More than 31,000 racers converged on Boston to take part in the 129th Boston Marathon on April 21 — among those competing was local runner Kinley Bollinger, making her second appearance at the 26.2 mile run in three years.

While she accomplished the sub-3-hour marathon she had hoped for, it only came after hard work and overcoming obstacles.

Bollinger set off for the marathon for the first time in 2023, returning with plenty of experience in a whirlwind couple of days, including earning a qualifying time of 3 hours, 24 minutes and 41 seconds for the 2024 marathon.

Or so she thought.

“I probably would have gone last year if I had run a qualifying time, but the time that I ran at Boston, the first time I did, was technically a qualifying time. But because so many people wanted to run in '24 they had to really lower the standard a lot,” Bollinger said. “I actually didn’t make it in with my time. So yeah, that sucked.”

Bollinger made sure this year that her time would make it under any qualifying standard, taking 12th overall between men and women and the top spot overall for the women’s race at the Queen Bee Montana Marathon in Billings last May with a time of 3:11:53.7.

That time ensured she would be able to compete in the Boston Marathon once again, resulting in a second trip to Beantown.

Having one Boston Marathon under her belt brought a sense of calm this time around for Bollinger, who said the logistics of the event were not as overwhelming on her second trip.

“I felt much more calm and confident going in because I knew what to expect,” she said. “Obviously every marathon has its unique features that you don’t expect. But this time, I knew when to get on the buses, where I should be going that kind of thing, instead of it all being new. So that was nice because I didn’t feel so anxious about all of that and I could just focus on running instead of all the logistics. I was just more comfortable and confident going in.”

TRAINING ROUTINE

During her last attempt at the marathon, Bollinger said she had been injured heading into the event, which caused her to cross-train in different areas such as biking that eventually evolved into a love for triathlon running.

“The last time I ran Boston going into it I was pretty injured, so I didn’t really train as I would have liked to,” Bollinger said. “But with that injury came me spending more time cross-training on the bike and such. So I was already cycling a lot and trying to run a bit with the injury before then, and then I thought, it’s only one more sport to add swimming, which is so much harder than anything else.”

She was out injured for several weeks after the first attempt, but that helped her to transition into a healthier routine that has helped her body take less of a toll over these past training seasons.

“It’s allowed me to be a much more well-rounded athlete and a much healthier athlete, because I’m just not taking the pounding on my body so much,” Bollinger said.

RACE EXPERIENCE

Over the first half marathon Bollinger stuck to the splits necessary to reach the finish line in her goal of under three hours, keeping a just under seven minute mile pace.

Struggles came two-thirds of the way through the race, when Bollinger hit the most difficult portion of the course known to racers.

“I had this goal in mind of racing a sub three hour marathon, and I knew the paces that I needed to hit to get there,” she said. “The first half of the race it was coming pretty easily, pretty naturally. I had some rough spots, but everyone does. Then the Newton Hills came up, which are very well known in Boston. In my mind, they’re not that bad because I’m training around Wyoming on trails and stuff so I’m used to a lot of hills. For sure it slowed down my pace a bunch.”

Bollinger pushed through that portion but knew the final 10 kilometers would need to go well if she were to hit her goal.

“Seeing that [time] slip through the cracks I was like ‘oh man, I’m gonna have to really rip this last 10K’ to stay on pace for the sub three hour marathon,” Bollinger said. “It was just a mindset shift from, 'all is lost and we’ll just do the best to get there and I’ll just be over the time,' or 'give it all I’ve got and see where this ends up.' Either I’ll completely just fall apart and be walking across the finish line, or it’ll work out.”

Bollinger recovered from a 7:27 mile split at the 21 mile mark and dropped her times significantly down into the mid 6 minutes.

Heading into the final portion of the race Bollinger used the energy of the crowd in Boston to spur her on, helping her nearly set a personal best to end the race.

“The whole entire race course is filled with spectators and constant cheering. It’s an insane environment, but especially the last 5K because you’re actually in Boston proper at that point,” Bollinger said. “It was crazy. It was one of those things, we turn right onto Hereford Street and left onto Boylston [Street], and those are the only turns in the race. The rest of it is straight. So you take that left onto Boylston and there still seems like forever to go until the finish line, but you can see the finish line when you turn and I kept checking my watch. I knew I was fine pace-wise, but I still wanted to make sure so I was just barreling down that straight [and] nearly set a PR.”

That final mile of 6:03 helped Bollinger finish in a time of 2:58:29, placing 317th among women and 4,171 among men’s and women’s times.

NEXT GOALS

After accomplishing a sub 3-hour marathon, Bollinger has her eyes set on another big event this year, as she plans to attend the Ironman World Championship this October in Kona, Hawaii.

That triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride followed by a marathon.

“Carrying that same kind of running pace over to the marathon in that scenario would probably be the next goal,” Bollinger said. “The problem is I want to do so many races, and I want to make this (Boston Marathon) a yearly tradition, but there’s so many I want to do. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to pursue them all. I’ll be out training all forms of swim, bike and run, hoping it works out for the best in October.”