Distance coach Chris McAfee not only coaches track and cross country, but also runs himself. On March 1, he participated in his first-ever marathon, the Phoenix Marathon.

A marathon is 26.2 miles. McAfee’s goal was to run it in three hours and 15 minutes. This marathon was a qualifier for the Boston Marathon, which McAfee also wants to do. The runner must run the marathon in three hours and 16 minutes to qualify.

Leading up to the marathon, he ran five or six days a week. Within that, he usually had a long run of 18-20 miles, at least one 10-mile run and the other days he ran five to six miles. Also, three mornings a week, McAfee worked out with a trainer.

“From a fitness standpoint I think I could qualify, but I don’t know if my body will hold up,” McAfee said.

Due to the cold weather and snow, McAfee had to run on a treadmill a lot, rather than outside. He also didn’t start seriously training until after cross country season was over. That left him only four months to prepare.

“I think that if I had a longer training window my body probably would adapt a little bit easier, and my goals would be a little bit higher and more realistic,” McAfee said. “When I do it over again I will definitely run more mileage. It wasn’t high enough. On a high week I was running about 50 miles. I would like to get it into the 70s.”

McAfee chose to run in Phoenix for a few reasons. One of those is  the conflict with track season, which started March 3. He knew he wouldn’t have the time to train like he wanted. So he picked the last date possible. He debated between Phoenix and Little Rock, Ark.

McAfee ended up picking Phoenix because his mom used to live out there and it’s “way better than I could imagine Little Rock would be.”

His entire time wasn’t just spent at the race though. McAfee went to Kansas City Royals spring training and watched them play the Texas Rangers.

On the day of the race, he had to be up at three in the morning to get on the shuttle to the starting line. The race began at 6:30 a.m.

Originally, he thought the weather would be a problem because it would be hot, but it was the opposite. It rained for the first time in two months that day, and it was also windy.

Another reason why he picked this race is because it isn’t usually very windy. The wind was about 20 mph, which is rare for Phoenix. During the race, there was a headwind which added some resistance, but wasn’t a factor in his pace. During the race it stopped, but then in rained off and on all day.

“I thought the rain was great because I was worried about it being hot after training in 10 or 20 degrees here. It was funny because a lot of people panicked and a lot of people didn’t know what to do, but I liked it,” McAfee said.

McAfee thought the race went well in some ways and poor in others. He finished the race in 3 hours 27 minutes and 39 seconds. He had a mile pace of 7 minutes and 56 seconds and placed 204 out of 1,826 people.

“In the last six miles of the race I swore I would never run another one again. But I’ve already started thinking about trying to find one in August and give myself more training time,” McAfee said.