities.
So, he trained for the 2022 GO! St. Louis Marathon with the hopes of running a qualifying time.
“Training went extremely well as I cut back the total mileage from training plans of the past with my sole goal of being 5 minutes under the Boston Qualifying standard for my age group (40-44 was 3:10),” he said. “I set a personal best with a time of 3:03 which qualified without any concern.”
Now that he’s qualified, Roby said one of his main goals is making sure his 5-year-old sees him cross the finish line and get a medal.
Over the last several months, Roby has dealt with setbacks. He had an 8-week hiatus with some plantar fasciitis during August and September. Then he had another 6-week setback at the start of the year with a stress fracture in his left foot. He said the fracture is still there but is gradually getting better.
“I’ve been extremely cautious with my weekly mileage and intensity, so regarding expectations, this year’s Boston Marathon will be a slow and steady finish without any time goals,” Roby said.
Overall, he said he thinks amateur marathoners overtrain.
“Our input is way greater than our output,” Roby said. “I see lots of people train like they’re going to run a 2:30 marathon, then on race day barely break the 3-hour mark — which is a great accomplishment in itself. Speaking personally, as I’ve gotten older and life has more to throw at me, I had to find a balance between work, home, sleep, and training and recovery. The option of overtraining isn’t there for me and I found myself having to take too many days off, making training inconsistent. Since I know I’m not going to be a 2:30 marathoner, I stopped training like it and set a realistic training plan around an obtainable goal — which was just to qualify for Boston again.”
Roby said aside from training, the biggest reason he was able to make it to the starting line was due to the constant support from his wife who has been cheering him on since the beginning of his marathon journey back in 2015.
The Boston Marathon will broadcast be broadcast live on April 17 from 8:30 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET.
