"I had a camera and a phone and I was a marathon tourist," says Sheila Fernald as she recounts her experience running in one of the most celebrated marathons in the world, the Boston Marathon. "I knew I hadn’t trained to hit my qualifying time so I knew that I wasn’t going to hit it and there were more hills than I anticipated."
Fernald was one of six Rio Grande Valley runners who competed in the Boston Marathon April 21. The 26.2-mile race was won by Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya with a time of 2:7:46.
Sheila was right behind him, for the most part.
"I finished with a time of 4:18:37," said Fernald, looking at her digital watch where she still had her time saved. "I was very pleased with my time just because of having the baby training has been hard. I was shooting for 4:20 and I got a 4:18.Fernald, who has run several marathons, including one in Austin where her officially recorded time qualified her for the Boston Marathon, trains with a couple of friends who take turns running and walking with her.
"At the end I felt really good, it was exciting," said Fernald. “You have so many people coming across the finish line at once you can’t help but get excited."
Fernald has already begun planning her next marathon run in January at Disney World.